What is the price of the coin? How much does it cost? (Which may be a different question from: How much is it worth?) This question is apt to be the first to be asked by the beginning collector. The price of a coin is apt to vary over a period of time.

Often, a coin will seem more desirable if it has recently increased in price or seems to be scheduled to do so. In the 1950s and early 1960s I often refrained from listing 1909-S V.D.B. Lincoln cents in catalogues and price lists, for this key Lincoln cent variety was on just about everyone's want list, was rising steadily in value each year, and as I never had more than a few in stock, I did not want to send out dozens of "sold out" letters. The 1909-S V.D.B. was eminently desirable, and as a dealer I would have been delighted to have purchased as many as possible. Today in the 1990s the same specimens of 1909-S V.D.B. cents are in various collections and dealers' stocks, but they are largely forgotten, for the market price has declined and they are no longer on the "most active" list. To be sure, the student of numismatic history and the specialist in Lincoln cents each know that the 1909-S V.D.B. is rare and important, but the typical newcomer to the hobby could not care less. Thus, a 1909-S V.D.B. is now viewed by many as a stock in trade item, something to be bought and sold, but not a coin with a special aura as a guaranteed blue chip investment scheduled for a rise in price each year.

As these words are being written in autumn 1993, an MS-65 1881-S dollar is about a third or a quarter of the price it was four or five years ago. Several years ago, at multiples of today's price, the coins sold more quickly than they do now - for they were on the way up. Now that they are available for a fraction of the price, few people want them. Perhaps if the price triples, they will be in great demand once more! (So much for logic in pricing.)

In my opinion there is entirely too much emphasis on price, and not enough on all of the other considerations I have mentioned. As J.P. Morgan said about stocks, coin prices will continue to fluctuate. The same coins all of us own now will still be in existence a century from now, and in the meantime they will have brought joys to their owners, and possibly sadnesses, the sadnesses coming from dips in market value, if such occur. The joys are always there - art, history, romance, and other considerations.