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 Replies: 22 / Views: 5,925 |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
1679 Posts |
And don't tell me it's because they are the rare "HH" variety. ALL 1988 two dollar coins have the designer's initials on them.
I hope some idiot reporter who knows nothing about coins hasn't run a story just because some guy told him they are rare.
Why try to sell decent coins when junk seems to sell for a whole lot more!!
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Moderator
 Australia
16181 Posts |
People aren't buying a coin. They're buying a story - the story of the evil mint worker who thought branding his initials onto an Aboriginal person's armpit was acceptable. According to this story, a righteous politically correct government then began withdrawing the offending coins. The few coins that survived the purge must therefore be rare and therefore valuable!  Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Valued Member
Australia
401 Posts |
ALL two dollar 1988 have the designers initials HH. All the stories about scarcity are untrue.
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Moderator
Australia
16181 Posts |
I know that, and you know that. And the people who sell these things almost certainly know that, too. But it does have that kernel of truth: 1988 $2 coins are different. And if you've seen very few 1988 $2 coins - they are now 33 years old and are (relatively) much scarcer than they used to be - it's easy to find "proof" of the myth (by finding just one 1988 $2 coin), and much harder to try to debunk it (by finding a statistically large quantity of 1988 $2 coins and realising they all have the same HH initials on them). At some point these hype bubbles take on a self-reinforcing life of their own. Particularly when people use ebay prices realised as a guide to "fair market value"; if enough of them are selling at inflated prices, then the inflated price is perceived as "fair market value". Historic example: there used to be a myth going round, particularly in the southern states, that 1919 Australian pennies and halfpennies were made of pure Mount Morgan copper, and the Queenslanders didn't have the tech to separate the gold out from the copper properly, therefore those coins had a significantly higher level of gold in them than normal pennies and halfpennies. So people hoarded them, and prices for them bubbled as a result. I've handled several coin hoards from true believers that had more than their fair share of 1919 pennies. Never mind the actual facts, like "no 1919 penny tested in the lab has ever returned a significant level of gold". The myth didn't really die out until after decimalization. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
1575 Posts |
Simply put - a fool and their money are soon parted. As others have stated, they are not rare. A quick look at mintage figures as well as the number of these 'rare' coins listed on E-Bay is an easy way to verify that these coins are not rare yet buyers are happy to fork out money without bothering to perform a simple google search. When this scam first started sellers were asking $1000+ for crappy circulated coins. A search of ebay sold listings shows some of these circulated coins sold for $400-$800 dollars. I guess sellers have already stripped the fat from the really stupid buyers so have had to reduce the asking price to garner sales from the remaining idiots. Gumtree is even worse for such ads. Do the sellers know the coin is not rare? Absolutely. For fun I have contacted some of the sellers saying that I have several of these rare coins and am prepared to sell them for only $100 each. Needless to say, I never get a response. There is an ebay seller (OzzyCollectables from memory) who regularly lists mixed lots (3-5) of world coins and usually describes them as 'rare' and collectible (along with stupid words like L@@K! and WOW!). They are the types of common scrap metal coins one always finds in bulk mixed coin buys. I once messaged him and said I was just starting coin collecting as a hobby and was a bit confused as all the coins had high mintages so I was wondering what made them 'rare'. Was I missing something? Surprise, surprise - no response. |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
998 Posts |
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Simply put - a fool and their money are soon parted Yes,Ebay certainly opened a Pandora's box for the untrustworthy although a lot better these Days than when it first started in Oz around 2000. Probably more to do with collectors being Internet savvy than anything ebay did.
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Pillar of the Community
4628 Posts |
A fool and their money is soon parted. Why worry unless they are so poor and stupid their family (And studies always show the least intelligent produce the most kids) can't eat or something. Coin bubbles like this have always been around and won't go away soon. Look at all this brouhaha in Britain over their 1971 1 and 2p coins - both are as common as dirt yet ebay is full of clowns trying to sell these coins (And not even UNC ones) for hundreds and thousands of pounds! Yet people need to realise, that most first year issues are the largest as the banks and govt want to bed the coin in with the people - so they need to be out there from day 1. It is not that harmful to those of us who think and know better. Besides it keeps up interest in an old coin. The story about armpits? At the very worst, the clueless dreamers when they realise the coin has no extra value, can still spend it for $2. Guess I can retire now, I have at least 4 1988 $2 coins in my collection, 2 VF, 1 UNC and 1 in a set. The VF's I may let go for $5000 each to some clueless dreamer saying they were authentic used in that late Bronze era of the 1980s when people could only wear Flouro and grow mullets as hair dye had not been invented yet  But the UNC coin - wow its a treasure that will not go for under 7 figures! Edited by Princetane
09/14/2021 10:22 pm
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Pillar of the Community
 Australia
1679 Posts |
Noodled another $1000 worth of $2 coins today and found 51 x 1988 and 9 x 1989 all with the RARE HH.
60 HH out of 500 coins = 12%
I must be a fool to hand them back to the bank at face value.
People will try to make money any way they can. Kudos to the guy who convinced so many that the most common coin in circulation in Australia happens to be the rarest and most valuable.
I wonder how long before stories emerge of the "super rare" 1984 mob of roos dollar coin and the "impossible to find" 2006 coat of arms 50c.
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Valued Member
Australia
112 Posts |
The HH story all started with channel 7, They did a story about coins in your change that may be special and it got a lot of clicks so they have been flogging a dead horse. Most of the research for these stories seems to be TikTok videos of people who don't seem to know what they are talking about and don't even have examples of these coins and just use images they find online. Strangely enough they inital story they ran that featured the HH coins did mention towards the end of the story they were a common coin. I believe this is why coloured $2 coins are pretty thin on the ground these days as they are pocketed for there insane values lol. https://7news.com.au/lifestyle/wort...ch-c-2026077https://7news.com.au/the-morning-sh...s--c-1324244*** Edited by Staff - Removed Facebook link, there's some inappropriate stuff on that page. *** |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
1679 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
4628 Posts |
Thousands of Rupiah maybe or Vietnamese dong?
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
1575 Posts |
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(And studies always show the least intelligent produce the most kids)
Would probably say the least educated. But hey, either way, you get paid to have kids in Australia. It probably encouraged welfare dependent people to have children (who then spent the baby bonus on drugs, flat screen TVs etc) and made no difference to the others.
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Pillar of the Community
4628 Posts |
Same thing here, beneficiaries live high on the hog.
Fortunately I have yet to see much of a movement into coin collecting from these people. Government gives them $95 more per child, some of our beneficiaries are getting $1600 a week, plus a free house.
Think of all the overpriced 1988 $2 Aussie coins they could buy! If they could funnel all their free money into coin collecting, we would have a huge bubble of coins again!
Edited by Princetane
09/27/2021 11:17 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
7621 Posts |
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$1600 a week That's just crazy. I don't earn that much working all week. :(
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Pillar of the Community
4628 Posts |
I don't earn anywhere near that amount, my partner whose a CEO, Corporate accountant earns about 70% of that each week.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
7621 Posts |
I think you're partner needs a pay rise. My son is a graduate accountant and earns about AUD$1150 a week or about NZ$1200.
Edited by triggersmob
10/08/2021 09:12 am
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Replies: 22 / Views: 5,925 |
Posted 09/14/2021 07:40 am
