New Coin

Your Face

Surely a bad penny would be more apt.

riffmongous

paleoperson wrote: »

How is it a collector's item if it has nothing to do with the subject of it? It's not going to the family of Rory Gallagher, it's not going to a good cause, it's going straight to the Central Bank. Can that be really called a collector's item? It seems like if someone started putting Michael Jackson on t-shirts and selling them for a big profit and you started buying it because you said it was a "collector's item". Like... how is it a collector's item when it's a completely unrelated 3rd party that is producing it? A collector's item for stupid people maybe.

Yes.. for people who collect coins...

Franz Von Peppercorn

paleoperson wrote: »

How is it a collector's item if it has nothing to do with the subject of it? It's not going to the family of Rory Gallagher, it's not going to a good cause, it's going straight to the Central Bank. Can that be really called a collector's item? It seems like if someone started putting Michael Jackson on t-shirts and selling them for a big profit and you started buying it because you said it was a "collector's item". Like... how is it a collector's item when it's a completely unrelated 3rd party that is producing it? A collector's item for stupid people maybe.

A collector’s item is...

Something that people collect.

You know that a penny farthing costs more than a penny to buy I presume.

Beasty

3000 x €60. €180k. I'm tempted but will await Phil's arrival before piling in....


:pac:

Beasty

Oh and by the way. The Royal Mint issue £5 coins for £2,000. Yes they are commemorative and yes they are gold. They are also legal tender, but I've never picked up one in my change. Have a few solid silver £500 coins which weigh in at 1kg. Again legal tender

Allinall

Jay Dee wrote: »

Hi,

Just seen the Central Bank of Ireland are selling a new € 15 euro coin for € 60.00 + pp.
Is this even legal ?
If not, how do you get in on the act ??

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/special-15-coin-honours-late-guitar-great-rory-gallagher-1.3631276

Jay

Stick a fiver up on Donedesl for €20 and see how you get on.

Grayson

If I walk into a comic shop tomorrow and buy a comic, I own probably about a few cents worth of paper. The same goes for books and loads of other things. With the comic it could become a collectible in a few years or it might not. It could be worth hundreds or thousands or even just a few cents. If I like comics and I'm a collector I buy the comic, read it and put it away. Either way, that comic is technically worth less than I paid for it. It's the same with loads of things. Pretty much everything you buy will have a markup on it. The only difference with collectibles is that it may be worth more in the future.

Capt'n Midnight

Jay Dee wrote: »

Hi,

Just seen the Central Bank of Ireland are selling a new € 15 euro coin for € 60.00 + pp.
Is this even legal ?

€15 for the coin.

€45 postage and packaging.

dxhound2005

Just a note of warning. These €15 Irish coins are not legal tender in other Euro Zone countries. So don't be going trying to spend them in Spain on your holidays.

paleoperson

Grayson wrote: »

If I walk into a comic shop tomorrow and buy a comic, I own probably about a few cents worth of paper. The same goes for books and loads of other things. With the comic it could become a collectible in a few years or it might not. It could be worth hundreds or thousands or even just a few cents. If I like comics and I'm a collector I buy the comic, read it and put it away. Either way, that comic is technically worth less than I paid for it. It's the same with loads of things. Pretty much everything you buy will have a markup on it. The only difference with collectibles is that it may be worth more in the future.

The comic book could become a collectible if it's a part of history. That's the whole point of something being noteworthy or a collectible. What did you think it just happened by random chance? You don't just create something and automatically it may be a collectible.

The comic is an official product created by the writers. It wouldn't be the same as if I wrote out a comic, printed it out and started selling it in my backyard and you came along saying "oh man, I like the real comic, I'll buy this".

The only way this would make any sense is if you think there's an inherent art or niceness about the coins. It has nothing to do with Rory Gallagher, his foundation or what he stood for, even though they're putting his name on it. Also buying something purely in the hopes of reselling it later is hardly the most noble thing.

Peregrinus

paleoperson wrote: »

The comic book could become a collectible if it's a part of history. That's the whole point of something being noteworthy or a collectible. What did you think it just happened by random chance? You don't just create something and automatically it may be a collectible.

Sure you do. There's a whole industry around the manufacture of souvenirs and collectibles, from snowglobes to ornamental thimbles to coins to postage stamps.
Sure, thimbles can in fact be used for sewing and postage stamps for sending letters and at a pinch a snowglobe can serve as a paperweight, but there's no denying that huge quantities of these things are produced and sold with the primary purpose of not being used for anything at all, just collected.

paleoperson

Peregrinus wrote: »

Sure you do. There's a whole industry around the manufacture of souvenirs and collectibles, from snowglobes to ornamental thimbles to coins to postage stamps.
Sure, thimbles can in fact be used for sewing and postage stamps for sending letters and at a pinch a snowglobe can serve as a paperweight, but there's no denying that huge quantities of these things are produced and sold with the primary purpose of not being used for anything at all, just collected.

Souvenirs can at least be said to be off that place though, they have a connection to it. They're something to remember the place by. If there was a hurley that Michael Collins or Christy Ring used up for sale, then I think that would be worth quite something. If on the other hand someone said they were making a hurley and putting Michael Collins name on it in commemoration of Michael Collins... :rolleyes: you see how that's different?

Postage stamps are a similar idea alright but with one key difference - a €1 postage stamp is still going to cost €1, right? It won't cost you €5 to buy it with the excuse that they had to commission an artist to design it. I don't think anyone would have a problem with it if people weren't being asked to pay for it. However not only are they being asked to pay but one poster here was criticizing people for not buying it to "commemorate" this person when the money is going straight into the bank.

Collectibles don't always have to have use, I don't think I ever said that they did. Also what is the connection with currency? Euros are produced and controlled by the EU on behalf of us all, what has any of this got to do with currency? Postage stamps are again the most similar thing to something sensible here - it's credible that people would like to remember national historic figures on postage stamps and to pay an extremely small fraction of a cent in their taxes to do so. I really think it's the costing of money that is the issue here. People can do what they like with their money, but I can't help but feel they're being cheated a bit.

Peregrinus

paleoperson wrote: »

Souvenirs can at least be said to be off that place though, they have a connection to it.

Regardless of where they are souvenirs of, they’re mostly made in China these days, paleo. Besides, there are lots of snowglobes, etc, that are not of anywhere in particular; they are just made to be collected.

paleoperson wrote: »

They're something to remember the place by. If there was a hurley that Michael Collins or Christy Ring used up for sale, then I think that would be worth quite something. If on the other hand someone said they were making a hurley and putting Michael Collins name on it in commemoration of Michael Collins... :rolleyes: you see how that's different?

I do see how it’s different. But the fact remains that there is a ready market for both kinds of collectible.

paleoperson wrote: »

Postage stamps are a similar idea alright but with one key difference - a €1 postage stamp is still going to cost €1, right?

This is not always right; some countries issue collectible sets for above face value. Collectors will pay extra in order to have, e.g. all the stamps in a particular series in a single perforated sheet. And, even when it is right, so what? If they are issuing the stamp as a collectible, the postal authorities can print any value they like on it; they know it’s not going to be used to pay for postal services. The profit to them is the difference between the cost of printing the stamp, which is fractions of a cent, and the amount they get when they sell it. The value that’s actually printed on the stamp is irrelevant, both to the issuing post office and to the collector. Some countries issue stamps aimed at collectors that actually can’t be used for postal purposes; many more issues stamps mainly to collectors and only secondarily for postal purposes. And most of these stamps are bought by people who live in other countries; even if they wanted to use them for postal purposes, they couldn’t, unless they travelled to the country of issue in order to post their letters.

So, yeah, the value printed on collectible stamps is in most cases practically meaningless, and in some cases actually meaningless.

paleoperson wrote: »

I don't think anyone would have a problem with it if people weren't being asked to pay for it. However not only are they being asked to pay but one poster here was criticizing people for not buying it to "commemorate" this person when the money is going straight into the bank.

Most people don’t have a problem with it even though people are being asked to pay for it. A limited-edition commemorative coin has value (a) for aesthetic reasons, if it is well-designed, and (b) for reasons of scarcity; it is much rarer than a standard coin. In neither case does the face value of the coin have any impact on the value; the face value only matters if you intend to spend the coin, and the whole point of collectible coins is that you don’t spend them.

I agree that it’s absurd to criticise someone for not buying a collectible coin; if you don’t wabnt to collect the coin, why would you buy it? But the one comment of that nature that appeared in this thread I took to be tongue-in-cheek.

paleoperson wrote: »

Collectibles don't always have to have use, I don't think I ever said that they did. Also what is the connection with currency? Euros are produced and controlled by the EU on behalf of us all, what has any of this got to do with currency?

Not understanding your point here; notes and coins are currency. And it’s not techinically true to say that Euros are produced by the EU; most euro banknotes (92%) are produced by the central banks of one or other of the eurozone countries; only 8% are produced by the European Central Bank. And euro coins are all produced by one or other of the euro countries; the ECB doesn’t issue them at all.

paleoperson wrote: »

Postage stamps are again the most similar thing to something sensible here - it's credible that people would like to remember national historic figures on postage stamps and to pay an extremely small fraction of a cent in their taxes to do so. I really think it's the costing of money that is the issue here. People can do what they like with their money, but I can't help but feel they're being cheated a bit.

They’re not being cheated at all, as long as they derive value from the possession of the coin which (to them) is worth at least what they paid for it.

Look at it this way; a regular euro coin is worth one euro, because you can exchange it for goods or services of that value. It may only cost a couple of cents to produce, so the central bank makes a huge profit on it, but you wouldn’t say that people are being cheated for that reason.

Right. A collectible euro coin is, to the collector who pays for it, worth whatever he paid for it. (If it weren’t, he wouldn’t buy it.) Sure, he can only exchange it directly, for one euro’s worth of goods or services, but the pleasure and utility he gets from possessing it is worth more than one euro to him (which is why he doesn’t spend it.) Furthermore, if he ever tires of possessing it, he won’t go and spend it; he’ll sell it to another collector and expect to receive more than face value, which he can then spend as he wishes. So even in that case he’ll end up with more than a euro’s worth of goods and services.