Lookzee - The Little App With Huge Impact

I was talking with Dustin Morgan about the future of coin collecting and how technology is impacting the hobby.   30 years ago there was no such thing as digital photography.  My price list was typed, photocopied, and mailed out.  No photos.  Payment was by check, took two weeks to clear.  This was the way of things back then.

My pricelist, back in the day

Today I can take a photo of a coin with a phone, post it online, have it sold (sometimes in seconds), paid for with the money in my account in seconds, print a shipping label with tracking, and call the post office to pick it up, never having got up out of my chair.

1954-S Lincoln with repunched mintmark

What's happening right now is the cell phone camera revolution.  Its not just that the phones have cameras.  It's the level of quality, detail, and resolution the cameras are able to bring to the table that is changing the hobby.  It's good enough to show repunched mintmarks in crystal clarity.  While discussing potential phone apps I said to Dustin "I want to take a picture of a coin, find out what it is, and what it's worth."   This was less than 6 months ago.

Tim Rathjen, owner of the Stamp and Coin Place in Bellingham Washington, has already put it together.  After 5+ years of hard work he has developed the Lookzee App for iPhone.  The user can take a picture of a coin, find out what it is, and what it's worth.  This is wonderful news.  It means I'm only 5 years behind cutting edge technology!  If I can think stuff up 5 years sooner, I'll be on top.

The app is easy to use.  All you have to do it take a picture.  The app does the rest.

Here's where I want to try to think 5 years into the future.

There's an app anyone can use that will answer the 2 biggest questions I get:

• What is it
• What's it worth

Before someone drops their grandfathers collection into a coinstar machine, they can take a moment to see if it something worth keeping.  Handy enough all by itself.

I spoke with Rathjen about the app.  The potential is awesome.  Imagine a few million users

• Servers, bartenders, tipped workers
• Stay at home parents looking for an opportunity
• Young adults facing a tight job market
• Anyone sitting in the passenger seat for a long car ride.
• Anyone with a coffee can full of change

People use the app, it's a sure bet they will find valuable coins.  Wheat Cents, silver, Buffalo Nickles...they are out there.  Just look at any coin roll hunting video.  The app will identify coins.  A lot of people using the app will identify a huge number of coins with collector value.  OK, so the app boosts the supply.  One would expect prices to fall as a result.  The beauty of it all is that the app will also create new collectors or inspire folks to get back into collecting.  Normally there are around 50,000 new collectors born each year.  This app can draw a couple million new collectors to the hobby in the next year.  More collectors means the hobby will continue to endure, as it always has, but with renewed vigor.  I know of no other technology that offers this much potential impact.  When PCGS and NGC were getting started there were cries they would commercialize the industry and remove it from the hands of the common man.  They did not.  They brought opportunity to the high end coin market and security to sight unseen trading.  This app is not limited to high end coins or professional traders.  It puts coin identification into the hands of everyone.  If you know nothing about coins, the app will tell you if the coin is worth keeping.

Knowledge is power.  I see the power of this app as it's ability to create opportunity.   A user can take a photo, and post it to facebook, craigslist, the Marketplace, or to buyers with links on the app. Rathjen says this feature and others will be added when the app is out of Beta testing.

It is entirely realistic to forsee some users scanning coins with the specific intent to sell them.  If that's not opportunity, I don't know what is.  The app gives people the power to improve their situation.  My own investigations have shown that it takes as little as $50/week to improve the situation of a lot of families.  This app can do it.

4:27 PM Just got a message directly from, Tim Rathjen:

• Please send an email to social@lookzee.com with ANY tech questions!

Good Luck, Tim.