+Lemon Fresh Dog Posted September 15, 2005 Share Posted September 15, 2005 I've been thinking about what makes a coin scarce. It seems to me that for a coin to be difficult to find, somewhere less than 200 need to be made. Of course, time also factors into it. However, I think that if a coin was released today, 200 were minted, and the limit was set to one coin per cacher, then all cachers wanting the coin would likely be able to get one. What do folks think is the *magic* number. (of course, I know there are runs of 1500 coins that have sold out, but are they really hard to get now? Are there folks with multiples that are trading them?) Quote Link to comment
+AtlantaGal Posted September 15, 2005 Share Posted September 15, 2005 (edited) 100-150 of any coin makes it rare in my book. This is just my opinion. State coins with runs of 300 coins or less would be very rare also. Edited September 15, 2005 by AtlantaGal Quote Link to comment
+Renegade Knight Posted September 15, 2005 Share Posted September 15, 2005 500 is sold out in hours. Scarece is also a function of demand over supply. If everone hates a particular coin so it's always on their available for trade list it won't matter if there are 50 of it. But if it's desireable for any reason 1500 may still be hard to find. Time will tell as more and more caches like coins. Quote Link to comment
+badlands Posted September 15, 2005 Share Posted September 15, 2005 With the way this sport is growing, I would think that runs of 1K will be hard to get very soon. Quote Link to comment
+IceCreamMan Posted September 16, 2005 Share Posted September 16, 2005 There are a lot of factors that go into this. On the supply side of the equation, anything less that 300 seems to be pretty rare, but if it is a coin that is in demand by non-collectors, such as a trackable commemorative coin, higher volume mintings can be just as rare. How it is distributed is an issue as well. Any coin that can be had simply by clicking a few icons on Paypay will not tend to be as sought after as a coin that was never sold to the general public. We have a local cacher with a personal coin coming out. He sold some but managed to sell all he wanted to sell just among the local community. Most of who are not collectors but who will treasure his coin. Though he did, I think, 300 coins, there will likely only be 100 or so ever available to the community at large, and then mostly by trade. And of course it helps to have a cool looking coin. Quote Link to comment
+blazerfan Posted September 16, 2005 Share Posted September 16, 2005 100 right now makes a coin almost unatainable (as can be seen by the MIGO coins... I know I don't have them). Of course geography plays a part as well. We could come up with a rarity scale for geocoins. My book of Oregon Trade Tokens has 7 rarity levels... R-7 is the Rarest... R-1 common. R-7 in the token book is actually Unique meaning 1 known example. So maybe an R-7 geocoin would be like the GD Mystery coin. R-7 - Fewer than 100 R-6 - 100 - 199 R-5 - 200 - 399 R-4 - 400 - 699 R-3 - 700 - 999 R-2 - 1000 - 1499 R-1 - 1500+ Quote Link to comment
+Lemon Fresh Dog Posted September 16, 2005 Author Share Posted September 16, 2005 This scale is similar to Postal Cancellation collecting -- (known "strikes"). Some Post Offices were only open for a few months ever (Gold Rush especially) and their cancellations are extremely rare (R-7) The main reason I ask is that I like to know to some extent what I am trading for. My preference is personal for personal. I had an origianal series Moun10Bike that I traded for a regualar Alaska -- was that a good deal? (just joking ) Quote Link to comment
+Spencersb Posted September 16, 2005 Share Posted September 16, 2005 Darn, I thought I'd finally found a buyer for that piece of swampland! Blazerfan, thanks for the rating system! That gives me an idea what we should shoot for when ordering our 2006 GOWT coin. Quote Link to comment
+Team Shydog Posted September 17, 2005 Share Posted September 17, 2005 Good rating system. I hope this is used in the future here in the wild world of geocoins. Quote Link to comment
+graylling Posted September 17, 2005 Share Posted September 17, 2005 I think it would be easy to make that a standard. After all we are the ones collecting and valuating the coins so we can use it or not as we want. What say?? Make it a quasi official rating system for geocoins? Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.