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We’re in the midst of a financial meltdown for chrissakes. How many new coins does one nation need? We commemorate our moments vicariously through fiat money. How apropos. —Shrike
This article appears in Feb 18-24, 2010.
14 Comments
They actually produce a great deal of revenue.
The mint does make . . . a mint, actually.
A huge part of their business is making and selling (for a profit) commemorative coinage, medals and also the gold, silver, platinum and palladium coins that are used as investments and also as a working material if you are a jeweller.
Coinage is a bit of an obscure realm, but it is actually an industry like any other, and as part of the history of money it has things about it that are pretty interesting.
Now, personally, I would be in favour of getting rid of the penny, and just rounding to the nickel, but I guess even the humble little 1 cent piece has it’s uses.
I thought this bitch was going to be about them spending over a million dollars to find the lost gold that they didn’t actually lose, now that’s waste if you ask me.
Yeah, that is a pretty big expense for a wee little “accounting error.”
A few tonnes of gold bullion here, a few tonnes of gold bullion there and pretty soon it adds up to real money.
Incase you did not notice, the “financial meltdown” is past and we are in the recovery stage right now.
As a coin collector, let me give you a little hint. Olympic edition coins are worth …practically FUCK ALL. You see they make so damn many of them, & people hoard them…thinking they’re valuable & going to get more valuable, well unless they’re made of precious metal , bullion, that’s pretty much going to be the only value they ever have ! The melt cost of what they’re made of…& if they’re a metal coin covered in copper or nickle, they will retain their currency value except for some very rare circumstances !
So that $7.95 cent quarter you bought…is worth a quarter .
I only collect what’s in my change.
Yeah More, and the average person thinks that buying precious metals is a good choice too, but people do it.
Why all the hubbub? I don’t see a problem if somebody pays to have an overvalued coin. I’m sure everybody here has bought some sort of “collector’s edition”, be it a DVD box set, a book, or any other product that carries that label. Christ, they’re even doing it to video games now.
I’d rather have the gold in my safe…than Lehman Brothers or Merrill Lynch stocks !
Although I suppose if you run out of asswipe, its an easier problem to fix with their paper, than my coins ~;)
shrike, my friend, government and waste plus over spending go hand in hand. these are the biggest crooks and con people in any country. one just has to remembr come voting time,how many lies were told and how fucked up, they made your life in their elected term.then just say fuck you, and vote for anyone else.
You’re right Life Sucks but I’m running out of people to pick. They just seem to be replacement cogs in a wheel that keeps on rolling over us.
I shudder to think what our money will look like when the Queen is 108 and looking every bit the waspish Harpy.
I’m sure Americans had this same conversation when producing the Buffalo nickel. You just never know what’s going to happen to make a human being place lesser or greater value on a shiny thing. Like, maybe the Olympics gets blown up tomorrow and as a result there is NEVER another Olympic event again. Suddenly you’re not too stupid for collecting Olympic coins… well, 25 years from now we won’t think so. This same kind of SPECULATION drives the price of oil. Scary, huh?
kay, just having a shit can drive up the price of oil. god knows what a real war would do to it, i fucking shudder to think of that.
Hey now 0 they need the coins !! Come on now – noones going to toss the bums bills !!!!! Supporting the economy man.