Viewpoint: Don’t kill off commemorative coins

By F.M. Fawcette

I could not possibly disagree with you more.

(See “Time to kill off commemoratives,” Numismatic News, Oct. 30, 2012, on Page 6)

The U.S. Mint in recent years has done as much as it could to drive me away from collecting.

All I collect anymore are commemoratives and Presidential dollars.

While there may need to be some fine tuning done in disbursing the proceeds, the present commemorative program is basically sound.

Advice for using commemorative coin sales data as a guide in your buying and selling efforts.

What is it time to kill off?

• Half dollars
• Sacagawea dollars
• Silver proof sets
• Paper dollars – reinstate Presidential dollar production
• Non-circulating “circulation quality” S-mint quarters, the most cynical and blatant of all the collector-gouging rip-offs. Who actually buys this stuff?
• America the Beautiful quarters – who actually cares about them?

For several years I was buying mint sets just to keep my current sets current, as D-mint cents are almost never seen around here.

Just last week I snagged my very first 2010-D cent. But 28 coins? And that’s before you get to the proof sets.

Of all the Mint’s many problems, the commemoratives are last on the list.

This “Viewpoint” was written by F.M. Fawcette, a hobbyist from Cleveland, Ohio.
Viewpoint is a weekly forum for the expression of reader opinions on a wide variety of numismatic subjects and issues of the day.
To have your opinion considered for Viewpoint, write to David C. Harper, Editor, Numismatic News, 700 E. State St., Iola, WI 54990. Send email to david.harper@fwmedia.com.