Negative letters to NN harmful to hobby

Ever since I received my first issue of Numismatic News, there has always been a letter or article complaining about a problem the writer thinks should be fixed. This here, hopefully, is the last complaint.

I am tired of reading about what other people don’t like about this or that. Yes, those people give insight into problems with coin collecting, but that does not make up for the problems with writing the letters of complaint. Here are those problems: fewer people buying Mint products, a mistrust toward dealers and a negative attitude toward coin collecting.

First, would it be all that bad if fewer people bought Mint products? After all, it could cause the Mint to lower its prices and produce better quality items. That is not what will happen, though. If the Mint realizes people are not buying its products, it will most likely raise prices and produce worse quality products than ever before in an attempt to save money.

If the Mint has, say, 30 percent fewer buyers does not mean it will change its ways. People should write their letters of anger to the Mint, not to NN. They should either buy Mint products or gather a large group of people and boycott the Mint (the latter is not recommended). Otherwise, people should stop writing letters of anger to NN and continue with their collecting.

Secondly, people bash dealers too much and too often. There are more good dealers out there than bad ones. It is just that people do not write in to tell about good dealers because they take it for granted; thus, they write in to tell about bad dealers. This makes people think most dealers are bad people and causes immediate mistrust toward dealers. If young collectors think they cannot trust dealers, they will not buy coins and leave the hobby. Does not everybody agree that coin collecting needs as many collectors as possible?

Finally, this last problem also deals with the possible loss of collectors. With all these letters sending negative messages to people about coin collecting, people think that coin collecting is not an enjoyable hobby. That is not true. Coin collecting is very enjoyable and, though it has its problems, the benefits are better than the problems.

For these reasons, we need to stop writing negative letters and start writing positive ones. Maybe there should be a section of Numismatic News just for letters about problems, or maybe letters of anger should only be printed if the problem is very serious. Whatever happens, we need to stop looking at the negative side of coin collecting and look at the bright side for once.

Mark Recznik is a collector in Toronto, Ohio.
Viewpoint is a forum for the expression of opinion on a variety of numismatic subjects. The opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of Numismatic News.
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