What’s the quickest/most drastic price change in numismatics that you can remember?

dan1ecu

Here’s a question for those who have been collecting for a while...

Usually, prices of coins move up slowly. If I remember correctly, there’s a rule of thumb that it takes ten years to make a profit in rare coins. What is the fastest and most dramatic price change that you’ve seen in the coin market (either up or down)? What caused it?

Dan

DHeath

CC morgans after the GSA hoard comes to mind.

cladking

Prices for many coins often appear to make huge adjustments nearly overnight.
This is especially true for modern coins such as the '50-D nickel which lost 80%
of it's value in '65, or the 1969 Australian 20P which increased in catalog value
about 20 fold in one edition. This also applies to many US moderns today. These
have been increasingly in demand and becoming harder to find for many years.
Only recently have the catalog prices been catching up with the real world. Prices
haven't really increased many fold in the last several months but prices are more
accurately reflecting the market.

What would one of the modern high flyers have sold for five years ago? Most would
have been very tough sells even at nominal prices.

Most coin and other collectible prices will tend to act this way due to massive shifts
in demand or occasionally in supply. Prices will typically push higher over a long
time period only when there is a continuing increase in demand. It is likely that such
a situation will develope in many coin series in the future if newbies get "hooked" and
continue to collect and study coins.

ldhair

The buffalo comm dollar.

Barry

1933 Saint after the US Gov't made a deal.

kranky

I remember the Statue of Liberty gold $5 commem was way up there at one time, but I don't know how fast it dropped.

MacCoin

the year 99 proof set went from 45.00 to 150.00 back to 50.00 in less than a year.

agfox

In 1962 the 1903-o Morgan was considered a major rarity, on the par with the 1893-s. At the time mint states were selling for $1500 and up, quite a bit at the time. Then the treasury released several bags and the price dropped overnight to less than $100. But not before some unlucky dealers got scammed by fast sellers.

numispro

Central States show in Lincoln Nebraska - 1980.
On Saturday coins were trading at around half of what they were on Thursday. It was quite a time!

Merc

1989-1992 Common date MS65 morgan dollars and walkers. They were so expensive in 1989, 1990. Then the investors left and the populations went up. I was still in high school and couldn't buy them. I just bought nice circulated collectors coins like buffaloes then. I'm glad I was a poor kid then and couldn't buy those MS65 coins

gsaguy

Since I have a very short attention span, the latest jump in the Greysheet price of the 1879-CC capped die in MS65 was pretty impressive:

January 17, 2003: $17,000.00
January 24, 2003: $33,000.00

GSAGUY

jdimmick

Earlier this past year the 1926-s Buffalo in AU-50 went from a cdn bid of 1200 to 2100 in three months.

fcloud

1982ish. The Hunt (I think) brothers were trying to corner the market in silver. Silver moved up in price swiftly, but when they were caught by the government, silver dropped like a rock.

relayer

Yesterday, when my 66 came back 65