I gave up on collecting commemorative coins and sold them. I already limited myself to CC's that were issued at face value and circulated as legal tender but the vast majorities with which some countries issue them (Poland, Russia, Canada, Australia) made me feel I was being ripped.
It must be said that some of the themes are very interesting and educational. How do others decide which CC to collect or not?
Worse examples than the four I mentioned in my previous post: Liberia, some Pacific nations with limited other stuff to make money from, most smaller Commonwealth entities
Cook Islands is paticularly bad, according to KM numbers they've issued over 800 different coins, but the locals actually use New Zealand currency for all their day to day transactions.
Verweis : jokinenI gave up on collecting commemorative coins and sold them. I already limited myself to CC's that were issued at face value and circulated as legal tender but the vast majorities with which some countries issue them (Poland, Russia, Canada, Australia) made me feel I was being ripped.
It must be said that some of the themes are very interesting and educational. How do others decide which CC to collect or not?
The only commemoratives I actively looked for were the 2 euro coins. Those are legal tender and circulate in change in the EU.
No longer in business since 2015. May consider swaps on rare occasions. Mostly use the profile to catalogue my personal collection.
I collect commemoratives that can be picked up at face value. US state quarters, Westward Journey nickels, etc. As soon as a premium is charged for a modern base metal coin, time to spend elsewhere!
I gave up on the commemorative eurocoins
too many different coins, mostly overpriced !
I still have some other non circulating issues in my collection, but now I don't buy them anymore at those crazy prices
When Queen Victoria, who ruled over England's greatest moments, died after more than 60 years on the throne not a single commemorative coin was issued.
When Queen Elizabeth who has spent a similar amount of time ruling over England's demise shuffles off the mortal coil we will be knee deep in multi denomination, 100 piece commemorative sets from countries with no connection to the UK or it's monarchy.
I noticed recently that there is a commemorative celebrating 10 years of the Euro (from a non European country!). How long will it be before we see commemoratives celebrating the anniversary of other commemoratives.
The best thing we can do as a community is to stop pretending that these cheap gimcracks have anything to do with numismatics.
Non illegitimis carborundum est. Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!
Totally agree! It must be said that some of the pre-war commemoratives are very interesting. It might have especially gone wrong after the fall of Bretton-Woods.
Nice theme for new CC: the rise and fall of the bitcoin
Not only island nations, but even mints of large countries - in fact all national mints - now issue non circulating commemoratives. Coin collecting has definitely taken over stamp collecting and when the numbers of coin collectors increased immensely; this became a very big market for the national mints (or private ones) to take a deep interest. So coins are becoming something like stamps now with some mints producing dozens of different varieties each year.
Unfortunately every time we spent a single penny more for a commemorative that is being sold for more than its face value, we unintentionally boost the market to produce more. And let us admit it openly; even the circulation coins are relatively priced, not real priced. What I mean is, no medium of money produced today is in fact priced at its bullion/melt value. So already each and every piece of coin has a unreal "over-price" given to it and accepted by us all - hence the nation making a big profit there. Now add commemoratives onto this equation - especially very highly priced silver and gold commemoratives.
I do not know the exact number of coin numbers needed for a coin type to cover its artistic creation/raw material/ production costs - and start making a profit. Please fill me in if you know this. So allow me to use an analogy here: with books as a very close publisher friend told me, they start making profit after the 1000th example, earlier when "print-on-demand machines are used.
Now think of a very artistically produced, carrying interesting subject and well deserving to be highly sought commemorative: First many hundreds of specimens will be bought by several public collections inside museums, banks etc. around the world. At the same time many more hundreds of examples will be bought by very serious collectors/collections which are subscribers to the productions of that mint. Then several thousand of examples will go to the pro-dealers who work and can stand doing an investment to a standing stock that will sell, not immediately, but over the years, though making further profit as the coin type becomes rarer - or price manipulated by the market/demand. Several hundreds of examples will go to shops run by the goverment/or private enterprise, inside national museums etc. and be bought by curious tourists who otherwise do not collect coins.
Minting commemoratives is a very very big business and you will see all sorts of crappy subjects on the coins produced by desperate nations that intend to make Money out of you.
Hence:
Now please decide whether that above is a coin or a "monument to commercialism"
Belarus is the largest country in the world never to have produced a circulating coin. The mint stays busy though producing commemoratives and gold and silver bullion coins.
Honesty is never seen sitting astride the fence. ~L. Washburn
Verweis : thespis26What I mean is, no medium of money produced today is in fact priced at its bullion/melt value. So already each and every piece of coin has a unreal "over-price" given to it and accepted by us all - hence the nation making a big profit there.
Yes, it seems silly that they produce solid silver $5 coins over here in New Zealand that have something like $25 worth of silver in them, and then they sell them for $100. Even the world's largest gold coin the Australians minted which had a face value of 1 million dollars contained something like 6 million dollars worth of gold in it, and I'm guessing cost way more than that to buy.
This is a topic discussed even before, and each one has its own mind. I personally don't collect these kind of coins, when to commemorative s, I collect only the ones issued for circulation, they have more value for me.
But a new type of collector is born who likes mirror finish coins, with colors, amethyst, amber, pieces of Concord and what else not on a coin. And the sad truth is that these coins are selling a lot! Have a look on Ebay, especially on Africa sold items and you will see what am I talking about. To me is a simple mean for profit, or even scam if you want to call it from private and state mints, with the RCM and the Coin Invest Trust in Lichtenstein on the top of list!
I collect (mostly low mintage) silver commemoratives simply because
I like coins in high qualities and/or proof-quality.
Because of the prices, I only collect coins from a few countries and I have
done so for the last 20 years.
My main collection are Turkish coins and I`m really glad I started collecting
these long ago, when hardly anyone collected them and they were still cheap.
Over the years they have become really expensive and there are many.
If I had to start collecting them now, it would be much too expensive for me.
The new releases are not exactly cheap, yet compared to others worth their
money, especially since the mintages are somewhere between 500 and 1500
pieces.
I pick up the non-silver/gold commems when I find them cheap, but I don't actively search for them. Silver and gold I buy for bullion mostly, but some of them are beautiful. Canada has some wonderful designs.(the snowflakes and colorized butterflies come to mind)
I would agree, however that non-circulated commemorative issues should be classified different than circulated. I don't think that they should be "tokens" but instead have their own classification.
Grrrr..... i just finished writing an amazing piece of future nobel-prize-winning philosophical literature on this subject when my phone decided to fall off my hands and switch itself off after a fall resulting me in losing this poetic work of a pure genius awakened only once and never to be seen again....
Shortly, what i was saying was...
I do like circulating commemoratives such as euro coins commemorative issues or olympic 50p series in UK.
Also there is nothing wrong in genuine commemoratives that are about an event, place or person from a certain country. Usually they don't tend to be overpriced either.
However, there is third type of commemorative coins, that i maybe wouldn't call scam, but they aren't too far off either. These are the issues that certain mints do in weekly basis, commemorating bloody everything that does not even have anything to do with that country. Commemorating events, people, places, fairytales, landscapes, movie characters, plants and animals that have no connection with country that issues these is a bit too much for me.
I only collect ones that are in circulation, like The Australian 20c 50c $1 ones and also the US state quarters. I have only bought 2 which were the 2010 Burke and Wills set when I visited the Canberra mint with school as I am related to Burke.
Back when I started collecting coins we called them NCLT non circulating legal tender. The only ones I picked up then were the few US silver half commems that fit into a theme I was working on. Like coins commemorating things in my home state, California; like the Bay Bridge and San Diego, but I never went into the wholesale buying of the old commemoratives. I would rather invest my money into a Pattern coin. I started doing that with Luxembourg, they are true rarities, and you get a feeling of accomplishment when you find one. You know there are not millions of them out there. Well that's my two cents.
I think that it depends. I for example collect silver Czechoslovak and Czech commemorative coins which I like. I like the subjects which reflect czech history and I also like their look. Also the number of different varieties is reasonable and stable each year. What I don't like are commemoratives which are made purely for profit - the third type which KartWay defined: commemorated events etc. have no connection with the country. And what I hate with passion are collored coins which are just really not nice for me But it is about each person's taste.
To sum it up, I think commemoratives are not a must have or scam, they are just if you like them, collect them, I think! But from numismatic point of view I will in general prefer collecting coins for circulation (including circulating commemoratives).
I am your referee for the coins from the Czech Republic, Czechoslovakia and Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
I've recently started adding circulating silver commemoratives to my collection, but I wouldn't collect the made for collectors non circulating coins. I only have one and that is a coin that was given to me by my father.
Circulating Comms with face value and LARGE mintages are good, because they will only acquire extra value as the years pass and slowly following almost the same pattern as standard currency, but after 1 or 2 decades the value will grow faster for them as they will start to be scare in good condition, but won't get a boost until 25 years after and then freeze for 50 or so. At least that is the pattern for most Circulating Comm of this type.
With LOW mintages, might be a no go, unless they are from your country and you can still get them in pocket change.
Non-Circulating Comms... Silver Good, as long as you get them near release for BV + taxes. Bad if you are trying to collect them a few years later, as these coins usually get over priced incredibly fast because hoarders and speculators who know people might get desperate to complete their collections as the years pass. I have few of these, 1oz comms, got them for BV + Taxes 8 years ago. Today they are up for 80USD
NCCs, cheap-metal, these in my opinion are a complete no go. Re-sellers always try to hoard these to over charge for them so it will be pretty hard for an amateur to get them for fair price. Often you will find they are sold for over what you would pay for a common 0.600 silver coin from the last 40 years. So just let these die in the hands of hoarders and make them pay for causing artificial inflation on this type of coin.
Numista referee for the "Viceroyalty of the New Spain" (most of it).
History through coins.
Eli V
Also, the current increment on Comms on America is because most of the Americas got their Independence pretty close to each other, in a span of 50 years, and even a tighter one if you only count LatinAmerican countries, in which case most of them got it in a 20 year span from each other.
Numista referee for the "Viceroyalty of the New Spain" (most of it).
History through coins.
Eli V
On the whole Commemorative coins have never interested me and I just saw them as a waste of cash which could be spent on something of historical significance.
A little while ago I decided that I would restart my coin collection and that as I did not have a lot of cash I would start with putting together a collection of every Decimal Penny the Royal mint has made. This is a fairly simple and inexpensive run of coins to collect. I then realised that if I was to collect an example of every Decimal Penny it should technically include the Proof coins as well. This would drastically increase the variation in the collection and make it more interesting to look at. The fact is the Proofs are the lower mintage coins and they are all still relatively cheap (OK Gold and Platinum will be a few quid).
The fact is I will not be buying them from new and they will come from collectors sets which I will break up take the Penny out and sell the rest at profit. Do this you make a few quid and enrichen a run of coins with more variety.
Strangely enough, a question I have been pondering these past twenty-four hours.
Yesterday, while at my stall at the market a man said he bought Westminster Mint coins. I advised him, I hope diplomatically, "to be wary of coins produced by the Westminster Mint".
As for non-circulating commemoratives in general, I guess it depends on why you are collecting them. If its for speculation, well you pays your money and takes your chances (get a real job you lazy sod!), but if its because you like them, what's wrong with that?
In short, be wary if you think they are an investment.
