Largest coin dealer in the world

[Bob-tx]

I consider it to be the US mint, and most of what
they sell is not worth collecting.

Any comments?

Bob-tx

[oly]

On May 26, 2:38 pm, "Bob-tx" <bobwh...@suddenlink.net> wrote:

As near as I can tell without a great deal of work, the U.S. Mint
earned $730 million on revenues of $Xbillion(?) in 2005; the Royal
Canadian Mint earned $68.6 million on revenues of $2 billion in
2009.

I do not know whether or not the Canadian figure is USD or CAND.

But the pith of question is more like this non-numismatic example: do
you consider General Motors to be an automobile manufacturer or an
auto dealer? If you recognize both functions, then what is General
Motors: primarily an automobile manufacturer or primarily an auto
dealer?

The U.S. Mint is first and foremost a manufacturer, me thinks.

The accounting of what the Mint actualy "earns" may be difficult too;
the "profits" from monetization of the coins themselves likely accrues
to the Federal Reserve Bank System and not to the U.S. Treasury (but I
am not perfectly clear on this point either). OTOH, don't 98% of the
profits of the FRBs' eventually get rebated to the Treasury?

Also, there could be non-Western mints that we don't readily recognize
that should be part of this comparison. America is big and wealthy,
but Americans only make up 5% of the world's population. Could there
be some other coin-producing entity that outstrips the U.S. Mint's
totals?

But, in response to the question, I don't know IF calling the U.S.
Mint a dealer makes any sense; it is not exactly the same as or like
calling James Beach or Richard A. Long or Harlan J. Berk a "coin
dealer". The Mint's skills lie in being an industrial producer and
wholesale coin vendor with a small-ish retail function; the skills
that the Mint relies upon are different than the intellectual, trading
and retailing skills that Messrs. Beach, Long and Berk and other "coin
dealers" rely upon.

oly

[Jud]

Until he lost quite a bit of weight recently, I would say that Julian
Leidman was the world's largest coin dealer. 8-)

Jud -Also was thinking of one of the Stacks-

[sgt23]

This is mostly people buying too resale in a few year "I personally
will not buy anything from them" or people buying gold because they
believe the worlds going too collapse a few years. JMHO.