World VS U.S. Coins

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World VS U.S. Coins

#1 Unread post by DSCoins »

Instead of posting this in the World and Ancient thread I posted it here as it is about US coins over modern World coins

Lately I have been looking around at the different mints, Perth Mint, New Zealand Mint and Royal Canadian Mint of course the U.S. Mint (here by just referred to as the “Mint”), just to name a few. In my opinion they are hands over heels better than anything that the U.S. Mint has produced. It would really be nice if the Mint would follow suit. Yes, the Mint does put out its Silver Eagles, 5 different quarters every month, but there really not anything special. You can find all sorts of really outstanding coins. I know that some of, if not most go through a third party to get the coins struck. One that comes to mind is Niue. This country does not mint their own specialty coins. They send the coins out to be minted at the New Zealand mint. The way it works from what I could tell, is that Niue has New Zealand strikes the coins and Niue monetizes them. Given that, they are actual money.
It would really be nice if the Mint could find some way to compete with these other countries. You can find coins for almost everything you may think of. You have coins in the shape of the White House, Mount Rushmore, Helmets, coins for the Year of the (dog, cat, elephant, lion etc...), Star Wars, Harry Potter, Star Trek. Some are just plain, others are colored. Some are 1/2 oz, 1, 1 1/2, 5, 10 oz. You also have some in grams this is for both silver and gold. Some are 3D, shaped like hats, flowers, figures. All and all I wish the Mint would get its’ (you know what) in gear and start trying to compete with some of these other countries. After all we are supposed to be the greatest and strongest country. Well maybe that was into a very short couple of years ago.
I will be posting some of the coins I purchase a little bit down the line.
Oh, and yes, I purchased the coin(s) not the holder. Heck I didn’t even know some of them were graded
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Re: World VS U.S. Coins

#2 Unread post by Triple C »

Looking forward to what you have purchased. I have a few myself.

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Re: World VS U.S. Coins

#3 Unread post by thairunts »

I really enjoyed the Norse God series from Tuvalu. Think they were 2 oz silver coins. Crazy detail on the coins, but also on the wooden boxes and such.

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Re: World VS U.S. Coins

#4 Unread post by Earle42 »

Grab a Pepsi and prepare for a story about how this all happened (from someone who watched it happen):

Canada 1967. One of the coolest things ever happened to coins! The RCM (Royal Canadian Mint) made a SPECIAL DESIGN CHANGE for 1967 coins in honor of their Centennial. These were al the rage! People loved these unique coins b/c it was the first time a large number of changed REV designs were issued for the public in decades (40 years to be exact)! WOW! standard issue coins with a DIFFERENT REV! AMAZING! People hoarded these sets.

Side note: The "Lucky Rabbit" nickel was something everyone wanted to find and carry in their pocket. In fact, despite the RCM making a decent number of these (comparably speaking) it was difficult to find one in circulation. The dove pennies were all over as were the Pickeral dime, bobcat quarter.

And for the first time in some years, non-coin collecting Canadians became aware/familiar that their government made half dollar and dollar coins as well. Even in the 70s-80s I educated (even) Canadian tellers to this fact! Except for the 67's, most Canadians had not seen their dollars or halves.

OK - back to theme.
In 1973 the RCM did another incredibly col thing. They made a Mounty on Horseback on the quarter! Man were these popular once again! Everyone up North (and border people like myself) were looking for the Mounty quarters (a large and small head version were discovered and fueled the fire)

OK...so in 1975, the US government decides they need a special way to commemorate our Bicentennial coming in 1976. Hmmm...
"Hey, the RCM in 1967....and the RCM made a lot of money b/c people were hoarding them, meaning more coins needed, more production, more profits - as well as special sets!)"
"Great idea!"
Legislation passed Congress (remember this point - it will come up later!).

The Bicentennial idea was a HUGE success! Even non-coin collectors were excited to find these and hoarded them extensively (some still pay extra for rolls of these common coins on eBay)! Look! A different design on a coin! NEATO! Super Cool! (lingo of the day - maybe a few left over "Groovy's" as well in some places) This has never happened before! I have to get some - these are going to be worth a lot of money some day!

In 1992, the RCM is looking for more profits.

"Hey remember in 1967 and 1973 when we..."
"Yeah, but how about more profits this time, eh?"
"What do you mean?"
"Let's do something totaly new - never been done by anyone before - make a new design for every month of the year!"

This went over well. A 12 coin set. Then back to normal again for seven years.

Seven years later and the RCM had the idea that every time Her Royal Majesty the Queen sneezed, they needed a new design. Thus the chaos began. The RCM was the pioneer the rest of the world followed...and tried to "outdo" the RCM.

The RCM became the make a coin for anything and everything in any format they could think of to make a profit. They have sold coins with glass bugs glued to them, gow in the dark dinosaur coins, two Bigfoot coins, comic character coins, movie coins, football shaped coins, oblong glow in the dark UFO coins, dinosaur shaped "coins", triangle shaped milkman honoring coins with blue acetate covering on the REV (!), a maple leaf shaped "coin," and even a 3D rotating ferris wheel "coin!" And thats a tiny partial list.

Result? This has killed the coin hobby in Canada - read comments on CCF where there are a lot of Canadians. It used to be fun to try to get one of everything the RCM made when they were making those little discs to fill fill holes with in Whitman folders. But now there are so very many offerings, no one can afford to get them all. This means that hardly any of the "coins" and coin the RCM makes hold value anymore! So the RCM finds Canadian collectors canceling their subscriptions, finds itself not making as much money, and so they...make more issues! Canadians are tired of so many items being made as "coins."

Through the years Other countries see the almost endless offerings the RCM has done and tries to outdo them. So now we have guitar shaped "coins," three dimensional geographic shapes called coins, a scented coin from Somalia (no kidding!), and Easter Island fold up statue coin, meteorite particles in a case attached to a coin, etc. etc.

Remember the US States quarter program? Well, Canada did so well with their monthly quarter program, the US expected the States quarters to take off. Which they did...sort of...it got boring for an awful lot of people. So the solution? Why, of course, follow the RCM's lead and make more and more new designs ...and the public rolls their eyes.

Why has the US not been getting into the lunatic level yet of making a new "coin" every time an illegal crosses the Rio Grande ? Thankfully, unlike the other countries making gimmicky things, our Congress has to pass legislation for new coin designs, and we also have had in place rules concerning what can and cannot be done.

These other countries have very few legal restrictions to making coins and "coins." So with $$ signs in their eyes, these mints have made the word "coin" refer to anything and everything they can do as long as it comes from a mint. And overall are wondering why their profits are not stratospheric like they thought they would be.

No thank you! History WILL repeat itself here if the mint can copy this failing pattern.

Some of these gimmicky things look REALLY cool - but when new design and gimmick become the norm, people always lose interest. As I said...check out the comments about the RCM from Canadian collectors. Thankfully the US mint has not yet found a way to cheapen themselves into a warehouse peddling overpriced trinkets that don't keep value b/c no one can possible collect them all!

Now...if a person likes having vast variety (I can understand this)...when you see something that catches your eye, pass on it and wait 5-10 years to get it for a lot less than those foreign mints initially sold them for. It has become the norm these special issue items are terrible investments. Although sometimes people are not willing to let their coins go b/c they want their investment back, hardly anyone is willing to pay the initial price unless its a really cool gimmicky one.

The sad part is that a lot of the special issue items from the RCM from before all this chaos started in the 90s also have lost value. What used to be considered an actual "special product" of the RCM, and so held its value, is now just one of the older trinkets of the modern Royal Canadian Gimmick Shop.
Common grading company shortcomings & resulting co$tly mi$take$ to collectors (using Kennedy No FG halves):
https://tinyurl.com/y7rksxu8

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Re: World VS U.S. Coins

#5 Unread post by JTCC »

That’s a lot of words there.
U.S. cent lover!

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Re: World VS U.S. Coins

#6 Unread post by DSCoins »

In my opinion there really should be a way to find a happy medium. Let's look at the Lunar Year coins. You really do not have to out 8 or 9 different coins every month for oh, let's say The Lunar Year of the dog (just because). May be just take 4 different dogs. Make 1 uncirculated, 1 proof and 1 colorized and stick to these only. Don't get caught up with all the other fancy finishes. You can do these 4 coins and make oh lets say the colorized only strike 500 of them. So, during the entire year you will have total of 16 different coins for that year. One other thing that may actually help them, is to not put these "specialty" coin on their messed-up website. Find a third party to create and run a website just for these coins. US mint does not announce when these coins are going to be released or even if they are released. Mybe it is the Military instilled thinking (electronic trouble shooting) of KISS (keep it simple stupid).
Again, this is totally my opinion, and is not endorsed in any way, by anyone
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