Rare currency can trade for much more than its face value or material worth due to its collectible qualities. Some 20th-century U.S. silver quarters, worth 25 cents, can sell for tens of thousands of dollars. Rather than spend these as money at their face value, collectors withdraw them from circulation to use as collectibles or investments. This is similar to the operation of what economists call “Gresham’s Law”, which states that under legal tender laws, bad (less valuable) money drives good (more valuable) money out of circulation in the market.
In the case of rare and collectible coins or other monetary tokens, Gresham’s Law operates to an even greater extreme; the coins are not only withdrawn for circulation but actually cease to be money in an economic sense. Guillaume Budé's "De Asse et Partibus Eius Libri Quing", written in the 16th century, was the first book on coins and the first to mention numismatics.
Leading Numismatic Societies and Their Impact
Many societies advance numismatic studies, like the American Numismatic Society, founded in 1858 in New York to promote coin and currency appreciation. The society has since built a collection of more than 800,000 objects, the oldest dating back to 2000 BCE. The society's library holds over 100,000 books, documents, and artifacts on numismatics.
Other numismatic organizations include:
- Ancient Coins Collectors Guild
- Archaeological Institute of America
- The Royal Canadian Numismatic Association
- The Czech Numismatic Society
- International Numismatic Council
- The Israel Numismatic Society
- Oriental Numismatic Society
- The Professional Numismatists Guild
- The Royal Numismatic Society
- The Numismatic Association of Australia
- The Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand
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