Colorized Basketball Hall of Fame Half Dollar Clad Coin (Image courtesy of the U.S. Mint)
No, the tragedy is not the alleged coin shortage.
Social media went berzerk because the U.S. Mint is going to sell colorized versions of the Basketball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coins.
How dare the U.S. Mint do something like this? It’s… it’s… un-American!
Calm down, folks. It is only a little color enhancing a commemorative coin.
But it’s not what the U.S. Mint is supposed to be about. They are supposed to produce real coins.
Real coins? Like the mess of coins in what we refer to as the Classic Commemorative Era? Can we also consider the circulating coinage disasters like the steel cent and Susan B. Anthony dollar?
It will turn us into Canada!
I can think of worse places. I like Canada. I have family in Canada. I collect Canadian coins. However, it is not going to turn the U.S. Mint into the Royal Canadian Mint. First, the Royal Canadian Mint produces more non-circulating legal tender (NCLT) coins that the U.S. Mint. Second, the Royal Canadian Mint uses technologies like lenticular printing to create the design. For the Basketball Hall of Fame coin, the colorization is an enhancement of a struck design.
Colorized Basketball Hall of Fame Silver Dollar Coin (Image courtesy of the U.S. Mint)
That is your opinion. I like what the U.S. Mint will do to the half-dollar coin by emphasizing the ball and rim. Based on the pictures I have seen, the colorized rim on the silver dollar is not enough.
It’s not what the U.S. Mint is supposed to do. I’m not buying it!
Good! It means that I will be able to buy one for myself without trying to fight the speculators.
It’s too expensive.
Finally, an argument I can agree with. Yes, the U.S. Mint is charging too much for the colorized coins. This is because instead of bringing the technology in-house, they have to pay a contractor to do the colorization.
It’s bad for the hobby!
How many times have we heard something is wrong for the hobby. Slabs signed by television reality stars were supposed to be the beginning of the end of the hobby. Endless series of circulating commemoratives are supposed to be bad for the hobby. Commemorative coins with unpopular themes were also going to kill the hobby.
To borrow a phrase: We’re still standing. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
Sorry, boys and girls (and we know the complaints are mostly coming from old men). Colorized commemorative coins are not bad for the hobby. It could be good for the hobby. These coins could attract people to the hobby that may not have been interested in the past.
If you want to know what is not good for the hobby, it is the U.S. Mint selling coins that did not sell at cut-rate prices to a television huckster like RCTV that pays NGC to slab the coins with special labels and then sells them at hugely inflated prices to unknowledgeable people on television.
You may also watch for the U.S. Mint’s “de-trashing” policy that is dumping other surplus coins on the market. These are coins that did not sell during the regular sales period that will have “special designation” labels from NGC. Not that the labels would make a difference, but we know that the dealers will over-hype these coins at prices far beyond their worth.
Remember what happened with the television hucksters selling state quarters at over-inflated prices? Or even RCTV selling a set of 31 American Silver Eagle bullion coins for more than you can buy a date run of 34 coins? Eventually, these coins will end up being brought to dealers who will tell them that they overpaid.
I will take colorized coins over the feeding crap to the television hucksters any day.
And now the news…
July 20, 2020
→ Read more at kitco.com
July 20, 2020 → Read more at fastcompany.com
July 21, 2020 → Read more at spenboroughguardian.co.uk
July 23, 2020 → Read more at barrons.com
July 23, 2020 → Read more at savingadvice.com
July 25, 2020 → Read more at cnn.com
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Scott
I am so sick and tired of the cement headed old men who have as many new ideas and as much vision for the hobby as Czar Nickolas II had for Russia that I cannot put it into words. The hobby would be better if these old geezers were put in their place. Go tell anyone you want to that I said so. In the words of Clark Gable, frankly Scott I won’t give a damn.
I have bought colorized coins from the. Canadian and Australian mints and I will buy more. If some people don’t like them, they should not buy them. What right do they have to say that because they don’t like colorized coins nobody should be able to buy them?
I buy from the Canadian and Australian mints because they have a bigger and more attractive product line than the US Mint does. In plain English, the US Mint is getting out competed.
Sincerely and with no apologies,
Bob Graul
Personally I’m no fan of colorized coins, but if you’re going to do it, why not DO IT? I don’t get the silver dollar at all. Go big or go home – the half dollar is an unabashed walk onto the wild side.