Saturday, March 15, 2008

The Business of buying MONEY...
There sure are a heck of a lot of CURRENCY ads out there!

Coin ads...you see 'em all over the place. Sometimes the U.S. Gov't Mint will tout a Rare Find of Silver Dollars, or perhaps a batch of bright n' shiny uncirculated Proof coins is found in some bank vault, in someone's attic or at the depository of some rich Oil Baron who is now in High Office. And, lately, I've seen a bunch of ads for "special edition" coins not marketed by the U.S. Mint. Those non-Government Mint ads always feature a velvety-voiced announcer describing all of the luscious fine detail exhibited by the design of the coin, something like "and look at the cannonballs on this coin...luxuriously crafted, two-dimensional and perfectly ROUND", or some such thing. And towards the end of the ads, the announcer says the coins are coated with high-grade gold or silver or whatever.

The question I want answered is, what's the INSIDE of these non-U.S. Mint Coins made out of? Cheap pot metal? Compressed tinfoil? Whenever I see a coin ad which touts what the coin is COATED with, I always wonder about what are they not telling us...what's under the surface!? Enquiring minds want to know...because, I'm led to believe these non-Government-mint coins, which one pays collectors' prices for, are basically JUNK inside. Am I way off-base here? Has someone else wondered about this, too? And, why would I want to collect coins that aren't issued by the U.S. Government? Gosh, the making of coins is about the only thing the Government does RIGHT anymore!

My Dad used to collect coins. He didn't have a super-large collection, but he did have several rolls of 1878 Carson City (CC) Silver Dollars; I don't know whatever became of them. I myself keep a few coins laying around...old wheat-stalk pennies whenever I can find them, or coins from a year that is significant to me; my birth year, my high school graduation, my college graduation, etc. It's easy to collect pennies, 'cos they don't buy anything anymore. But largely, other than those few coins, it is an exercise in futility for me to collect coins. On the few times I've tried, I always end up Spending them sooner or later. For me, coin collecting makes about as much sense as collecting gasoline when you drive a car. In short, I Cannot Collect Coins. It's impossible. So I'm not even gonna try to collect all the State Quarters which have been minted over the last few years.

At one point, I had something like twelve Different States' quarters, but doggone it...they went into pinball machines or newspaper machines, or, I'd run out of money before the end of the month...stuff like that. So, I Will Never Really be a Coin Collector. Can't do it. Sorry. Speaking of those State Quarters...and I've seen advertisements for them...I'm sure this is one ad idea the U.S. Mint won't be broadcasting anytime soon...


www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/hbo has given up trying to stop my defacing of their photos...
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Really, those "non-Gov't. Mint" coin ads have intrigued me. What are the insides of coins made out of? I'm actually quite serious about this. I'm sure they're not Silver or Gold all the way thru. I'm betting on lead, zinc, or metal factory shavings. Anyone know? If so, please comment...

4 Comments:

Blogger Mari Meehan said...

copper and nickel

11:08 AM  
Blogger Lil ol' me... said...

Hi Ms. Dogwalker...copper and nickel? If that's so, then these privately minted coins are worth no more than yer average quarter or dime or whatever. I don't know if there's a collectors' coin market for coins which are never circulated. But yeah, you're probably right about one of those ingredients, if not both. I wouldn't want to buy privately minted coins...for me they wouldn't be "official" enough.

5:27 PM  
Blogger Mari Meehan said...

Don't hold me to it! But even at 99% purity there's still something else in them.

7:14 PM  
Blogger Lil ol' me... said...

Yeah, that's right...I guess alloys are in there to make the coin stronger. Still, these privately minted coins are touted in the ads as "genuine gold PLATED", which sort-of implies that just the surface is gold, but the bulk of the coin is a far less precious metal. Is that possible? After all, Gov't coins have a 'standard'; perhaps private minters don't subscribe to those standards? I guess that's what I'm wondering; does a buyer of privately-minted coins get CHEATED?

8:19 PM  

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