The Interest factor is a term used to indicate how much demand a particular coin or variety might have. A variety with a very high interest factor would be in high demand, with several thousands of collectors desiring the variety. A medium interest factor may indicate that the variety is desired by hundreds or a few thousand people, and a low interest factor might indicate that the coin is sought by just a handful of collectors.
As a variety receives more publicity within the numismatic press, the interest factor may rise as demand increases. This may cause the price or value of certain varieties to increase without any change in the estimated quantity available. On the other hand, if a large quantity of a variety surfaces, the value of that variety may decrease as the supply outstrips the demand. As in other segments of the hobby, a combination of supply and demand almost always dictates the price or value of a particular variety.
Read more about this topic: Coin Grading
Famous quotes containing the words interest and/or factor:
“Any effort in philosophy to make the obscure obvious is likely to be unappealing, for the penalty of failure is confusion while the reward of success is banality. An answer, once found, is dull; and the only remaining interest lies in a further effort to render equally dull what is still obscure enough to be intriguing.”
—Nelson Goodman (b. 1906)
“Children of the middle years do not do their learning unaffected by attendant feelings of interest, boredom, success, failure, chagrin, joy, humiliation, pleasure, distress and delight. They are whole children responding in a total way, and what they feel is a constant factor that can be constructive or destructive in any learning situation.”
—Dorothy H. Cohen (20th century)