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A CELEBRATION OF SURVIVAL IN
COINS
Numismatic
Theatre Saturday, 1 pm, April 8, 2006, Atlanta ANA
Convention
· Historical overview of the coins from Ionian
merchants, 6th Century BC, and the first surviving coins · Analysis of
survival rates for great U.S. rarities · Presentation about coins that
have survived natural disasters—and the conservation of those coins
· Discussion of why people sometimes collect coins for profit and
economic survival |
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Survival,
one of the most basic instincts, plays a big part in our hobby. Numismatics is
vitally concerned with preservation – with protecting coins from damage
and wear and saving them for future generations. That’s why some of the
very first coins ever made, more than 25 centuries ago, still survive today.
Collectors set them aside and safeguarded them from the ravages of
time. Great civilizations, great nations and great cultures rose and fell, but
these tiny, handheld artifacts survived. Many coins don’t survive the
ravages of time, and high attrition rates can transform relatively common coins
into great rarities.
That’s what happened, for instance, with the
1933 Saint-Gaudens double eagle, when the government melted all but a handful
of nearly a half-million pieces that had been made. Natural disasters also have
taken a toll. Coin collections were among the casualties when Katrina, Rita,
Wilma and other storms tore through the South during last year’s
devastating hurricane season.
Thankfully, collectors now have a way to
salvage many coins damaged in such catastrophes – by sending them for
curation by coin conservation experts.
Protecting coins against
unforeseen loss or damage – ensuring their survival – has taken on
greater urgency because of the unprecedented onslaught of hurricanes, floods
and other disasters.
The threat of horrific terrorist attacks has made
collectors even more conscious of the need for heightened security.
Survival – economic survival – is a challenge for collectors
themselves in today’s complex coin market. The perils and pitfalls are
great, and new ones keep emerging, as we have seen in recent years with the
plague of abuses by unscrupulous sellers on the Internet.
The secret to
surviving is thorough preparation. Knowing the risks, and taking aggressive
measures to avoid them, or at least to minimize them, will take you a long way
down the road to successful survival. Think of it not only as survival of the
fittest, but also of the best informed.
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Media Contact:
SCOTT
A. TRAVERS is former ANA Vice President (1997-1999) and author of The Coin
Collector’s Survival Manual® Fifth Edition (House of
Collectibles/Random House Information Group, 2006).
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| Publication Date: 03/01/2006 |
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