Colorized Basketball Hall of Fame Half Dollar Clad Coin

Colorized Basketball Hall of Fame Half Dollar Clad Coin (Image courtesy of the U.S. Mint)

The news of the week was tragic. It blew up social media and seemed to make people upset. This news is going to be the end of the hobby. We may never recover.

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

Colorized Basketball Hall of Fame Silver Dollar Coin (Image courtesy of the U.S. Mint)

It’s ugly!

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
Editor's Note: Get caught up in minutes with our speedy summary of today's must-read news stories and expert opinions that moved the precious metals and financial markets. Sign up here! (Kitco News) Gold and silver prices are higher in early U.S. trading Monday, with silver notching a nearly four-year high just above $20.00.  → Read more at kitco.com

 July 20, 2020
As if we needed any more challenges in 2020, earlier this month a national coin shortage hit America. That right, America doesn’t have enough physical change to go around.  → Read more at fastcompany.com

 July 21, 2020
Coin finds: Looking at this rural scene of Thornhill where Roman coins were found not far away on the Overthorpe estate in 1938, it fires the imagination to think that the early Romans just might have passed by this picturesque spot and even decided to settle here.  → Read more at spenboroughguardian.co.uk

 July 23, 2020
Old Masters seem to be a safe bet during the uncertain times. This painting, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, St.  → Read more at barrons.com

 July 23, 2020
In recent weeks, you may have noticed that most shops and restaurants are not accepting cash. This isn’t because of COVID transmission, as some assume, but because of a national coin shortage.  → Read more at savingadvice.com

 July 25, 2020
“Clare Duffy is a CNN Business associate writer covering the business of technology and the strategies of Big Tech companies. The opinions expressed in this commentary are her own.  → Read more at cnn.com
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