Well this is a real eye opener and it does seem that the way to go for a new guy like me is to be a type coin collector, and not get tied up trying to collect these sets . I am not that young and don’t have 20 years to work on finding coins. There also may be many coins in sets that are really not rare coins and that seems like a waste of money. I am pretty surprised that out of all you kind people that are trying to help there does not seem to be anyone here that is doing real well. What I mean is that everybody seems to be full of warnings and stories about how they and their pard’s are losing their money. As far as that 5,000 coin number goes I just tossed this out there as what I might use to set up some type of system to by with, maybe that number should be higher or lower what do you think?
I guess this number that says posts on the left is the number of times you all have posted information on coins or answered questions on coins so we have some real experts here. I added all these up and they come to about 100,774 times you all posted, some of you I would also guess are dealers from your posts, that’s good, as this would make you guys real experts, so lets see what we have.
On this questions about,
1. What percent of the 100,000 do you reckon collect type coins? 2. How many collect Dollars? 3. How many halves? 4. How many quarters ? 5. How many Dimes? 6. How many nickels? 7. How many pennies? 8. How many just everything?
I guess this is a real hard one and I can see that you all might not know this, but if I were going to collect these type coins then it most likely won’t matter.
I think the advice about taking 10%to 30% off the retail prices printed sounds good but that is a pretty large spread so maybe something about 20% off as a general rule?
Before we try to put a rope around this, let me try to answer some of you all’s questions.
I have the Ranch and don’t need any other land to tend to.
I wish the fellow that is making 7% to 8% in the bank would give me the name of that bank cause these nice people here in Texas are paying me 2.5% and they think that’s high.
I don’t want any more of those stocks and bonds and someone said not to put your money in things you don’t know anything about, well brother a hundred million people have no ideas what the companies do they own, and you can not study up on these companies when the paper work is full of lies.
As far as what I will be buying I could say that if I use your information and if I only buy rare coins that there are 5,000 or less known then I could buy one rare coin every week for a long time, that may not seem like much to you big collectors but it will surely get me goin.
So tell me if I have a handle on this or should make some adjustments to this formula?
1. A person should take all the current prices guides they have, average them and then discount that by 20% to use as a wholesale price. 2. A person should look for Rare coins that there are around 5,000 or less known to be available. 3. A person should buy only certified coins from a couple of certifying companies and check the coin to make sure there was not a big mistake in the grade. 4. A person should do a little research work to see what other rare coin collectors seem to like the best. 5. A person should only buy Rare coins that they can hold on to and not use credit to buy coins.
If there are any other rules to follow please tell me now as I am ready to get down the road to the auctions. So far this does not seem that hard and it still makes me a little squint eyed for most of you to tell me that you’r not doing that well, but then maybe you are just funning with the new guy, HuH ?
There are many people here who have done extremely well financially in coins but each of us have had to pay our dues. Most investors never get past this stage because they are buried before they know they're in trouble.
There are three main ways to make money in coins. The most typical is that a collector will spend many years assembling a great collection and his pains- taking efforts and knowledge will pay off when it comes time to sell because there will be many rarities which will have done well. Dealing in coins has pro- ven extremely profitable to many individuals. This requires hard work, long hours and more heavy lifting than you'd think. It also require a lot of business acumen. The third way to make money is by acquiring coins before they become fully val- ued or while they are inexpensive. This requires a lot of hard work, patience, and luck.
if better coins go up 7-8% per year,the value will double every 8-10 years
the PCGS price guide is way out of wack,i would BUY at 10-30% of the guide for NGC or PCGS coins,better stuff will cost you more. real world pricing can be found on EBAY and TELETRADE
If there are 5000 of any certified coin it aint RARE ! you can use the NGC census report for free,the PCGS population report requires you to be a paying member for access.
some people prefer PCGS coins,i happen to think NGC coins are a better deal,third would be ANACS
I don't think anyone is funning with you, it's just that we don't want you diving into the deep end of the pool before you know how to swim. You may prove to be a naturally gifted swimmer - but we don't know. That's why you are getting a lot of cautions.
You mentioned you are going to auctions - which auctions?
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
Dear Mr. King, I am sure you are right that in the past people had to work very hard to make a few dollars at nearly anything they did. On the other hand what I see and many of my pard’s out here see is that there is a big change coming. Here is a couple of examples. Many years ago, and for many years, me and daddy would buy old cars from the 60’s and put them in the barn to work on during the winter. We cleaned them all up and had our buddy a grease monkey come and do the engine work. Many would get the full treatment and came out as what most folks would call hotrods. We did pretty good with this and would always make a few hundred profit on each car. We could fix up maybe 7 or 8 in the time we had. Most times we would buy these for a few hundred, do all the repairs, and sell them at under $3,000. Now the other day I watched an auction on the tube and these very same cars were selling for $40,000 to $100,000 and I would bet you that these sellers did no work at all to make that profit, they just saw that people wanted cars and not this paper money. In fact these buyers were desperate to get rid of their paper money. This very same thing is happening to land were I live in south central Texas. Most of this land is really good for nothing, man a live you can only run one cow every ten acres, but the prices of all this land in the county that did not go up more than a dollar an acre over ten years before has tripled in price the last 4 years. We like you have worked very hard to hold on to what we had for a long time, but people here that bought this land the last 18 months have made 200% profit. What we all see out here is that many many folks want something of real worth and not all this paper that can be printed every day by the truck loads. I need something to spend a few bucks on that I can tell what I really own, and that no one will make any more of with out my knowing it. Does that sound reasonable to you?
Dear Mr. Proof, When I mentioned using 5,000 as a number to look at for rare coins I did not mean certified, I meant total known, so if this Yeoman book say there were only 500 proof coins made then that proof coin would work. Or if one of the other books said most of the coins were melted and only about 3,000 are known then that would work.
So far, it sounds just like making a pot of good ol' Texas chili. There are a lot of recipes, some better than others, but all make pretty good fare. Watch the "hot stuff" as it can ruin a good batch, or make it "just right". You may not get it perfect the first time, but you will have fun, and some pretty nice "eats". Good luck. You seem to be ready to start down the right track.
Dear Mr. Kranky, I am sorry Sir but I am not going to Auctions yet. It just seems that in my research the last few months there are many many Rare coins for sale everyday right here on the old brain box all up for auction. Honestly now the closest dealer from here would be Dallas about 300 miles away. I guess that would be Heritage and everything they have is on this box.
Just do a little research on Harley,something like 40-50 consecutive quarters of increased earnings.
Kicking my own ass,had i put 10,000 in HDI back in 88,yeah 16 years ago,i would be retired today !
i bought 1 share to hang on the wall in 86 (i still have it,very cool) for about 11 bucks,stock splits and all i sold 24 shares in about 2001 for 1,500,that was from the 11 dollar investment,do the math ! i still send them 50 bucks a month to buy more when i think about it.
There are a lot of coin "hot rods" that are making impressive gains. Many of these are high grade US of all dates. Some of these had little value ten years ago and now sell for substantial sums. While I'd be the very last person to warn you away from such coins the fact remains that there is more risk in items which have increased many fold in a short period. There are many coins among these which are still dramatically undervalued and are likely to continue their torrid in- creases. Indeed, though, there are many coins from all eras and locations which are dramatically undervalued and might never be fully appreciated.
I would have to disagree with one other statement that you made earlier. Coins will not hold thier value if the economy goes south because all of the money that is currently going to fuel the coin prices will be spent elsewhere, thus dropping dramatically the values and the prices realized for the rare coins. If you are one of the lucky ones that can hold onto the coins thru the economic drop, then you might break even or come out a little ahead in the long run, but you would have to be in the game for the very long haul...
Cecil Total Copper Nutcase - African, British Ships, Channel Islands!!! 'Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup'
Mintage of 5000 with approx 3000 known to exist today is prolly gonna be pretty scarce. the only coin i want right now is a 1957 Lincoln cent Proof 68 Cameo,mintage of 1,247,952 Not rare at all,the grade is the deal, between PCGS and NGC there are less than 20 known ! damn scarce !
1893 S Morgan Dollar,mintage of 100,000 damn scarce period,a GOOD 4 is worth like 3,500 bucks
Dear Mr. Proof , thanks anyway but I just could never be a paper buyer in these companies with tens of thousands of choices. I think its great that you made that money and would be interested to know if you bought Rare coins with it and how you did, but everything thing I read says most folks have lost over a Trillion dollars the last few years buying paper in these companies. Do you know how much a Trillion dollars is you could buy nearly half the State of Texas, certainly all of West Texas including the King Ranch for that money. As far as buying coins that there are 1,250,000 known and I am looking for a special grade, I don’t think I will be doing that. I am just not smart enough to know if some one might have a hundred more hide away.
Dear Mr. Dragon going south to me means that every thing is worth less. I think every thing is going north which means all real valuable things will be worth lots more.
Well Ladies and Gents, got to go to work, but thanks again for all your help. I will check back this afternoon to see if there are anymore comments or adjustments.
Say do you think it will be O.K. if I post these coins as I buy them like others here do?
Where are you from ? I'm the token redneck Texan of these here boards and don't need any competition here.
As far as rare coins for investment purposes, that's a risky buisness. If you are going to buy rare coins the best advice I could give is to educate yourself as much as possible before making any purchases.
When and if you do make some coin purchases, pictures will be welcome here.
We always like fresh meat, ERR new members ! I wasnt suggesting a large investment in HDI (i am not a broker,your mileage may vary !) i enjoy lookin at my Harley stock on the wall I had a hot rod that was stolen in 1985,1969 Camaro 375 horse 396 engine w/auto trans,mintage of 2230 thats a 50k car today
send me a recipe for some Texas Red and i will share my cornbread recipe !
First of all welcome!!! This has been a very interesting thread. I think that maybe you are not getting answers to some of your questions because fundamentally, most of us here are in love with our coins. Most of us here have been collecting coins since we were kids. For most of us, the thrill we get from our coins is not just how much they are worth, or how much money we can make when we sell them, but how beautiful they are!!
I hope that you can find a series that just trips your trigger, that you don't care if you pay a little too much for an individual coin, it doesn't matter, because it is an object of pure beauty and it delights you!! I think that's what this hobby is all about. For me it's primarily Morgans, no other coin can trip my trigger like a mint state Morgan. Put some nice color on it, even better!!! No plastic shell around it? That's ok with me, then I can afford to buy more.
I have read quite a few stories about collections. Most that have a theme or purpose to them almost always sell better than a coin from here, a coin from there, type strategy. Maybe you sould think about buying pedigree coins, they seem to always bring a premium. That may be a good investing strategy, I don't know for sure. There will never be any other coins put into holders with a particular pedigree on them. Just a thought-------Good luck, and I can't wait to see your pictures, but I really, really, hope that you can find some coin that will make your eyes light up, and heart pound just a little faster when you hold it in your hand.
Welcome, It sounds to me like you know just about what you need to at this point. Many times people get all involved in the Games in collecting anything. All this is fine but it is easy to lose sight of why you got into collecting if one of the reasons is investment. Your first statement was correct, there are serious collectors out there that do not want to waste any time or money on very common coins, and there are the hobbyist’s that are in this game for just fun. The hobbyists in this for fun may be spending money buying coins that they could never even break even on and dealers pray on their emotions to sell them more and more junk. All that being said it is just as much fun to spend your money collecting coins as it is to spend money playing golf, fishing, or spending money on other hobbies that you know have no investment payback. It sounds to me like your starting strategy or your “formula” is as good as any one else’s here, and I noticed that no one else offered a different plan so go for it!
Most all of the advice given in this thread regarding coin collecting/investing has been sound, but there hasn't been many specific suggestions. Based on your questions/comments, I'll make one here that may fit your goals.
Classic U.S. silver/gold commemorative coins, minted 1892-1954.
With the silver coins, there is a 50-piece type set, or a 144-piece type/mintmark/ variety set that can be assembled.
For the gold coins, there is a possible 13-coin set (including the $50 gold) that can be assembled.
Both of these are popular sets with a strong collector base. Some of these coins had low mintages, under the 5,000 mintage you suggested, and far fewer pieces are typically available in certified gem or superb gem condition.
Collecting/investing in these coins is not as diverse as a true type set, but it's not putting all your eggs in one basket, either, compared to putting together a date/mintmark set of a particular series.
As many have suggested, knowledge is key when making purchases to insure that you are buying premium quality for the assigned grade. By focusing on a certain segment of coins, you can more quickly gain the necessary knowledge and experience to make smart purchases. With the classic commems, there are enough of them out there that you can get a look at many examples in order to get a feel for what is a premium, average or low-end example of each type.
The pricing guides are only that - guides. Let's take a look at just one coin in the silver commem series - the 1939-S Oregon Trail half dollar. There were 3,005 originally minted. PCGS populations and price guide for gem and better grades are shown below:
MS65 pop 321 $750 MS66 pop 203 $1,000 MS67 pop 59 $2,250 MS68 pop 8 $4,600
Note that in the grades MS65-MS67, there are certainly less coins existing than the population numbers show, due to people cracking coins out of their holders and sending them in again (possibly doing this multiple times) attempting to achieve a higher grade and subsequent higher perceived value.
By looking at a lot of examples for this issue, and assuming you have a good eye and knack for grading, you might well be better off in the long run buying a premium quality MS66 coin for $1,250 ($250 over the price guide) than buying a just-made-it MS67 for the seemingly bargain price of $2,000 ($250 under the price guide).
You get the idea - Pick an area to focus on, do your research, start slow, and have fun!
By all means post your first purchases here and ask for honest opinions of the coin, grade and price you paid. You will most assuredly receive some helpful feedback, good or bad!
Thanks again for all your fine attention, and treating me right here. Man was it hot here today with a heat factor of 103.
Louis, I am between Mason and Junction up on the Llano. Louis are you close, and do you have any certified Rare coins you want to sell?
Becky, thanks for your suggestion but I am not that creative so I think the guy that thought of collecting just one of each type of coin suits me just fine. Darling did these hairy legged boys here assign you that handle ( Dorkgirl)? Shame on them.
Mr. Solid thanks that is a fine idea, and I will certainly look into that. I think I might like to have a few of these commemorative coins, as long as they fit into the formula. As far as learning to grade I must admit I read a few hundred posts here before I signed up and I could tell right off that in a 100 coin type set there might be 2,000 grades to learn, and even if you only collected MS coins that would be nearly 1,000 grades, and then the certifying company might disagree, so I will let them do the grading and I will do the collecting, and it sounds like if they are wrong they have insurance.
I think the hardest thing for me to do here is to come up with my buy list, and I will certainly take all your good advice and do more reading. I guess it would be asking to much for someone to tell me where I could find research already done on what coins might be out there in amounts less than 5,000 known?
I have all the mintage amounts but it seems many of our U.S. coins got melted at different times, so I can tell already you can’t go strait by the book. Here is a paragraph out of a large article I read last night, so you can see what I mean, I am sure you all know this but it really got my head to spinning.
The Mint's purpose was to return gold to daily circulation, and in this Director Moore enjoyed great success. The withdrawal of older coins was amazingly successful, with an estimated $8,000,000 in pre-1834 gold marching to the smelter for rebirth as Classic Head coinage. The new coins were of the same size and weight as the later Coronet Head coins designed by Christian Gobrecht, so they remained in circulation for many decades after their release.
Comments
I am pretty surprised that out of all you kind people that are trying to help there does not seem to be anyone here that is doing real well. What I mean is that everybody seems to be full of warnings and stories about how they and their pard’s are losing their money.
As far as that 5,000 coin number goes I just tossed this out there as what I might use to set up some type of system to by with, maybe that number should be higher or lower what do you think?
I guess this number that says posts on the left is the number of times you all have posted information on coins or answered questions on coins so we have some real experts here. I added all these up and they come to about 100,774 times you all posted, some of you I would also guess are dealers from your posts, that’s good, as this would make you guys real experts, so lets see what we have.
On this questions about,
1. What percent of the 100,000 do you reckon collect type coins?
2. How many collect Dollars?
3. How many halves?
4. How many quarters ?
5. How many Dimes?
6. How many nickels?
7. How many pennies?
8. How many just everything?
I guess this is a real hard one and I can see that you all might not know this, but if I were going to collect these type coins then it most likely won’t matter.
I think the advice about taking 10%to 30% off the retail prices printed sounds good but that is a pretty large spread so maybe something about 20% off as a general rule?
Before we try to put a rope around this, let me try to answer some of you all’s questions.
I have the Ranch and don’t need any other land to tend to.
I wish the fellow that is making 7% to 8% in the bank would give me the name of that bank cause these nice people here in Texas are paying me 2.5% and they think that’s high.
I don’t want any more of those stocks and bonds and someone said not to put your money in things you don’t know anything about, well brother a hundred million people have no ideas what the companies do they own, and you can not study up on these companies when the paper work is full of lies.
As far as what I will be buying I could say that if I use your information and if I only buy rare coins that there are 5,000 or less known then I could buy one rare coin every week for a long time, that may not seem like much to you big collectors but it will surely get me goin.
So tell me if I have a handle on this or should make some adjustments to this formula?
1. A person should take all the current prices guides they have, average them and then discount that by 20% to use as a wholesale price.
2. A person should look for Rare coins that there are around 5,000 or less known to be available.
3. A person should buy only certified coins from a couple of certifying companies and check the coin to make sure there was not a big mistake in the grade.
4. A person should do a little research work to see what other rare coin collectors seem to like the best.
5. A person should only buy Rare coins that they can hold on to and not use credit to buy coins.
If there are any other rules to follow please tell me now as I am ready to get down the road to the auctions.
So far this does not seem that hard and it still makes me a little squint eyed for most of you to tell me that you’r not doing that well, but then maybe you are just funning with the new guy, HuH ?
but each of us have had to pay our dues. Most investors never get past this
stage because they are buried before they know they're in trouble.
There are three main ways to make money in coins. The most typical is that a
collector will spend many years assembling a great collection and his pains-
taking efforts and knowledge will pay off when it comes time to sell because
there will be many rarities which will have done well. Dealing in coins has pro-
ven extremely profitable to many individuals. This requires hard work, long hours
and more heavy lifting than you'd think. It also require a lot of business acumen.
The third way to make money is by acquiring coins before they become fully val-
ued or while they are inexpensive. This requires a lot of hard work, patience, and
luck.
if better coins go up 7-8% per year,the value will double every 8-10 years
the PCGS price guide is way out of wack,i would BUY at 10-30% of the guide for NGC or PCGS coins,better stuff will cost you more.
real world pricing can be found on EBAY and TELETRADE
If there are 5000 of any certified coin it aint RARE !
you can use the NGC census report for free,the PCGS population report requires you to be a paying member for access.
some people prefer PCGS coins,i happen to think NGC coins are a better deal,third would be ANACS
Proof
You mentioned you are going to auctions - which auctions?
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
I am sure you are right that in the past people had to work very hard to make a few dollars at nearly anything they did. On the other hand what I see and many of my pard’s out here see is that there is a big change coming. Here is a couple of examples.
Many years ago, and for many years, me and daddy would buy old cars from the 60’s and put them in the barn to work on during the winter. We cleaned them all up and had our buddy a grease monkey come and do the engine work. Many would get the full treatment and came out as what most folks would call hotrods. We did pretty good with this and would always make a few hundred profit on each car. We could fix up maybe 7 or 8 in the time we had. Most times we would buy these for a few hundred, do all the repairs, and sell them at under $3,000. Now the other day I watched an auction on the tube and these very same cars were selling for $40,000 to $100,000 and I would bet you that these sellers did no work at all to make that profit, they just saw that people wanted cars and not this paper money. In fact these buyers were desperate to get rid of their paper money.
This very same thing is happening to land were I live in south central Texas. Most of this land is really good for nothing, man a live you can only run one cow every ten acres, but the prices of all this land in the county that did not go up more than a dollar an acre over ten years before has tripled in price the last 4 years. We like you have worked very hard to hold on to what we had for a long time, but people here that bought this land the last 18 months have made 200% profit.
What we all see out here is that many many folks want something of real worth and not all this paper that can be printed every day by the truck loads.
I need something to spend a few bucks on that I can tell what I really own, and that no one will make any more of with out my knowing it.
Does that sound reasonable to you?
Dear Mr. Proof,
When I mentioned using 5,000 as a number to look at for rare coins I did not mean certified, I meant total known, so if this Yeoman book say there were only 500 proof coins made then that proof coin would work. Or if one of the other books said most of the coins were melted and only about 3,000 are known then that would work.
I am sorry Sir but I am not going to Auctions yet. It just seems that in my research the last few months there are many many Rare coins for sale everyday right here on the old brain box all up for auction. Honestly now the closest dealer from here would be Dallas about 300 miles away. I guess that would be Heritage and everything they have is on this box.
Stocks and Bonds ?
Just do a little research on Harley,something like 40-50 consecutive quarters of increased earnings.
Kicking my own ass,had i put 10,000 in HDI back in 88,yeah 16 years ago,i would be retired today !
i bought 1 share to hang on the wall in 86 (i still have it,very cool) for about 11 bucks,stock splits and all i sold 24 shares in about 2001 for 1,500,that was from the 11 dollar investment,do the math !
i still send them 50 bucks a month to buy more when i think about it.
Proof
these are high grade US of all dates. Some of these had little value ten years
ago and now sell for substantial sums. While I'd be the very last person to warn
you away from such coins the fact remains that there is more risk in items which
have increased many fold in a short period. There are many coins among these
which are still dramatically undervalued and are likely to continue their torrid in-
creases. Indeed, though, there are many coins from all eras and locations which
are dramatically undervalued and might never be fully appreciated.
Good luck.
I would have to disagree with one other statement that you made earlier. Coins will not hold thier value if the economy goes south because all of the money that is currently going to fuel the coin prices will be spent elsewhere, thus dropping dramatically the values and the prices realized for the rare coins. If you are one of the lucky ones that can hold onto the coins thru the economic drop, then you might break even or come out a little ahead in the long run, but you would have to be in the game for the very long haul...
Total Copper Nutcase - African, British Ships, Channel Islands!!!
'Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup'
Mintage of 5000 with approx 3000 known to exist today is prolly gonna be pretty scarce.
the only coin i want right now is a 1957 Lincoln cent Proof 68 Cameo,mintage of 1,247,952
Not rare at all,the grade is the deal, between PCGS and NGC there are less than 20 known !
damn scarce !
1893 S Morgan Dollar,mintage of 100,000
damn scarce period,a GOOD 4 is worth like 3,500 bucks
anyway you have the idea
Proof
As far as buying coins that there are 1,250,000 known and I am looking for a special grade, I don’t think I will be doing that. I am just not smart enough to know if some one might have a hundred more hide away.
Dear Mr. Dragon going south to me means that every thing is worth less. I think every thing is going north which means all real valuable things will be worth lots more.
Well Ladies and Gents, got to go to work, but thanks again for all your help.
I will check back this afternoon to see if there are anymore comments or adjustments.
Say do you think it will be O.K. if I post these coins as I buy them like others here do?
Where are you from ? I'm the token redneck Texan of these here boards and don't need any competition here.
As far as rare coins for investment purposes, that's a risky buisness. If you are going to buy rare coins the best advice I could give is to educate yourself as much as possible before making any purchases.
When and if you do make some coin purchases, pictures will be welcome here.
We always like fresh meat, ERR new members !
I wasnt suggesting a large investment in HDI (i am not a broker,your mileage may vary !) i enjoy lookin at my Harley stock on the wall
I had a hot rod that was stolen in 1985,1969 Camaro 375 horse 396 engine w/auto trans,mintage of 2230
thats a 50k car today
send me a recipe for some Texas Red and i will share my cornbread recipe !
Proof
I hope that you can find a series that just trips your trigger, that you don't care if you pay a little too much for an individual coin, it doesn't matter, because it is an object of pure beauty and it delights you!! I think that's what this hobby is all about. For me it's primarily Morgans, no other coin can trip my trigger like a mint state Morgan. Put some nice color on it, even better!!! No plastic shell around it? That's ok with me, then I can afford to buy more.
I have read quite a few stories about collections. Most that have a theme or purpose to them almost always sell better than a coin from here, a coin from there, type strategy. Maybe you sould think about buying pedigree coins, they seem to always bring a premium. That may be a good investing strategy, I don't know for sure. There will never be any other coins put into holders with a particular pedigree on them. Just a thought-------Good luck, and I can't wait to see your pictures, but I really, really, hope that you can find some coin that will make your eyes light up, and heart pound just a little faster when you hold it in your hand.
It sounds to me like your starting strategy or your “formula” is as good as any one else’s here, and I noticed that no one else offered a different plan so go for it!
Seeing as you're from Texas, I'm counting on the Rangers to smack around the Red Sox this weekend.
I have a brother who lives in Corpus Christi.
Welcome!
GoYankees!
Photos of the 2006 Boston Massacre
Most all of the advice given in this thread regarding coin collecting/investing has
been sound, but there hasn't been many specific suggestions. Based on your
questions/comments, I'll make one here that may fit your goals.
Classic U.S. silver/gold commemorative coins, minted 1892-1954.
With the silver coins, there is a 50-piece type set, or a 144-piece type/mintmark/
variety set that can be assembled.
For the gold coins, there is a possible 13-coin set (including the $50 gold) that
can be assembled.
Both of these are popular sets with a strong collector base. Some of these coins
had low mintages, under the 5,000 mintage you suggested, and far fewer pieces
are typically available in certified gem or superb gem condition.
Collecting/investing in these coins is not as diverse as a true type set, but it's not
putting all your eggs in one basket, either, compared to putting together a date/mintmark
set of a particular series.
As many have suggested, knowledge is key when making purchases to insure that
you are buying premium quality for the assigned grade. By focusing on a certain
segment of coins, you can more quickly gain the necessary knowledge and experience
to make smart purchases. With the classic commems, there are enough of them out
there that you can get a look at many examples in order to get a feel for what is a
premium, average or low-end example of each type.
The pricing guides are only that - guides. Let's take a look at just one coin in the silver
commem series - the 1939-S Oregon Trail half dollar. There were 3,005 originally minted.
PCGS populations and price guide for gem and better grades are shown below:
MS65 pop 321 $750
MS66 pop 203 $1,000
MS67 pop 59 $2,250
MS68 pop 8 $4,600
Note that in the grades MS65-MS67, there are certainly less coins existing than the
population numbers show, due to people cracking coins out of their holders and
sending them in again (possibly doing this multiple times) attempting to achieve a
higher grade and subsequent higher perceived value.
By looking at a lot of examples for this issue, and assuming you have a good eye
and knack for grading, you might well be better off in the long run buying a premium
quality MS66 coin for $1,250 ($250 over the price guide) than buying a just-made-it
MS67 for the seemingly bargain price of $2,000 ($250 under the price guide).
You get the idea - Pick an area to focus on, do your research, start slow, and have fun!
By all means post your first purchases here and ask for honest opinions of the coin,
grade and price you paid. You will most assuredly receive some helpful feedback, good
or bad!
Ken
what's up with that?
Welcome aboard!
Man was it hot here today with a heat factor of 103.
Louis, I am between Mason and Junction up on the Llano.
Louis are you close, and do you have any certified Rare coins you want to sell?
Becky, thanks for your suggestion but I am not that creative so I think the guy that thought of collecting just one of each type of coin suits me just fine. Darling did these hairy legged boys here assign you that handle ( Dorkgirl)? Shame on them.
Mr. Solid thanks that is a fine idea, and I will certainly look into that. I think I might like to have a few of these commemorative coins, as long as they fit into the formula. As far as learning to grade I must admit I read a few hundred posts here before I signed up and I could tell right off that in a 100 coin type set there might be 2,000 grades to learn, and even if you only collected MS coins that would be nearly 1,000 grades, and then the certifying company might disagree, so I will let them do the grading and I will do the collecting, and it sounds like if they are wrong they have insurance.
I think the hardest thing for me to do here is to come up with my buy list, and I will certainly take all your good advice and do more reading. I guess it would be asking to much for someone to tell me where I could find research already done on what coins might be out there in amounts less than 5,000 known?
I have all the mintage amounts but it seems many of our U.S. coins got melted at different times, so I can tell already you can’t go strait by the book. Here is a paragraph out of a large article I read last night, so you can see what I mean, I am sure you all know this but it really got my head to spinning.
The Mint's purpose was to return gold to daily circulation, and in this Director Moore enjoyed great success. The withdrawal of older coins was amazingly successful, with an estimated $8,000,000 in pre-1834 gold marching to the smelter for rebirth as Classic Head coinage. The new coins were of the same size and weight as the later Coronet Head coins designed by Christian Gobrecht, so they remained in circulation for many decades after their release.
Devised by Q. David Bowers, originally appearing in his book “Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars Of The United States” published in 1993.
Universal Rarity Scale – 0 = None known
URS – 1 = 1 known, unique
URS – 2 = 2 known extremely rare
URS – 3 = 3 or 4 extremely rare
URS – 4 = 5 to 8 extremely rare
URS – 5 = 9 to 16 very rare
URS – 6 = 17 to 32 very rare
URS – 7 = 33 to 64 rare
URS – 8 = 65 to 124 rare
URS – 9 = 125 to 249 rare
URS – 10 = 250 to 499 extremely scarce
URS – 11 = 500 to 999 extremely scarce
URS – 12 = 1,000 to 1,999 scarce
URS – 13 = 2,000 to 3,999 scarce
URS – 14 = 4,000 to 7,999 semi-scarce
URS – 15 = 8,000 to 15,999 semi-scarce
URS – 16 = 16,000 to 31,999 common
URS – 17 = 32,000 to 64,999 common
URS – 18 = 65,000 to 124,999 common
URS – 19 = 125,000 to 249,999 very common
URS – 20 = 250,000 to 499,999 very common
URS – 21 = 500,000 to 999,999 very common
URS – 22 = 1,000,000 to 1,999,999 very common
URS – 23 = 2,000,000 to 3,999,999 very common
URS – 24 = 4,000,000 to 7,999,999 very common
URS – 25 = 8,000,000 to 15,999,999 very common
URS – 26> = same progression
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