Question regarding early American gold and their values
Exbrit
Posts: 1,464 ✭✭✭✭
A neighbor was asking me what I thought of a common highly graded (MS63 or 64) draped bust half eagle. I am a dark sider so I thought I’d ask for options from some of the dealers out there.
Do you believe that they will retain their value? Being common and very expensive, I am not sure.
His alternative is to hold bullion. That is fairly straight forward unlike early American gold. There seems to be plenty up for auction this year. Price drop?
Appreciate your thoughts.
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Comments
I'm not sure I'd call 63 draped bust half eagles "common". There's only a few hundred in that grade.
My crystal ball is broken. Always.
That said, if I wanted to speculate on bullion, I would buy bullion and not any coin that has a numismatic premium. As has been seen with more common US gold coins, the premiums can and will shrink when bullion prices go up.
As to whether they will hold their value, I'll go with "probably". They are uncommon enough with sufficient demand currently. However, I also wouldn't expect them to increase in value beyond what more traditional investments would. I wouldn't even expect that they would increase with the price of bullion, they aren't priced that way. So, if I were to buy one, it would be for love of the coin not for the future value of the coin. After all, EVERYONE'S crystal ball is broken.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
I know exactly zero people that care what price gold is trading at before they buy a piece of early 19th century gold. Thats like me mulling over whether or not to buy a Pine Tree shilling because silver is $75-80.
Well, if you can get it for melt....
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
At this point, my opinion is that 90% silver or silver bullion may be the better option. A lot more buyers, easy to move, but on the other hand they always say buy the best that you can afford. Do you trade liquidity for quality? Then there is the storage issue.
There seems to be a lot of draped bust half eagles selling at auction this month and so far, they are brining in good results.
If buying silver, I would not buy 90%. It became a real problem recently due to refining capacity. No reason not to buy 999 gold or silver if you want to invest in bullion.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
gold over silver. i'd say 1/10th ounce gold eagles. if you expect the price to continue up, the 1/10 will be more in the range for a coin store to resell so they may offer better buy back prices. the big problem with the plan is buying 10 and paying 400 over a single one ounce
right now, anything less than marker(!) .999 silver is quite difficult to move. right now, about the only 1 toz silver coin getting a good buybacks are ase. pity to the britannia (and even the leafs)
as for rarer gold, i'd think the best bet would be the ultrararities. you've got up and downs even in mid-range coins.
if the mind is made up for classic gold, i'd pull auction results going back years before buying a specific coin just inthe hopes of not overpaying
Maybe not an ultra rarity, but what about a condition rarity - Early US gold? I have a handle on the bullion angle, now want to explore the high end early gold angle. Auction records help some, but for any condition rarity, it’s a gamble in my opinion.
While Early HEs may appear more common when you look at Pops., the one thing you or your friend are not considering is quality.
Start looking for CAC AND original pieces, then reevaluate the common aspect.
Just my opinion!
Sure, condition rarities (of any type) are a gamble. But so are gold and silver bullion at near-record prices.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.