A few things I’ve picked up from researching early commemorative coins:
- The people behind them always hope they can raise a ton of money for a pet project or monument or expo. They rarely do.
- The designs usually get denigrated by the numismatic press – oftentimes with a venom critics reserve for Limp Bizkit albums or Michael Bay movies.
- The mint melts down the excess/unsold coins. As a result, the ones that did sell end up becoming valuable decades later – screwing over collectors on a budget like yours truly.
Those issues were all in play for the 1893 Isabella Quarter.
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