I know I broached this subject a while back, but it came up again, so sue me. Back then, I wasn’t “collecting” coins, although I’m not sure how much “collecting” I’m going to be doing, I’m mostly just sorting and cataloging right now, but someone, in a discussion, talked about it again and I have to throw in my 2 cents.
Sorry, but as far as I’m concerned, no coin not intended for circulation ought to count as a coin, at least to collectors. Even if it is, theoretically, legal tender, if it’s not out in the hands of the public, even hypothetically, it’s just a hunk of metal, designed to take advantage of gullible buyers.
Prove me wrong.
Going back to UK coins, which I don’t collect at all so I have no horse in the race, but the Royal Mint puts out tons of coins every year… for collectors. They haven’t released a coin into circulation until very, very recently, commemorative or definitive, for years. That’s 2016 for commemoratives and 2020 for definitives, barring the Pride and Memorial 50p that are just now hitting the banks. Who the hell knows about the 2021 definitives, they’re still sitting in the long store. Yet they are putting out tons and tons of “coins” that exist as nothing more than a design on metal, put out to make a buck. As far as I’m concerned, it’s no different than what the Franklin Mint does. It has no numismatic value whatsoever.
Of course, people can collect what they like and I’m not being critical of that. If you want to collect your own toenail clippings, you do you. I’m just saying that in my opinion, if we’re talking about collecting coins, they ought to actually fulfill some purpose. Exonumia is a thing and perfectly acceptable if that’s what you want to do. Exonumia and numismatic collecting are not the same thing.
This happens in the stamp collecting world too, most notably, recently, with NFTs. There are post offices out there that issue NFT versions of stamps, just to take advantage of the terminally gullible and make a buck. These are not postage stamps because they cannot conceivably be used to move the mail. How do you adhere a wholly digital item to an envelope? I’d like someone to explain that to me. That doesn’t mean you can’t collect it, it’s foolish, especially based on the implosion of the NFT marketplace, but you can do what you want to do with your money. It’s just not part of philately. It’s collecting cinderellas at best.
Keep in mind that nowhere am I trying to tell people what to do or what to think. I am just giving my opinion. These things are meant to spark an intelligent conversation, not to just invoke emotional ranting, as sadly, a lot of people tend to do. In fact, I just dropped the r/coins subreddit because that’s all that I’m seeing. Dumb people saying dumb things for emotional reasons. Hard pass. Anyone who wants to respond, have a good reason for saying whatever you say and be prepared to back it up with solid reasoning and demonstrable evidence. Otherwise, don’t bother. I suspect I’ll never hear from anyone at that point because that isn’t how people tend to operate.
That’s kind of sad, isn’t it?
