This is Really Alarming - Pics of Counterfeit Coins in Fake ANACS/NGC Slabs!

[PerryHall]

Once they go into mass production, they will probably concentrate on medium priced coins ($100 to $500) since the really expensive coins receive too much scrutiny.

[Frank Provasek]

Here are the same coins without the slabs. Do they seem as alarming now?

 

 

 

 

[CHABSENTIA]

I would think that True collectors would do this now. TPGs will not disappear as there are people that buy coins as an Investment and rely on them or outside advice and are not really interested in the dynamics.

 

There are people that Inherit them and are onlt interested at that point and not before or after.If they are told that slabbing them will increase theri value then they will do it.

 

There are Sales of Coins that have been cleaned, dipped or scratched and some people are aware of this and will only buy coins Slabbed by the TPGs for this reason.

 

There are many other reasons but I doubt that there will ever be such a large percentage of Collectors that are true collectors interested in the dynamics etc that would bring about their demise.

 

A Poster in one of the Forums here mentioned the other day that only about 5% of people that collect coins read these Forums. I have no idea if the figure is that low and there are other Forums but it is probably low.

[Conder101]

A Poster in one of the Forums here mentioned the other day that only about 5% of people that collect coins read these Forums. I have no idea if the figure is that low and there are other Forums but it is probably low.

I would say that the 5% figure is probably quite high. My best estimate of the number of collectors is between one and two million in the US. (The Mints figure of 125 million is out there in La La land.)

 

If you stick to serious collectors then I would say you are probably down to 100 to 200 thousand. (By serious collectors I mean those collectors willing to pay $50 to $100 or more for a coin. And I am not discriminating against collectors that don't have much money. You note I said WILLING to pay that much, not able to. There are a lot of low income collectors that would gladly spend that on a coin if they had it, and many collectors that would have no problem doing so that won't. Those low income collectors are serious, The higher income collectors are not.) Now this forum officially has about 10,000 members. A lot of that number are either people interested in the non-coin forum or transients that popped in briefly and then left never to return. If 6,000 of those members are here (And do you really think we have that many people really posting here?), and that was 5%, that would be 120,000 collectors. That is at the low end of my serious collector estimate and nowhere close to my total collector estimate. So guessing that 5% of all collectors read these forums is a ridiculously high estimate. The number who participate on the forums are influential, but a very small percentage of the collector base.

[CHABSENTIA]

Those figures are probably right as given but there are other Forums such as PCGS etc.

 

I would imagine that there are people who collect the Silver Eagles which is supposed to be a large number. I collected the U.S. Proof and Mint issues long before I became a collector of the Solver Eagle and the Morgan. Just received them from the U.S.Mint and put them away.

 

So I guess that one has to define the defintion of Coin Collector.At what point does he/she become a real or serious collector as opposed to just "collecting" things like the Mint sets or Silver Eagles? I also had every Proof Silver Eagle in a Safety Deposit Box from 1986.. Didn't get the Mint ones for a long time. Was I a collector of just Proof Silver Eagles or a non collector because I didn't collect the A.S.E Mint?

 

 

I would also imagine that there are people who are true collectors depending on your defintion but don't frequent any Forum.

 

Not trying to be obtuse but just a General observation.

 

As far as the definition of people on this Forum then I would say that your are exactly right within a few hundred.