...speaking of silly purchases

OK, so maybe this isn't really a gripe about the mint but rather a question about the minds of my fellow collectors. I mentioned a few minutes ago about illogical buying habits that have me confused. I know that it is really annoying that the Mint feels the need to spring new coins on us on short notice. These coins that I am referring to are the burnished uncirculated gold/silver/platinum coins and the individually packaged reverse proof silver and gold coins. The reverse proofs are moderately interesting. I can understand the appeal of a completely different finish even though I didn't think that it was worth the money to buy one. This is probably due to my rather modest budget. But that is nether here nor there. The burnished uncirculated coins are the real kicker. How are these remotely interesting other than the fact that they bear the "W" of the West Point mint.

My question is this: why do people buy these? If people want to spend their money on them that's fine but it just blows my mind. More than likely this is due to the fact that I prefer type collecting rather than series collecting (except for series that involve design changes). People gripe about all the new options (and I do think it is ridiculous that the mint is viewing its base of collectors as a money making machine) but if they don't like the coin, or don't need it, then they shouldn't feel obligated to buy it.

This post started out as a gripe about the new finishes available for certain coins and it appears to have morphed itself into an analysis of the collector community. I'm going to see where this goes.

At times I myself get frustrated with all the different coin series that would be fun to collect (more on that later) but there is no need to buy one of each unless people are becoming more focused on thinking of their coins as investments rather than as a hobby. Sure it is awesome when your coins appreciate in value but to me the focus should be on the art. Here is an example. I bought the 2006 1/10th oz. proof platinum coin rather than the burnished uncirculated. There were a few reasons as to why I did this. The first and most obvious reason is that I really enjoy the series and needed this one to add to my collection. But I didn't buy the burnished uncirculated specimen because I already had the design in proof and the uncirculated is redundant. The uncirculated version is worth far more than my proof but that doesn't bother me.

We as collectors should buy the coins we want and not play into the Mint's mind games of adding new coins at the end of the calendar year to try and squeeze more money from us. We should hold firm and send them a message that if a program is redundant or blatantly in place to abuse us, we won't buy them. We must remember that in the end, we as the consumer make the choice to buy, not the Mint. Don't let them fool you otherwise.