Collecting, was: ZX80

[Teo Zenios]

Are you sure he wasn't referring to Wheat cents? Indian Head pennies were
discontinued in 1908, would be very rare to find one in circulation unless
you are VERY VERY old.

The only items made in mega numbers that are worth much tend to be something
popular and never taken out of the original packaging (unused mint state).
Very few people tend to buy something and never take it out of the box.
There were probably hundreds of thousands of Joe DiMaggio's rookie baseball
cards made, but the odds of one making it to this date in mint condition
with perfect centering are rare so the card is worth money.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roger Merchberger" <zmerch at 30below.com>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2005 8:23 PM
Subject: Re: Collecting, was: ZX80


> Rumor has it that Scott Stevens may have mentioned these words:
> >On Thu, 10 Nov 2005 15:52:30 -0800
> >"Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > Why fool with the ones that enjoyed 5- and 6-digit production numbers?
>
> Because they're still "kewl"? Maybe it's an early serial number, maybe it
> was the first one you owned, maybe it was owned by someone special, maybe
> you just like the way it looks... It's tough to rationalize collecting
> things to others who may not have similar ideals.
>
> > > Reminds me of a co-worker a long time ago when the US Treasury decided
to
> > > change the penny to its current design.  He spent years collecting
> > > Indian-head pennies by going to the bank and filtering change (then
> > > re-rolling it and exchanging it).  He proudly told me one day that he
had
> > > over 100,000 of the things and was going to clean up in the coins
market.
>
> He might've if they were all in uncirculated (or at least
> almost-uncirculated) condition...
>
> > > He never did--100,000 of anything isn't particularly rare
>
> Depends on how many survived!
>
> >Must have been a long, loooong time ago.  The US Treasury stopped making
> >Indian-head cents in 1909.  Or did you mean the 'change in design' that
> >happened in 1959 when the reverse was changed?  Or the design change in
> >1983 when the coins stopped being made of bronze (with an actual bullion
> >value near the worth of one cent) to bronze-plated zinc
>
> Uh, you mean copper-plated zinc. ;-)
>
> And in 1943, zinc-plated steel, and in 1944, brass, not bronze.
>
> ;-)
>
> >  (uh, US Mint: places like Germany near the end of WWII were minting
> > their coins out of zinc.  Take a hint.)
>
> Uh, and aluminium (France, the vichy issues), and many other metals as
> well. What hint is to be taken? As long as the cost of the material is
less
> than the cost of the finished product & it's abundant, what's the beef?
>
> >But other people float their boats the way they like, I guess.
>
> Yup. I've looked thru a lot of rolls myself... ;-)
>
> Laterz,
> "Merch"
>
> --
> Roger "Merch" Merchberger   | Anarchy doesn't scale well. -- Me
> zmerch at 30below.com.         |
> SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers
>