Back to 1968 and the future

Remember the old TV commercials telling us that Certs is a candy mint and Certs is a breath mint?

I might be showing my age by recalling this.

I googled the lines and was led to a posted commercial from 1968.

Boy, do I remember it.

We were told Certs was two, two, two mints in one.

Looking ahead to 2015, I probably can claim that Numismatic News is two papers in one.

It has print editions. It has online editions. It is two products in one.

That is both a problem and a strength. Just what is it?

I have had people email me that they will subscribe if they do not have to get any paper issues.

Why?

They might fear being identified as a coin collector with such papers in their mailbox, or they might have already completely migrated online for their news needs.

On the other hand, I have had letters telling me that the senders have no computers and do not want anything but a paper product.

So far, these individuals have coexisted fairly well together.

How long will this last? I do not know.

Years ago, we believed that publishing online issues only was the ultimate goal as that is what the collecting public would both demand and be used to.

Yet now there is some thinking that print issues are a form of luxury product.

The coming year will be the second year where the mixture of online and paper issues will continue. Numismatic News will have 33 print issues and the rest of the weekly issues will be online.

That is the schedule I will keep.

But that brings up another question for those readers with long memories.

When the Certs TV commercial was new back in 1968, how many issues of Numismatic News did subscribers receive?

If you remember that it was 26, then you have been active as long as I have or perhaps even longer.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper is winner of the 2014 Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."

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