NN: "Buy certified rather than raw coins and enjoy your collection!"
Goldbully
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Pre-1933 U.S. Gold Pieces Likely to Move Upward in Value
Mike Thorne
As a psychologist, I believe that within the heart of most coin collectors lies the soul of an investor. After all, our coins have value, and whether we admit it or not, we’re interested in their value performance over time. One piece of evidence for this is the ubiquity of coin value listings.
Take this magazine, for example. What occupies the bulk of its pages? If you said a listing of U.S. coins and their values, give yourself a pat on the back. And where does this information come from? Numismatic News, which has in the center of its pages in the first issue of each month the very prices you find here.
And what advice do most new collectors receive at the outside of their entry into the numismatic world? Buy the Red Book (A Guide Book of United States Coins), which is in the main a complete listing of U.S. coins and their values.
My point is that no matter how committed you are to only collecting, if you’re honest with yourself, you’ll admit that you’re interested in how your coins are doing in the market. Was that 1889-CC Morgan dollar a good buy? Has your 1909-S VDB Lincoln cent gained value since you bought it?
In this article, I’m going to suggest some U.S. gold pieces to you that I think are destined to rise in value. Being U.S. gold pieces, if you’re looking for best buys under $100, you won’t find them here. You will find, I think, coins that are modestly priced for what they are and have a reason to advance in value.
As you’ll see, I’m going to concentrate on pre1933 U.S. gold in lower denominations. Although there are undoubtedly many double eagles ($20 gold pieces) that will go up in value, most of the ones I might suggest are strongly dependent on the market price of gold for their value. After all, a double eagle contains nearly an ounce of gold so unless we’re talking about a really scarce date (or a coin in spectacular condition), the value is likely to be pretty close to that of an ounce of gold. In other words, there won’t be a great deal of collector value.
I’ll start with 20th century U.S. quarter eagles ($2.50 gold pieces). At the beginning of the century, the coins had a Liberty Head design by Christian Gobrecht that began with the 1840 quarter eagles. As you can see, this is a long-running design, which means that these are mostly collected by type, not as a date/mintmark series. The beauty of this for the collector looking for a potentially undervalued coin is that most of the dates are priced as common dates irrespective of their mintages. I’m going to tell you about some that I think may be low-mintage bargains.
It is my hope that this brief survey of low-mintage 20th century U.S. gold pieces will give you some ideas about which coins to buy if you’re interested in future potential. Seek out coins with relatively low mintages that are valued the same as common dates in multiple grades. These are coins with a reason to increase in value.
Buy certified rather than raw coins and enjoy your collection!
continues in link.......https://www.numismaticnews.net/us-coins/pre-1933-u-s-gold-pieces-likely-to-move-upward-in-value
Comments
When I buy gold "likely to move upward" it's going to be generic, but spot free pre 33.
I was picking off those low mintage pre-1933 gold issues over the past few years before the bidding competition got a little too hot. I even picked up a couple on your list at a little over spot. There are quite a few fairly low mintage coins across all the series of quarter, half eagles and eagles but as you point out, their values appear to be somewhat muted by the fact the coins are not regularly collected by date or mint.
Here's a super sleeper I found at Heritage in 2014, most of which had to have been reduced to melt in 1933. Those issues that found their way to the melt pile more often skew the real mintage numbers. This one rarely comes up for auction but did not make your list(There are a number of others):
The only point I found disagreement with may have been the last, free-standing line. Once you're comfortable with raw American pre-1933 gold, the real bargains may very well be in raw gold over those already encased in plastic.
It was a good read, thanks for sharing.
Mark
Gold coins are not a bad investment - unless you buy at a significant market peak.... Then you may have to hold for an extraordinary length of time... But gold will always have value. Cheers, RickO
Very true.
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/u-s-coins/quarters/PCGS-2020-quarter-quest/album/247091
I get the sense that many collectors started as children looking through rolls for key dates. By the time I was an adult I was getting interested in silver after finding pre-64 dimes and quarters. That led me into semi-numismatic commemorative bullion (silver rounds) which quickly became full numismatic study. Since my funds are limited and I am a voracious reader, I rarely buy coins but instead study the series.
I think at the heart of most numismatists is a love for history. And an even deeper love of esoteric pursuits. Just look at how many seasoned collectors start looking for rare plastic. Talk about esotericism.
Are they saying that I can't enjoy raw coins?
I agree that all gold coins will increase in value. But that is not saying much as this has always been the case. Yes, I love pre-1933 coins, however the increase in gold price will affect all gold coins, not just pre-1933. Fiat coins are pre-meditated inflation as is printing of paper money with no backing. Owning real gold and silver is your best anti-inflation hedge. But then, I know nothing about crypto-currencies and such -sound fake to me. Give me gold and silver (coin or bullion)-you can have the rest.
If you’re after an investment in gold why would you buy a rare coin? Just buy gold bullion eagles, buffalos or equivalent with small premium over spot. A rare coin - whether gold or silver - is numismatic and therefore not the same kind of investment. The content of the coin is meaningless and is more about rarity, absolute or conditional...
Not exactly.
I have picked up quite a few pre-1933 in the raw from LCS for a small premium of 20$ to 30$ over spot prices. Granted that a few were cleaned coins or were jewellery pieces but a majority of them would straight grade if sent in.
Edited to add picture
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/u-s-coins/quarters/PCGS-2020-quarter-quest/album/247091
Sounds as if you are saying you can have the best of both worlds, of you can buy collectable good coins at near bv. Even if the collectable market softens, the good will be worth bv, and as a collectable, it may outpace the bv.
The credit goes to the spouse because she was adamant that I don't buy into any hype (or plastic) and that any pre-1933 gold should be acquired at spot plus small premium ONLY.
It all stemmed from a visit to the Jewellery store in 2001 where we went to pick up a 1 oz. coin of 24K Canadian Maple leaf and she was offered the 22K pre-1933 for same price range. Since it was a gift, she went with the 24k but the concept of not paying more for any gold coin (no matter the rarity) was a concept that got stuck in her head and she enforces it with me.
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/u-s-coins/quarters/PCGS-2020-quarter-quest/album/247091