What coins represent the best investment for the next 20 years?

CoinResource

Skip the lectures on why you shouldn't invest -- and make a case for where money is best spent for returns on investment.

Could be:
* Coins that are known and popular and will continue to increase in value
* Sleepers
* Series that that catch ahold of the gazillions of new collectors
* Moderns that people fight over in 10-20 years.
* etc.

Oh, and invest at your own risk! ;-)

-cm

MAD4MORGANS

Junk silver coins bought cheaply and are melted down into bullion.

MrSpud

Probably problem free keys and semi-keys to the regular popular series will either maintain their value or go up.

CoinResource

Funny photo!!

FatMan

Best Investment? Look to the Darkside. Very undervalued compared to the US Market and with the supply of raw US material lessening every day look for the TPGs to make a strong promotional move into the Dark.

Kind of a strange answer coming from me. I have no interest in DarkSide material.

291fifth

Acid date Buffalo nickels. It will be all the American public can afford in 20 years.

Barry

Sell short on state quarters.

mercurynut

Any seris in quality gold coins.

joeyuk

Quality Lincolns. Changes are coming.

PerryHall

The way the world economy is going, rare coins from India and China are a safe bet.

Coxe

Properly stored, problem-free early copper and popular colonials, especially lettered edges. -- I think these will dry up

1885 & 1912-S Nickels in MS65 as well as PR66DCAM+better all Liberty nickel dates

1877 proof sets -- tough and market in 20 years to those born in 1977

Well-struck, high-grade mint state Ikes

Key and Semi-key DMPL Morgans

Classic Gold Commemoratives

Matte Proof Lincoln cents, gem and better (Shouldn't have sold mine!)

Well-struck copper-nickel Indian cents

Significant and singular modern mint errors

Full step gem Jefferson nickels

1964 SMS coins

MrBreeze

Coinage of China, India, and Central/South America.

keets

20th Century key dates from popular series' in high circulated grades, XF and AU.

lkenefic

Buy the highest quality you can afford. There will always be a market for quality.

Leo

messydesk

What's the next Bowers Redbook going to be about?

cladking

Nothing ever really changes. The coins that will be desirable and valuable are the same
coins that have always been desirable. Coins which are rare and excellent quality will al-
ways be among the contenders for the highest priced coins. In twenty years this will in-
clude the classic favorites; 1804 dollars, rare gold, and high grade coins throughout US coin-
age history. But unlike today there will be coins on the list that we'd hardly recognize to-
day including some made in the next twenty years. Many of the coins on the list will be coins
that today aren't even recognized as being collectible much less potentially valuable. There
will be a startling number of moderns and other world coins on this list.

While human nature always ignores change until it is thrust upon us, there is always a slow
buildup of change that is being ignored. One of the biggest changes in the last twenty years
is the emergence of India and China and their exploding middle class. Most of these people
will collect their domestic coins but there will be some demand coming for US coins. The num-
ber of scarce and rare coins from that part of the world is staggering and if demand for them
is to develop than prices will have to be far higher. Consider the silver 1969 Indian 10R. There
were some 9,000 made in proof and, if memory serves, another couple million made in unc. The
coin depicts Mahatma Ghandi who is recognized worldwide as one of the greatest men of the
20th century and a chief figure in the establishment of India. This coin is readily available today
and will cost only a few dollars when you find it (the unc is tougher). So what happens when
1,300,000,000 Indians decide they each want one of what's left of 9,000 coins? Or how about the
little aluminum 1Y Chinese coins of the late 1950's. More than a billion Chinese used these coins
for decades as the coins suffered horrendous attrition and degradation in circulation. These are
not seen in this country and it would be surprising if they are seen in China either.

Many currencies have been phased out in Europe with the introduction of the euro. Many of the
older coins were not widely available before the balance were waffled and melted. Certainly the
destruction of billions of coins didn't make anything more common.

It's not only the modern coins from all over the world that will be appreciating over the next 20
years, it's also the older more well known scarcities that will increase. As more and more countries
pull themselves up by the bootstraps there will be growing demand on coins that just never had
any domestic demand, and very scant and price specific demand in this country.

The changes which have already occured in numismatics in the last five years will be small com-
pared to the massive changes that are coming.

fc

they are all over priced right now.

HIGH END L@@K @ ME.. overgraded crappy MS62 going for
gaga money due to who is selling it and what it is slabbed in.

TwoSides2aCoin

You've opened a can of worms.


If we tell you the TRUTH, these coins won't be popular.

Platinum Proofs will be pricier than middle class will ever be able to afford (hint: make a way to afford).
Low mintage commemoratives will continue to dominate.
Sacagaweas are a sleeper, and the new presidentials will not see growth like the golden women they had as wives.
Lincoln cents, lewis and clark coins (2004 & 2005 nickels) ... These are all going to be up and coming.

Varieties as well as rarities and oddities will always be a sound investment. Coins like the "wide am cents", the wisconsin leaf varieties and errors. (mules, doubled dies, etc.)


Now that is for the newer stuff.

Classics will just keep riding the wave and won't lose ground.
Errors are usually a safe bet and of course, we cannot leave out our famous GOLD COINS.


Shoot, ALL coins are usually a good investment twenty years AFTER they've been purchased .

MrKelso

Platinum Proofs will be pricier than middle class will ever be able to afford

I agree, this one will be a killer down the road.

coinguy1

I'd recommend attractive, original (non-dipped, non-conserved) classic type coins. I believe that years from now, conserved coins will be looked upon with much more widespread disdain than they are now. Along with that, buyers will clamor for the small remaining quantities of attractive original coins.

majorbigtime

GSA CCs will become recognized for what they are--true un-messed with examples of mint state coins that were in a time warp for nearly a century.

carl

Coin investment is a misleading thing unless you are a dealer. For collectors there is usually not not much in the way of growth monitarily. Some coins appear to have appreciated greatly over the years but that's when you want to buy them. Try selling them. Who do you sell them to? So lets say you buy a 55DD Lincoln Cent for $1000 today. The market in ten years shows the same coin being sold for $3000. So you think your rich and try to sell it for that only to be told by most dealers we have to make a profit so I'll give you $1500 and that's a good deal because when I try to sell it for what you say, I'll be chewed down considerably. With a decent interest rate at a bank, that would be about the same amount of profit only no taxes on the interest. The point is most coins are not a great great investment and it is really tuff to tell what 20 years will mean to this hobby. Example is the Beanie Baby, stamps, baseball/football card, Hot Wheel car hobbies. If a new craze hobby comes along, coins will deminish as a great collectible profitable thing. With coins, remember the Bicentennial coins that will someday be worth a fortune?

Russ

High grade deep cameo 1965 and 1966 SMS Jefferson Nickels. Currently, they are severely undervalued.

Russ, NCNE

fc

carl,

ebay is the great equalizer. throw that coin up for N.R. starting
at .99 cents with a solid reputation, and I am sure it will fetch
more then that wuss of a dealer offering 50% of 3000.

a lot of people will agree with that.

Russ

There are people who still sell to dealers?

Russ, NCNE

CoinResource

What series' common dates will be strong, do you think?

Coxe

<< <i>What series' common dates will be strong, do you think? >>



Over the course of 20 years, common dates generally show little strength relative to rarer ones. I think as series go Liberty nickels and Ike dollars have general growth potential in mint state (and the former in cameo proof as well). For moderns, the dates will take a back seat, in many cases, to condition -- specifically strike. Full step Jefferson nickels in high grade for all dates probably will be grow-ers as well as show-ers.

LincolnCentMan

No problem PCGS simi-keys in the $100-$500 range.

David

fcloud

No one can determine what might be rare in the future, but if the coins are rare now their is a good chance they will still be rare in the future.

robertpr

<< <i>There are people who still sell to dealers?

Russ, NCNE >>



Russ, "dealer" is a term of the past. Nowadays, they prefer to be called "market makers"

Coxe

<< <i>

<< <i>There are people who still sell to dealers?

Russ, NCNE >>



Russ, "dealer" is a term of the past. Nowadays, they prefer to be called "market makers" >>



.....even though some are wannabes.

kiyote

I'm a big fan of the Wide Rim SBA, the SMS "gimmick" nickels of 94 and 97, as well as the 98 SMS Kennedy. I also really like the Goodacre dollars and scarcer Ike Varities, as well as platinum proofs.

Bear

Coins from Red China. We all will be

using them in the near future. Especially

when we close our Mint and outsource its

functions to China.

500Bay

<< <i>ebay is the great equalizer. throw that coin up for N.R. starting
at .99 cents with a solid reputation, and I am sure it will fetch
more then that wuss of a dealer offering 50% of 3000.
>>



The problem is getting that "solid reputation." If you only have a few coins to sell, and don't want to become a part time dealer, you essentially start with a zero seller rating.

oreville

<< <i>Coins from Red China. We all will be

using them in the near future. Especially

when we close our Mint and outsource its

functions to China. >>



If that happens all coin collectors will insist that we outsource our US Presidency to Bejing or even Siberia as well!