<i>They could possibly attempt doing as Canada does,a great variety of coins but having extemely low mintages such as 1,500,2000, 10,000 etc. Not sure how the politics of Congress would play into this, can go either way, not difficult to envision numerous congressmen promoting and passing limited mintage coins for various reasons. </i>
I'm not familiar with what Canada does, but I think that the Mint is already heading down the path of minting a great variety of lower mintage coins.
Too much at once There are just too many different options available at this point; few if any of us have an interest, or can afford to, collect each of: Gold coins: the First Spouse, American Eagle, Buffalo, 2009 ultra high relief St. Gauden's, in proof, uncirculated, reverse proof, etc. Platinums: Proofs, W-Uncirculated and regular uncirculated, plus reverse proof Dollar coins: 4 Presidentials plus at least one Sac per year, in uncirculated P & D and proof Quarters: the extended 50 state quarters in clad and silver proof and uncirculated P & D... etc. etc. Plus whatever commemoratives are made, and whatever other coins the Mint dreams up.
The good old days Before the Mint started it's latest kick of producing what many are calling "modern crap", collectors updated their collections by adding a mint set, proof set, and maybe a roll or two, and would focus on date and mint-mark sets, working their way backwards.
With so many coins being put on the market each year, there's no way to keep up with all of the moderns, much less work on historical issues.
Dividing the hobby In some respects, we are less of a united hobby because of that, fractionalized based on whatever sector of the Mint's offerings we like and/or can afford to collect.
Some just opt out of "moderns" altogether. Those who collect "moderns" are divided into their various sects, often with little crossover. So we have the platinum collectors (further divided into those who collect proofs vs. uncirculated), and we have the First Spouse gold collectors, and we have the American Eagle Gold collectors, and the American Eagle silver collectors, and the Reverse Proof collectors, and the $5 commemorative gold collectors, and the Presidential dollar collectors...
Downward trend on most mintages If you look at what mintages on all of the longer series have done over time, you can see that many of them have beenbeen trending down.
You can see it in the commemorative coin numbers from 1986 to present.
You can see it in the American Eagle coins. Platinum mintages have been declining since the start of the program in 1997, even before spot started moving up. Silver and gold American Eagles seem to have held up okay -- I'm not a specialist in those, but suspect that to some extent they are held as a bullion investment instead of for numismatic reasons -- and I happily defer to those who have better information on them. I do suspect that now that all of these other gold options have been thrown in the mix, we will see lower numbers on the American Eagle golds as funds are diverted to different programs.
In my opinion, having too many different subsets of collectors is bad for the hobby.
Broadly collected series are good for the hobby The great thing about series like Lincoln cents, or Jefferson nickels, is that they are broadly collected. A low mintage Lincoln coin are coins like the 1909-S-VDB, the 1931-S, the 1914-D.... those coins do NOT have small mintages by modern standards, but they are the keys and semi-keys and, because they are broadly collected, premium examples command values of several hundred dollars as a result. The American Eagle silver dollars are a successful series for the same reason-- they are affordable, have a nice design, and have a broad following.
Collector fatigue Now we have 5 (or more) dollar coins every year (actually 15: proof and unc. P&D); 5 quarter coins every year (actually 20: proof clad & silver; unc. P&D);
4 First Spouse gold coins (8 for proof and unc.), etc... It gives me collector fatigue just to think about it.
At the rate we are going, I think we should consider dividing the Redbook into 2 parts, like the Old and New Testament, to accomodate everything in a logical fashion.
I doubt I'm the only person wondering how this impacts our hobby, or starting to think that enough is enough.
Comments
I'm not familiar with what Canada does, but I think that the Mint is already heading down the path of minting a great variety of lower mintage coins.
Too much at once
There are just too many different options available at this point; few if any of us have an interest, or can afford to, collect each of:
Gold coins: the First Spouse, American Eagle, Buffalo, 2009 ultra high relief St. Gauden's, in proof, uncirculated, reverse proof, etc.
Platinums: Proofs, W-Uncirculated and regular uncirculated, plus reverse proof
Dollar coins: 4 Presidentials plus at least one Sac per year, in uncirculated P & D and proof
Quarters: the extended 50 state quarters in clad and silver proof and uncirculated P & D... etc. etc.
Plus whatever commemoratives are made, and whatever other coins the Mint dreams up.
The good old days
Before the Mint started it's latest kick of producing what many are calling "modern crap", collectors updated their collections by adding a mint set, proof set, and maybe a roll or two, and would focus on date and mint-mark sets, working their way backwards.
With so many coins being put on the market each year, there's no way to keep up with all of the moderns, much less work on historical issues.
Dividing the hobby
In some respects, we are less of a united hobby because of that, fractionalized based on whatever sector of the Mint's offerings we like and/or can afford to collect.
Some just opt out of "moderns" altogether. Those who collect "moderns" are divided into their various sects, often with little crossover. So we have the platinum collectors (further divided into those who collect proofs vs. uncirculated), and we have the First Spouse gold collectors, and we have the American Eagle Gold collectors, and the American Eagle silver collectors, and the Reverse Proof collectors, and the $5 commemorative gold collectors, and the Presidential dollar collectors...
Downward trend on most mintages
If you look at what mintages on all of the longer series have done over time, you can see that many of them have beenbeen trending down.
You can see it in the commemorative coin numbers from 1986 to present.
You can see it in the American Eagle coins. Platinum mintages have been declining since the start of the program in 1997, even before spot started moving up. Silver and gold American Eagles seem to have held up okay -- I'm not a specialist in those, but suspect that to some extent they are held as a bullion investment instead of for numismatic reasons -- and I happily defer to those who have better information on them. I do suspect that now that all of these other gold options have been thrown in the mix, we will see lower numbers on the American Eagle golds as funds are diverted to different programs.
In my opinion, having too many different subsets of collectors is bad for the hobby.
Broadly collected series are good for the hobby
The great thing about series like Lincoln cents, or Jefferson nickels, is that they are broadly collected. A low mintage Lincoln coin are coins like the 1909-S-VDB, the 1931-S, the 1914-D.... those coins do NOT have small mintages by modern standards, but they are the keys and semi-keys and, because they are broadly collected, premium examples command values of several hundred dollars as a result. The American Eagle silver dollars are a successful series for the same reason-- they are affordable, have a nice design, and have a broad following.
Collector fatigue
Now we have 5 (or more) dollar coins every year (actually 15: proof and unc. P&D); 5 quarter coins every year (actually 20: proof clad & silver; unc. P&D);
4 First Spouse gold coins (8 for proof and unc.), etc... It gives me collector fatigue just to think about it.
At the rate we are going, I think we should consider dividing the Redbook into 2 parts, like the Old and New Testament, to accomodate everything in a logical fashion.
I doubt I'm the only person wondering how this impacts our hobby, or starting to think that enough is enough.