In real estate the ultimate "consumer" of a piece of property is someone who will use it to build a home, to situate a factory, to cultivate for the growing of corn, or to make a parking lot. However, the fact remains that many parcels of land have changed hands over a long period of years without being developed. Raw land was, is, and probably always will be a desirable commodity. In theory, all raw land will someday achieve its ultimate value when it is used by someone, but in the meantime nice profits can be made in anticipation of this time, even if the time is quite distant and beyond our lifetime.

Similarly, it may be reasonable to suggest that it is perfectly fine, and potentially quite profitable, for large numbers of investors to buy quantities of coins, including rarities, with nothing more in mind that holding them for future appreciation and selling them to another generation of investors. While it might be nice, at least in a theoretical way, if at some future time a collector were to own a particular coin, say one of those common 1881-S dollars, in the meantime it makes no difference in the market if today's buyer is a collector, an investor, or a combination of both. I can argue both sides of the question.

In 1989 and 1990, much money from Wall Street entered the coin business, which many now refer to as the coin industry. Kidder, Peabody; Merrill Lynch, and other highly respected securities firms pumped millions into the marketplace with the expectation that a later generation of buyers, be they investors or collectors, will come along and pay higher prices. Then came a coin market slump, and Wall Street interest has since faded.

Frank S. Robinson's Commentary

Frank S. Robinson, a coin dealer and veteran observer of the numismatic scene, contributed the following poignant and insightful article (here excerpted) to Coin World concerning the extreme importance of the role of the collector to sustain the basic foundation of numismatics:

"Collecting enjoyment is a coin's only ultimate basis of value. The market, though, seems to suggest that coins also have some independent investment value. It is true that investment coins have done well while collector coin prices have stagnated due to a declining collector base. What happened was that, even though the coin hobby boom fizzled, it had meanwhile touched off an investment boom strong enough to outlive it (thus far).