Regarding the coin marketplace:

zep

For a long time I have heard about various groups of anonymous investors who have participated in rare coin funds. Are there any interesting ones operating now?

homerunhall

In the past there have been two really big time Wall Street type funds that bought coins. Both were in the 1990-1992 time period. One was done by Kidder-Peabody and one was done by Merrill Lynch. Both funds were in the $15 million range. Both funds were liquidated shortly after being activated. Interestingly, both funds were launched very near the last big market top.

Merrill Lynch also had several ancient coin funds earlier on.

Through-out the past three decades there have been several private funds (mostly limited partnerships) of smaller size than the public funds.

Today there are three funds (private...all controlled by the same investor(s) ) and all three funds finance wholesale coin dealers who use a basic strategy of buying really great coins and holding them until they make a trading profit. The funds definitely have an impact on the high end coin market. They have pretty classic buying patterns...rare gold, high quality 19th Century type coins, etc.