Is variety collecting at risk of loosing popularity?

[Gabe]

I recently read in a Coin World editorial (dont remember by who or when, but it was recent) about how the state quarters, commemorative nickels and all of the other regular issue commemorative coins will impact coin collecting in the future.

The person makes references to coin collecting in England and in other European countries, were type collecting is more popular than collecting coin by date, and mint mark. The writter explains that US coin collecting is focused on date and mintmark collecting because not enough different designs have been made in the 230+ years of this nation. In the future, he explains, type collecting in the US will be more popular because there will be many different designs to collect because of the commemorative programs being organized by the mint, and the focus on date and mint mark collecting will not be the same as it has been for a long time.

Here is my question....

As more collectors shift from collecting coins by date and mint mark to collecting type coins, How will variety coins be affected? Since collectors will only need 1 coin per issue for their set, how will varieties like doubled die and RPMs be affected? Is the variety hobby going to crash? Are the effects of the commemorative programs in US coin collecting being already felt in variety collecting?

Any thoughts?

[murphy]

Hi Gabe.
You pose a very good question. Because, Variety Collecting would seem to be more related to a Date & Mint Mark collection that to a Type Set. And if Type Sets are to become more popular here in the future, as has happened in Europe, then you're wanting to know if your Variety Collection will lose its popularity?

My thoughts are... Balderdash! I have a Type Collection now. ...and several other collections, Lincoln Cents, Kennedy's, Statehoods, SBA and Sacagaweas and I have a few varieties of Lincolns, Kennedies and Statehoods. There are too many types right now for me to be able to afford to collect them all, so I pick a few of the most interesting ones to me and I play with those. Guess I just like Moderns because they are easiest to find locally. I'm not a hard core collector who has to have something old or it's not collectable. My Type Set isn't as important to me as my Modern Lincoln & Kennedy collections! I really get a kick out of cherrypicking varieties. And I tend to keep those varieties that I find. When I go to my buddies coin booth at the flea market on weekends, I've noticed that most of the people who come in there look to buy Statehood Quarters! ...and Silver Eagles. They don't seem to be buying that many Half Cents and Barber Halves.
Gabe, I don't really know what all of this means other than maybe now's not the time to think about that. There are way too many people collecting a little or a lot of EVERYTHING imaginable.

[wavysteps2003]

Gabe, there are always going to be some of us that enjoy looking for and collecting varieties and errors. We must understand though, that there are collectors and investors, two different breeds of people. At present, the error coins are in their zenith, driven by the investors and in the future (or at least I hope) variety coins will make a gradual come back, driven again by investors; it happens and it is the market that dictates what is to happen. If CNN had not made such a big deal of the high and low leaf quarter, I can imagine where error coins would be at the present and again, it is the investors who made this happen. In this lies your answer; everyone knows that error/variety coins are limited in numbers due to it being on only one die, scarcity makes it valuable, the value of a coin makes it collectible and the less of one type of coin found, the more valuable it is. Investors key on this, while collectors do not to a point.

If you look at the variety coins found in 2004, you would see why I say this. The coins that you and I found in 2004 will some day be looked upon as classic examples of single squeeze doubled dies, the thing that was not supposed to happen with the single squeeze process. Many of the 2004, 5c, CDDO-001 were found, up wards of 500+ and soon the market fell off of this variety, going down to a price of below $20.00 a piece. On the other hand, the 2004, 1c, CDDO-002/CDDR-002 were not found in abundance, less than 50 to date and if you can find one on Ebay, it still commands a price of over $100.00. Again, the market is driven by investors trying to make more than they paid for for a particular item. Now look at the classic 1995, 1c, CDDO-001; this coin is being collected by collectors and not investors for the price has stablized and yet, it still commands a high price. Other variety coins fall in this category; 1997, 1c, CDDO-001; 1994, 1c, CDDR-001; 1996, 1c, CDDO-002, etc. where they are bought and placed into collections. Variety coins that do NOT come in this category are; 1955, 1c, CDDO-001; 1983, 1c, CDDR-001; 1984, 1c, CDDO-001; 1972, 1c, CDDO-001 for they are still considered investment coins.

I am a collector, not an investor. I thrill at the finding of a particular variety die that I can place in my collection and have second thoughts of selling that coin only if it is a duplicate so I can get money to obtain another variety that I do not have. We are the backbone of variety collecting, not the investor and we shall always exist and shall always seek that something new that is not in our collection.

Varieties, errors, type collecting, year collecting will all have their ups and downs, it is the investor who decides that, however, it is the collector who decides what he wants in his or her collection.

You all have a good one and for those in the path of DENNIS, my thoughts are with you in hopes that it is not to bad.

Wavysteps2003