I want your opinions on high grade statehoods

misterJ

Let me first start by saying, Im a long time reader - first time poster.

What are your thougts on collecting high grade, pcgs slabbed statehood quarters. This would encompass ms67 and higher. Two years ago, I started a set, and after talking to a few collector friends, they advised against it. I took it to heart and sold off what I had. Well...as fate would have it...Ive started collecting them again. My set is almost complete (mostly 67, but a dozen 68s). Now... Ive got cold feet.

Are the current prices for real? Is there any chance of them staying there, or is this all just fantasy land? I like collecting them, but lets face it, with some of the prices Im paying, its not just a hobby, Im hoping it to be an investment as well. Most of my coin collecting friends advise me to stick to older coins, that have established markets and populations. They always bring up how many millions and millions of statehoods are produced. I was thinking this would be a fun set to collect, with intentions to sell once the series was complete in 2008. What happens ten years after that, what will they be worth??? Please open your minds and offer your thoughts (dont hold back).... thanks

ClausUrch

Collect what you like and what you can afford. As for the investment potential of Statehood Quarters...

NoviceKris

There is no one that can say with absolute certitude what the market prices will be in 2018. If you need to know you have
a guaranteed return in order to sleep at night, coins are not the investment for you (neither is the stock market, for that matter).
What seems absolute to me is that despite everything you hear you still like the state quarters and that should be
the only thing that matters to you. If another collector tells you state quarters are junk, say thanks for the advice and
let it go. How boring life would be in general if we all had to like the same things. Collect what makes you happy, be
it state quarters, Morgans, gold, darkside or emtpy Stuckey's Famous Nut Log boxes. If you find the cost of the 67
or 68 is too high for your budget, get a 66 slider and wait for a bargain to appear. Don't let the opinions of others
or that inner pressure to compete with what other collectors have accomplished take away the joy you find in collecting.

JMHO.

Happy Holidays, everyone.

Kris

UncleJoe

This is my honest opinion:

If you are buying high grade state quarters as an investment, DON'T DO IT!!!! and I say that regardless of whether I think prices will rise or fall.

If on the other hand you are buying them because you like them and want them, buy what you can afford with money you don't "need".

Most people don't think twice about spending large sums of money on hobbies that give them absolutely no cash returns however when it comes to coin "collecting" it seems that people become obsessed with what it will be worth.

That doesn't mean that you shouldn't check to see what a reasonable price is or throw money away but I get the feeling that most people who consider themselves collectors and not dealers want to make money on their collections. I think this need to make money has probably burned more collectors and led them away from collecting what they like and enjoying their hobby.

Joe.

wondercoin

Kris and Joe: Well said. I saw on TV today a show about Gilda Radner and her first debut on stage in 1972 in Godspell in the Toronto production with Martin Short (his first show as well). They showed a copy of the Playbill of that 1972 show. Wow -I would love to own a clean copy of that. Who knows what it would cost or whether it would be a sound "investment" - it simply would be neat to own. I also bid over $1000 for a early 1800's "bath house" token in the last Bowers sale, essentially because my wife told me she "loved it" - mind you she doesn't get too excited about many coins but enjoys "Victorian themed objects" and I wanted to show her what it took sometimes to buy the coin you loved. Luckily, I got outbid! IMHO, collect what you enjoy and always within your means. I also made a couple other comments on the identical thread posted on the Registry set board. Welcome aboard MisterJ Wondercoin

meos1

Hi MisterJ;

I too collect the statehood quarters. The most compelling reason is to be in a series that no one else has dominated (It good to be known for something). Secondly, I can buy the stock for the collection at mint prices. Third, they will be worth something in the future. Some will be less than I paid some will be more. Fourth, reverse designs that may never be minted again. I hope in 2018 the series will be worth more than I paid. But I am certain that as my grand kids get ahold of them they will have apprecaited. So like the stock market I see a long term investment.

If you were to move to walking librety (my other design love) you would be in a series where the mint is finished production, all of the key date value has been apprecaited into the coins value, and there are multiple individuals that have a depth and breadth of experience.

With that said... If you love the statehood series, buy 'em. I just got finished placing a $500 order of statehood quarters with the mint. I followed that up with $200 dollors of SAE. I have a great chance of being the go to guy with statehood quarters, I have a small chance of affording the 1995W proof key date in the SAE. I still collect both and each time I look at either one, I smile.

My two cents

Dan

Android

MisterJ,

As with any investment, it depends on how risk averse you are. Personally, I look at investing in high grade state quarters to be extremely risky. That is, buying them already certified at the levels where they are currently selling. I liken it to playing blackjack. I have a 16 and the dealer is showing a ten. Do I stand or do I hit? The odds(risk) is great that I'm going to bust if I hit. Conversely, the odds(risk) that the dealer will have a 17 or higher are pretty good too. Either way, odds are that I lose. Would I want to bet a lot of money on such a hand? Not unless I'm feeling incredibly lucky!

On the other hand, if as part of your collecting experience, you like to search through rolls and rolls of quarters looking for a super gem, finding one (which costs you a quarter), and then having it certified for $10 bucks, then great! A nice collectible coin is still a nice collectible coin that can go in your really nice collection. Or sell it to someone else who thinks he's lucky today.

Andy

kranky

Welcome to the board, MisterJ!

I was all ready to make a post here, but then I read UncleJoe's reply. I enthusiastically second his comments.

And I'll just add that there are a tremendous number of variables that could affect SQ prices in the future.
They could extend the series another ten years.
They could start a similar concept with a different coin.
Slabbing coins could fall out of favor.
Large premiums for grade rarity could evaporate.
The Mint could start selling high-grade slabbed coins.
The number of people interested in SQs could skyrocket when the series ends, or maybe tomorrow.
The quality of future SQs could be so bad there might not be any more 68s.

No one would expect any of those things to happen, but any of them could. We just don't know.

misterJ

I just wanted to thank everyone who took the time to reply. your opinions do matter to me. you had very well thought out replys. It is true, to collect for the enjoyment, and I do enjoy SQ. Thanks again!

cladking

Virtually all good advice here and UncleJoe said it best.

If you are going to spend a lot of money on any coin with little track record
it would be wise to learn as much about it as possible. This will at least pro-
tect you from the market price fluctuations caused by promotions and mass
wishful thinking. Look at some mint sets and some rolls and try to get a feel
for what is typical and what is special. If after some study you still don't feel
confident you might be better off going with something else.

With all these caveats there should be some real potential in these coins. There
are many millions of people collecting sets and as the word gets to the masses
that high grade coins are valuable it is quite likely that many people might attempt
high grade or gem sets. My knowledge of these coins is quite limited but I do know
that they are not so much easier to find than the coins they replaced and if large
numbers of people attempt sets of them then there will not be enough coins and
prices could head sharply higher. Keep in mind that almost all the oldtimers tend to
steer people away from these as investments(...again read UncleJoe's post) so it's
a certainty that there is a huge potential market for something where almost every-
one is adamantly opposed to it.

Welcome to the boards.

coinrookie

I think that as of right now that the quarters are at a price that will drop in the future. There are just too many mint sets,rolls etc. that people are sitting on. As more of these are sent in to be graded there will be more put into the population. Thus a price drop. I think there are still alot of high grade quarters out there. Think about buying some mint sets and submitting them yourself. As stated do not consider coins as a solid investment . They are in a volatile market. Whats hot now may not be hot in a year or they may skyrocket in five years. But it is just as likely that in ten years they could not have appreciated much if at all. Collect what you like. But I would treat it as a hobby to enjoy rather than a portfolio.

agfox

I collect them in pcgs 69dcam slabs for the coin. I'm not trying to put a registry set together as the 70's are just goofy priced. But I do like having the set for the state designs I think it's one of the best things ever for generating interest in collecting. They're never gonna be worth anything though. All that interest does have some bad things that go along with it.

cladking

<< <i>I think that as of right now that the quarters are at a price that will drop in the future. There are just too many mint sets,rolls etc. that people are sitting on. As more of these are sent in to be graded there will be more put into the population. Thus a price drop. I think there are still alot of high grade quarters out there. >>



Large percentages of these coins have been checked for gems. They
have been checked for gems because many people understand that these
coins are difficult to find in high grade and do have a large market price.
Even if only 10% were checked the increase in populations should be less
than 10 fold. If prices get high with little interest except from a few of the
newbies what will happen if large numbers of new and/or experienced
collectors start buying them. It's easy to say prices will drop but without
a decrease in demand a price drop is virtually impossible. I am not one to
predict the future, but I don't see such a decrease anytime soon.

tsacch

yawn, over priced in my opinion.........but collectable to the masses.

misterR

The prices have dropped so much they are a much better deal now than a year ago. PCGS has been so strict with their grading that I have quit submitting them for now. Welcome to the boards, misterJ.

jom

speaking of state-quarters: anyone out there know which one are harder to find in > MS65 (cladking??). I've looked at some state-quarters and have noticed that a few of the issues just are atrocious. The Philly mint is still spewing out garbage as usual....the Georgia issue comes to mind? Any ideas?

MisterJ: About 10 years ago when I started up my coin collecting life again I spent hours looking thru Ikes and Kenndys to put together a couple of raw sets. Not only did I get some needed grading experience the sets I put together turned out pretty good. Now, mind you, I haven't looked at any where near as many SQ's that I did with Ikes and JFK but I think you get a pretty good idea when you wade thru roll after roll. I think this is a good way to get started...learn your series!

jom

DenverCoin

1999- 4.4 Billion minted
2000- 6.4 Billion minted
2001- 4.8 Billion minted

US Mint production figures

Some of these quarters have more graded, than were minted of some older coins.
Population of high graded quarters increases 50 or more in a week, sometimes more.

My projection?

In the year 2525, if man is still alive...

JMHO

cladking

It has always taken me three or four years to get any kind of idea
which coins are difficult in high grade. While the quality of the bulk
of most of the states issues is comparable with the older coins it is
difficult to know about the top .5% until you've seen a sufficiently
large sample. It will take longer with these new quarters because
people are separating them by quality confounding analysis.

APA1709

I agree with coinrookie. I too like SQ and I collect them, I am leaning more towards silver proofs as time goes by though. But as cr said, I'd buy some mint sets and submit them for grading yourself. Maybe buy 5 or 10 sets, cherry pick the ones you think will grade highest, submit them and see what happens. You'll not only have the collection you desire, but you'll learn lots and have more fun. You could also buy a book on grading and become more educated in the grading process. And, since you expressed a desire for investment potential, in my humble opinion, submit to PCGS only. It seems a PCGS graded coin always commands a higher price. Anyway...just thoughts from a novice who very much enjoys coins.

GDJMSP

I have talked about this at length on other boards - but never here. But if you want to have an idea - and I stress idea - of what a given coin from today will be worth in 50 or 60 years - then look at what a coin from 50 or 60 years ago is worth today. It's just that simple.

Too simple you say. The coins today have huge mintage numbers so you can't compare the two. Horse puckey ! I suggest you go look a bit closer at what some of the mintages for coins from yesteryear were. Some of them were in the hundreds of millions. The I also suggest you go try to find high grade examples of those coins from 50 or 60 years ago. Sure you can find some - but how many ?

There may be a gazillion examples of high grade state quarters ( or any other denomination ) today. But how many of those high grade examples will there be 50 years from now ? The collectors from the 1940's & 50's said the exact same thing back then. They are a dime a dozen - why bother ? Because 50 years from now they won't be.

People never seem to realize - what is common today - most likely will not be tomorrow.

wingedliberty

My opinion on statehood quarters in high grade is this:


1.BUY THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


In case I am unclear.

2.BUY THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Happy holidays,
Brian.

wingedliberty

Mintage figures to me are useless on statehood quarters. Survival of quality specimens is everything.
As the eagle reverses slowly die out to circulation and attrition, how many 66+ statehood quarters will
survive after they enter circulation.




Brian.

wondercoin

Cladking should be most proud of this thread

Wondercoin

kranky

That's an interesting concept, GDJMSP, but I think there's one big difference that affects that comparison to coins of 50 years ago. Back then, there was no such thing as 11 points of MS grading. What is graded 65 and higher today would have been the top of the line back then (lumped into one category of "Gem"), and no one was subdividing the grades to the point that we do today. And there are plenty of MS65 and up coins to be had of coins from the 1950's.

Now that it's 50 years later, our new system of grading has determined that some of those Gems are 68's and some are 65's. A 65 might be worth $2, and a 68 might be worth $500. But back then nobody knew the difference. Hey, a 65 is a nice coin! It's only recently that we decided to split hairs even finer and put 99% of the value of the coin into a miniscule difference in quality - a difference that 50 years ago nobody would have accepted.

If 50 years from now we have a radically different grading system, who knows how today's high-grade coins will grade. I don't think the comparison is valid.

Mrpawn

Hey MisterJ, a slightly different take on the picture. By the way, welcome to this fine board of numismatists. I continue to learn sometihing here almost daily

I personally collect a series that was largely unappreciated when it was a modern coin. So much so that many were left sitting in bank vaults for 70+/- years. Hoards were occasionally discovered that disrupted pricing greatly. This series has experienced many fluctuations in price and value as an investment. Here is where I, too, will say to collect what you like and, until you are an expert, do not expect coins to be an investment. My favorite coin was not liked in the larger population areas of the country when it was issued. It's main area of popularity at he time was in the sparsly populated territories and young states of the West where the banks were also new so paper money would be more suspect the further it went from cities and towns.

Do I think that the SQ's will eventually be as popular as the Morgan dollar coin? Yes, in fact, I do:

There will be a large survival rate of the series

The series will be defined

Future collectors will be able to afford most, if not all, of the series

None of this makes for an investment for retirement unless you are planning the retirement of great, great grandchildren, but it still allows for an interesting collection today.

Have fun with your collecting,

C P

GDJMSP

Well kranky - the 70 point system was created in 1948 - so it was certainly there during the 50's. But you are correct - it did not see much use. But that really has little to do with it. The point I am making is that large numbers of high grade examples for the coins from the 50's - 40's and before do not exist. Based on todays grading system - or yesterdays - or tomorrows. No matter what the high grade number scale may be - the best examples will be just as few. And I am not counting MS65 as a high grade example. I am talking about MS67 and above.

michael

if you like them buy them!! but first think about the following

but only buy them for fun as a hobby

coins are not an investment

buy them with money you can afford to lose

and ask yourself what is the same coin worth in the same holder a grade less

also ask yourself if i broke this coin out of its holder today what is it worth?

also you might buy these and make a huge sum of money well a bonus good for you but i still stand by the above

i am here to give you something to think about after all is said and done you take the information and you make your own decisions!

sincerely michael

ccr

If you enjoy collecting the State Quarters then, that maybe the series for you to collect. We all collect what we like. I like Morgan Dollars and some people here like them too. Others think Morgans are ugly and boring. But I get a kick out of collecting them. So basicly, and to put it simplisticly, there`s no right or wrong series to collect. It`s what you enjoy that counts when collecting in this hobby.

As with the current prices of State Quarters, I don`t know what will happen.