weird coins???

Ias it me or are COINS??  getting weirder and weirder and not like coins any more …bars..starship enterprise..open doors..hogwarts in 3-d and on and on..See Catawikis latest special auction. To me it's bizarre. Who buys these ?? And why ??

Because the age of cash is unfortunately slowly but surely waning mints around the word are slowly losing there reason for existing too.

As such many mints fled into the perceived safety of collector's “coins” to enlarge their potential costumer base to normies outside of coin collecting. 

Maybe some chick who pays everything with plastic or through the cloud might still buy a neon pink, glow in the dark, scratch ‘n sniff Hello Kitty “coin” because it’s cute or a parent buys some ‘insert popular IP’ depiction round for their child’s birthday. There are also a ton of old people with little sense and too much money who believe all the telemarketing crap of highly valuable Rhinestone inlayed masterpieces from some generic Sweat Shop Mint™ or an exotic coin from a far away sandbank land soon to be swallowed by the next big wave (not that the coin was made or ever even was shipped from there).

I don't like the gimmicky made-for-collectors coins, but I'm a big fan of circulation coins that are non round.  I used to have a collection of different shaped coins, like the cook Islands triangle coins, the various holed coins, the multi sided fijian 3pence or Australian 50 cent, etc

I don't understand all the weird non bullion stuff, but as far as bullion is concerned, many cultures use it as gifting for many occasions and storing family wealth. 

There is no accounting for the design atrococities that occur in that department,but some people must like it 😆

In my opinion, stuff like that shouldn't even be called coins. And that stuff with a “face value” shouldn't even be called coins. They are more like tokens than actual coins. For example, i have a 1oz silver “coin” with a “face value” of only $5. Like, who is going to spend that at face value!? Don't even add a face value, its meaningless.

Agreed, and as as per other comment, there is nothing wrong with odd shaped 2 dimensional COINS.   As long as THEY ARE GENUINE CURRENCY CONS.   A lot of people collect them.

I will be contrary to the general sentiment of this thread, motivated below in a long-winded post 😅; 

We can look at our “now” and believe nostalgically in the beauty of old “real money”, but the trend presently is towards a cashless economy based on faith in fiat currencies. In this scenario, mints go out of business unless they find a new business model (as they are).

Fiat fairytales have however historically inclined towards hyperinflation, currency resets or war, like the Weimar Mark or Zimbabwe Dollar.

 If you stay up to date with global economics, you can't help but notice all the signs of unsustainable fiat debt piling up in major world economies in parallel with overvalued stock markets.

If you change your world view of money, then things look different. Bullion is a real money benchmark, and the current pieces of paper / copper / nickel / etc. start feeling more like worthless trinkets. The €5 silver coin you bought today for €70 is maybe a months worth of groceries in a few years times, instantly recognisable and accepted (much better than paying with packs of cigarettes as happened before)

Other bullion "trinkets" that mints are producing now to stay in business are more akin to jewelery, and there is no accounting for personal taste in this department. Maybe that silver cartoon bunny given as a birthday gift will one day be your grandchild's downpayment on a car…

All that said, my feeling is that all the bullion stuff being produced today is not only Numismatically interesting, but could also be tomorrows real money, regardless of currency. 

The stuff the OP describes are mainly fantasy rubbish made by 3rd party and private mints for countries like Niue, Cameroons, Somalia, Tuvalu, Fiji and other dodgy flag of convenience nations. Its not real coins, just junque aimed at mostly Western audiences who collect themes like Star Wars etc and nearly all American popular culture.

There was a thread where the stuff went from weird to just tasteless and worthless junk like chicken wings and some Pokeyman monster or something. I really don't like this stuff, but obviously someone does and they keep making it. I find a lot of it is overpriced like a 3 ounce coin of some fantasy monster or villian that costs $1,000 when it has like $300 of silver in it (Of course at these silver prices, they may not be overpriced for long). The most offensive ones to me are the fake Donald Trump coins like his bloated head on a US Half dollar etc and the low quality modified fakes from China, like Morgan dollars with skulled Morgans etc. Tasteless junk aimed at low IQ people.

I stick to real coins with quality and context, but many people will buy a coin because it shows Darth Vaper or Hello Kitty on it.

Agreed, and I especially dislike the cartoony BABES with huge assets and our monarch on the reverse. Who sanctioned / approved these apalling pieces of rubbish, Which Civil servant did?  SACK em, gross misconduct.

I agree, “GROSS MISCONDUCT!”