Options
If you were to start from scratch today a gold collection...
JDelage
Posts: 724 ✭✭
What area would you focus on if you were to start a gold collection today?
Where in your mind are the best opportunities to develop an interesting collection, with limited financial risk (i.e., you're least likely to overpay today).
Cheers,
Joss
Where in your mind are the best opportunities to develop an interesting collection, with limited financial risk (i.e., you're least likely to overpay today).
Cheers,
Joss
"The greatest productive force is human selfishness."
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
0
Comments
Hell, I don't need to exercise.....I get enough just pushing my luck.
Charlotte gold (any denomination)
Dahlonega $2.5's (more people collect $5's and prices have risen out of proprtion to Charlotte $5's and Dahlonega $5's)
Carson City $5's; $10's if you have the resources, and $20's if you can afford one $150,000 coin or don't mind that you cannot.
San Francisco No Motto $5's
$3's, I like them, but they have had a run-up in price and interest since the time I started buying them
Add: New Orleans With Motto $10's, some rare dates mixed in with some relatively common ones that can be obtained in high grade without spending an arm-and-a-leg.
Disclosure: I collect/own some of the coins listed above.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
<< <i>1849 gold dollars by die variety and die state. Yes, I'm serious. >>
Why do you have to precise that you're serious? I.e., what is counter-intuitive in your post (remember - I'm a newbie...)
Thanks,
JD
Robert A. Heinlein
<< <i>It all depends on your budget?? >>
Maybe $2,000 to $4,000 per year, with small increments each year.
Robert A. Heinlein
Other than Harry Bass (who collected ALL gold coins by die variety and die state), I don't know anyone that has ever tried collecting one gold coin of any date/mintmark in such depth. That tells me that it's a project that wouldn't appeal to many people, and why would I recommend something with such (seemingly) limited appeal?
I picked the 49 dollar because it's cheap and there are major varieties, minor varieties and many, many interesting die breaks. It's also the first year of the denomination, which adds appeal. BTW, the 1866 Shield Nickel is an identical opportunity.
Edited to add that after a couple of years you will have to work hard to spend your money. This is a very good thing, as the fun is in the hunt.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
Robert A. Heinlein
Not a fair answer on the Lightside forum, but a date/mintmark set of Napleon I 20 Francs would be a challenging and relatively inexpensive project!
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
Your best bet is to figure out what you like (modern proofs, modern commems, old tenor gold, no-motto gold, circulated gold, uncirculated gold) and collect it.
The more you know about the coins you like, the less likely you'll "overpay" (whatever that means).
edited to add: don't forget, gold is at/about a 17 year high right now. How would you feel about the coins you buy now if the price of gold is $350/oz. two years from now?
Check out the Southern Gold Society
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
I also like the Indian head incused coins.
Robert A. Heinlein
You may want to stick to coins slabbed by PCGS/NGC/ANACS/ICG until you become more expert in counterfeit detection.
You may want to get "Detecting Counterfeit Gold Coins, Book 2" by "Lonesome John" and, of course, look at a lot of coins.
Check out the Southern Gold Society
that date.
What is now proved was once only imagined. - William Blake
for example
choice xf to choice au threes 1860-64 the lower mintage sexy 1880's dates 1877!!
a couple of really nice generic date saints in ms 63 and ms64
a nice gem unc ms64 later date lower mintage type three one dollar gold piece 1879 -1889 preferbly 1879
a nice choice to gem proof ten dollar liberty eagle the rarest most undervalued underapprecaited proof gold type coin
a nice choice proof slightly better date three dollar gold piece!!
a sexy civil war date or pre civil war date type three one dollar gold and quarter eagle in choice to gem proof
a prooflike type two liberty double eagle in really choice slider unc. also a type three in a nice again slider au grade
a quarter and half eagle classic head gold coin in the 1830's choice xf to choice au terribly undervalued
a nice slider unc type two one dollar gold!!
any choice xf to au civil war era gold coin 1861-65
a nice choice unc indian ten dollar gold piece
a choice proof roman finish double eagle and eagle 1909-1910
sexy dates
and the above including my last post above this one are coins with tremendous opportunity value and also history
<< <i>Regulated gold, of course. >>
What's regulated gold? I've been collecting for a long time and this is a new term for me.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
<< <i>1849 gold dollars by die variety and die state. Yes, I'm serious. >>
I have dabbled with those already. I have the "L" small head, and I have the large head open wreath variety. I've been looking for the small head with "L" variety, but have yet to find it.
I'd never collect die states, however. In my view die states did a lot to ruin things for collectors who might have started collecting early copper. When one collector needs to have as many as 16 or 17 examples of the same variety for a die state collection, it does not take many die state collectors to soak up everything on the market.
<< <i>Don't collect the Indian gold...they really suck. You should collect something other than indians for about 20 more years. No body likes them and they are really not very pretty. >>
I know that post has a tonge planted firmly in cheek, but it's actually wise advice.
The $2.50 and $5.00 gold coins are bears to grade and many of the pieces that are out there are overgraded IMO. A beginner would do well to start with a different series if you are going to collect Mint State gold.
My advice to a beginner is to start with first and eight piece and then a 12 gold type set and go from there.
I will add the 4 pieces to make the 12 piece set afterwards.....
But it takes time to get enough funds to make each purchase.... been working on my set since Sept '01.
I also have a few dark side gold coins, such as a early 1800's Napoleon coin.....
Also stick to certified american coins, to be 99.99% sure they are authentic.....
<< <i>My advice to a beginner is to start with first and eight piece and then a 12 gold type set and go from there. >>
I don't understand this sentence. What is a "gold type set"?
Thanks,
JD
Robert A. Heinlein
$2.50 Liberty (1830's till 1907)
$2.50 Indian (1908 till 1929)
$5 Liberty
$5 Indian
$10 Liberty
$10 Indian
$20 Liberty
$20 Saint Gaudens
The 12 piece set adds:
$1 Type I, Type II & Type III
$3 Indian Princess
Robert A. Heinlein
This being because other older designs are much more pricey.....
Outside of the chapters in Brunk (page 337) and Gordon (page 91), very little has been published concerning regulated gold, and most numismatists are unaware of the important role played by countermarked gold coins during the Confederation and early Federal period. This state of affairs is abetted by the fact that most people are under the impression that there were virtually no gold coins circulating in North America at the time of the Revolutionary War. An examination of contemporary accounts from the period indicates otherwise. Writing in 1785, Alexander Hamilton described, “Many merchants of second class, characters of no political consequence, each of whom may carry away eight or ten thousand guineas…” A perusal of bills and receipts of the period also shows that gold was in use, if not always readily available.
It appears that silversmiths began to regulate gold some time in the mid 18th Century, perhaps as early as 1740. This practice was a direct result of the publication of tables that established relative values for commonly encountered gold coins; these tables usually listed the country of origin and denomination of a given coin, an acceptable weight (a number that was generally lower than the coin's weight at issue), the coin's value in British units (pounds, shillings & pence), and the coins value expressed in Spanish Silver Dollars.
Gold coins would be brought to the local silversmith, who would weigh them and use a touchstone to determine whether they were of the proper fineness. Coins that were over the published weight would be clipped or filed down, while underweight pieces would have a small plug of gold added to them to increase their weight. Once the pieces were consistent with the published standard, the silversmith would generally stamp them with his countermark in order to indicate that they could be accepted at standard value.
We know of perhaps 20 regulators who worked in the United States in the 18th century. The most famous of these was Ephraim Brasher, who apparently regulated many gold coins on behalf of the Bank of New York during the 1780s. Brasher's Doubloons are clearly related to regulated gold, as they weigh 17-pennyweights - the Bank of New York standard for a $15 gold piece.
What is now proved was once only imagined. - William Blake
-Liberty Double Eagles 1850-1907 including proofs and patterns (Will try this someday)
-Early Half Eagles and Eagles by die variety and die state
If money is a problem:
20th century Liberty Quarter and Half eagles in MS63
Dennis
Like VOC Numismatics on facebook
<< <i>IN 63 those coins are still a ton of money, especially for set purposes..... >>
And a lot of those coins in MS-63 are not all that nice, especially with the spread of grade-flation.
Real collectors should say the heck with registry points and look for really attractive, smooth MS-62 graded coins. They are out there. Their main fault is usually a lack of "shine in your face" brilliance. The statin luster can be due to cleaning, but in many cases it's due to the use of dies that have been striking coins for a while. Such "late die"coins are undergraded IMO, but the powers at be think that luster is more important than marks.
Here are a couple of examples:
NGC MS-62
NGC MS-63
You are absolutely right about that. I probably should have said AU-58, MS-62 or MS-63 grades......
Probably will do the Quarter Eagles in those grades within a few years
Dennis
Like VOC Numismatics on facebook