Featured NEWS: Landmark Worcester, MA Stamp & Coin Shop Closing

Lincoln Stamp and Coin store in Worcester is closing
https://www.telegram.com/news/20191...QE9nfkZYYpTmTYKrM6VCrYXInccIpjbbm470pNgZRpZqM

Was scanning another forum and saw this.

Always very sad when brick and mortar shops close. I'm concerned it will be much harder to attract younger folks into the hobby if they cannot handle the merchandise for themselves and develop an connection with antiques. Kind of like the old saying goes "out of sight, out of mind". Also online the cheap Chinese goods flooding the market tend to drown everything else out online.

 

I never buy coins myself because I know absolutely zip about them & there are too many buyers at the auction that know way more.

I have overheard more than one say that they are very leery of buying silver dollars not knowing where they came from because the unscrupulous Chinese sellers are supposedly reproducing old silver dollars.

 

I've read that interest in the long-respected hobby of stamp collecting is now virtually nonexistent, except for the stamps at the very top of the heap.

Kind of like alot of things in the antiques world.

 

They are. There is a coin collecting forum I am a member of that has a hidden counterfeit detection board where seasoned members scour eBay for fakes, reproductions, etc. and then work to get the listings taken down and the sellers banned. They do great work and get hundreds of listings each week to go poof but that is the tip of the iceberg unfortunately since these Chinese based sellers will just open or hijack another account and start selling the same junk. Fakes are produced by the ton over there and then sold online. Every couple of months there is a newspaper article on people that ordered stuff from China and then try to sell it to pawn shops, coin shops, or flea markets and get arrested.

 

As a teen back in the 70's I used to ride my bike 12 miles to Sam Sloat coins in Westport CT. to buy coins. Coin shops are magical... cigar smoke and all. Great memories of my coin collecting days - you would pick a coin and the grade you wanted, then pick from a choice of 4-5 examples in a tray. What a great leaning experience - still have the coins !

 

Which series of coins did you collect?