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NEWSFLASH! WSJ reports coin dorks are cool!@!
saintguru
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"The coin geek has turned into 'coin chic.'"
YOUR MONEY MATTERS
A Pretty Penny
The rare-coin market is hot, thanks to the Internet and soaring gold prices
By NICK TIMIRAOS
December 18, 2006; Page R3
Six years ago, New York investment adviser Robert Beckwitt was looking for an alternative to the increasingly expensive equity market. While other investors were busy scooping up real estate, Mr. Beckwitt returned to an old love -- rare coins.
One of his first big purchases: a red 1909 Lincoln penny, part of the first issue of U.S. coins to include a portrait. Also featured on this particular coin was a feature that the mint removed from subsequent issues: the initials of the portrait's sculptor.
Mr. Beckwitt paid a New Jersey coin dealer $10,000 for his pretty penny five years ago. His investment today has grown tenfold, thanks to a hot rare-coin market fueled by hungry collectors, greater transparency in the market on the Web, and the surging price of precious metals, especially gold, which earlier this year hit a 26-year high.
Indeed, the 48-year-old Mr. Beckwitt reflects growing ranks of wealthy baby boomers whose desire for alternative assets has led them to invest in a hobby they discovered as a child. Mr. Beckwitt, who started collecting coins at the age of 8, sorting for old pennies in bowls of spare change, says he owes his interest in coin collecting to his "love for the history and the idea of finding something rare."
Eagle Matters
Among collectors and investors at large, rising gold prices and publicity generated by record-breaking coin sales have piqued interest as well. In a 2002 auction, a 1933 double-eagle gold coin sold for $7.6 million -- a price widely acknowledged by people familiar with the market as the highest ever paid for a coin in a public auction. The 1933 double-eagle coins were never issued, and nearly all of them were melted down during the Great Depression, after President Roosevelt discontinued the gold standard.
Perhaps the biggest boost to coin investing, though, has come from the market's greater transparency -- a state owed largely to the rise of Web sites that display price histories and sell rare coins inspected and rated by coin-grading services. The two major services, the Professional Coin Grading Service of Newport Beach, Calif., a unit of Collectors Universe Inc., also of Newport Beach, and Numismatic Guaranty Corp. of Sarasota, Fla., were established in the 1980s to reduce counterfeit coins and make the trading of coins more liquid by establishing uniform standards for grading. Collectors bring their coins to the services, which rate them on a scale representing poor to mint conditions, then seal them in see-through cases that state their grade.
What the collectors do with their coins after that is up to them. But many post them on various Web sites, some run by the grading services themselves, others run by hobbyist associations and coin dealers, where collectors and investors can admire, evaluate, buy and sell the coins online.
"There's more interest in coins now than there has ever been, and it's across the board," says Jeff Garrett, president of the Professional Numismatists Guild, Fallbrook, Calif., which is composed of various coin dealers, sets standards for coin trading and works as a kind of peer-review organization.
Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas, the largest coin-auction house in the country based on revenue, expects its sales to double to $575 million this year from $225 million five years ago. And nearly one-third of its sales this year will come from the Internet, President Greg Rohan says.
Seats of Liberty
Online registries of graded coins -- which aren't always for sale -- tap into collectors' competitive sides and help drive prices higher for coins that are for sale. There are online contests, for example, in which grading services recognize, say, the most-complete collections of certain kinds of coins. The finest collection of late-19th-century Seated Liberty and Trade Dollars on the registry maintained by Professional Coin Grading Service, for instance, belongs to Bruce Morelan, owner of an electrical contracting business in Spokane, Wash. Seated Liberty dollars depict Lady Liberty sitting; Trade Dollars were used in trade.
The 45-year-old Mr. Morelan says that posting his coins in the PCGS registry, at www.pcgs.com5, is like pushing his pennies into their cardboard display cases when he was a kid. "It gives you that same great feeling of accomplishment," he says.
Mr. Morelan is perhaps better known among rare-coin collectors as the purchaser last year of a 1913 Liberty nickel, of which only five are known to exist. The Philadelphia mint is believed to have coined only five before the design changed from the Liberty Head to the Indian Head, used from 1913 until 1938.
The price to Mr. Morelan: $4.15 million, an amount considered by market experts to be the second-highest ever paid for a coin.
Caveat Collector
A word to the wise for newcomers: Rare coins can hold dangers for novice collectors and investors. One can run into counterfeit coins, as well as disreputable dealers pushing low-quality coins that have little resale value, warns Scott Travers, a collector and president of Scott Travers Rare Coin Galleries LLC, New York.
Mr. Travers says collectors can protect themselves by buying from dealers who are members of the Professional Numismatists Guild or the American Numismatic Association and by buying coins that have been certified by one of the two professional grading services. Experts also warn that grading and pricing are separate issues. Just because a coin has been certified doesn't guarantee the seller is asking a fair price.
The market presents other risks, as well, for those who don't do their homework. According to the CU3000 Rare Coin Index, which tracks the 3,000 most actively traded coins, prices are up 1.3% year to date to Dec. 1 and about 11% for the past three years. But while many coins have produced strong returns, experts warn that, like stocks -- not every coin is a buy.
Gold prices, too, have fallen since reaching a 26-year high in May of $719.80 an ounce. But many analysts believe those prices have room to rise, based on a weakening U.S. dollar and an uncertain global political outlook; gold is regarded as a safe haven in times of economic and political uncertainty. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. forecasts an average 2007 gold price of $785; J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. estimates next year's average price at $655.
All bets aside, experienced collectors say that newcomers who put together collections because they have a genuine interest in coins will be more successful than those who simply seek coins for investment profits. "If I don't make a dime, I still get all the enjoyment from my sets," Mr. Morelan says.
Some collectors compare their rarest coins with expensive works of art: Both have a value that transcends market worth.
"You can't sit in the bank with a stock certificate and a magnifier and go, 'Oh, wow,' " says Jay Brahin, 52, a Chicago stockbroker who since 2002 has assembled collections of early-20th-century $20 gold pieces. Says Mr. Brahin: "The 'coin geek' has turned into 'coin chic.' "
--Mr. Timiraos is a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal in New York.
Write to Nick Timiraos at nick.timiraos@wsj.com6
well......SOME are.
YOUR MONEY MATTERS
A Pretty Penny
The rare-coin market is hot, thanks to the Internet and soaring gold prices
By NICK TIMIRAOS
December 18, 2006; Page R3
Six years ago, New York investment adviser Robert Beckwitt was looking for an alternative to the increasingly expensive equity market. While other investors were busy scooping up real estate, Mr. Beckwitt returned to an old love -- rare coins.
One of his first big purchases: a red 1909 Lincoln penny, part of the first issue of U.S. coins to include a portrait. Also featured on this particular coin was a feature that the mint removed from subsequent issues: the initials of the portrait's sculptor.
Mr. Beckwitt paid a New Jersey coin dealer $10,000 for his pretty penny five years ago. His investment today has grown tenfold, thanks to a hot rare-coin market fueled by hungry collectors, greater transparency in the market on the Web, and the surging price of precious metals, especially gold, which earlier this year hit a 26-year high.
Indeed, the 48-year-old Mr. Beckwitt reflects growing ranks of wealthy baby boomers whose desire for alternative assets has led them to invest in a hobby they discovered as a child. Mr. Beckwitt, who started collecting coins at the age of 8, sorting for old pennies in bowls of spare change, says he owes his interest in coin collecting to his "love for the history and the idea of finding something rare."
Eagle Matters
Among collectors and investors at large, rising gold prices and publicity generated by record-breaking coin sales have piqued interest as well. In a 2002 auction, a 1933 double-eagle gold coin sold for $7.6 million -- a price widely acknowledged by people familiar with the market as the highest ever paid for a coin in a public auction. The 1933 double-eagle coins were never issued, and nearly all of them were melted down during the Great Depression, after President Roosevelt discontinued the gold standard.
Perhaps the biggest boost to coin investing, though, has come from the market's greater transparency -- a state owed largely to the rise of Web sites that display price histories and sell rare coins inspected and rated by coin-grading services. The two major services, the Professional Coin Grading Service of Newport Beach, Calif., a unit of Collectors Universe Inc., also of Newport Beach, and Numismatic Guaranty Corp. of Sarasota, Fla., were established in the 1980s to reduce counterfeit coins and make the trading of coins more liquid by establishing uniform standards for grading. Collectors bring their coins to the services, which rate them on a scale representing poor to mint conditions, then seal them in see-through cases that state their grade.
What the collectors do with their coins after that is up to them. But many post them on various Web sites, some run by the grading services themselves, others run by hobbyist associations and coin dealers, where collectors and investors can admire, evaluate, buy and sell the coins online.
"There's more interest in coins now than there has ever been, and it's across the board," says Jeff Garrett, president of the Professional Numismatists Guild, Fallbrook, Calif., which is composed of various coin dealers, sets standards for coin trading and works as a kind of peer-review organization.
Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas, the largest coin-auction house in the country based on revenue, expects its sales to double to $575 million this year from $225 million five years ago. And nearly one-third of its sales this year will come from the Internet, President Greg Rohan says.
Seats of Liberty
Online registries of graded coins -- which aren't always for sale -- tap into collectors' competitive sides and help drive prices higher for coins that are for sale. There are online contests, for example, in which grading services recognize, say, the most-complete collections of certain kinds of coins. The finest collection of late-19th-century Seated Liberty and Trade Dollars on the registry maintained by Professional Coin Grading Service, for instance, belongs to Bruce Morelan, owner of an electrical contracting business in Spokane, Wash. Seated Liberty dollars depict Lady Liberty sitting; Trade Dollars were used in trade.
The 45-year-old Mr. Morelan says that posting his coins in the PCGS registry, at www.pcgs.com5, is like pushing his pennies into their cardboard display cases when he was a kid. "It gives you that same great feeling of accomplishment," he says.
Mr. Morelan is perhaps better known among rare-coin collectors as the purchaser last year of a 1913 Liberty nickel, of which only five are known to exist. The Philadelphia mint is believed to have coined only five before the design changed from the Liberty Head to the Indian Head, used from 1913 until 1938.
The price to Mr. Morelan: $4.15 million, an amount considered by market experts to be the second-highest ever paid for a coin.
Caveat Collector
A word to the wise for newcomers: Rare coins can hold dangers for novice collectors and investors. One can run into counterfeit coins, as well as disreputable dealers pushing low-quality coins that have little resale value, warns Scott Travers, a collector and president of Scott Travers Rare Coin Galleries LLC, New York.
Mr. Travers says collectors can protect themselves by buying from dealers who are members of the Professional Numismatists Guild or the American Numismatic Association and by buying coins that have been certified by one of the two professional grading services. Experts also warn that grading and pricing are separate issues. Just because a coin has been certified doesn't guarantee the seller is asking a fair price.
The market presents other risks, as well, for those who don't do their homework. According to the CU3000 Rare Coin Index, which tracks the 3,000 most actively traded coins, prices are up 1.3% year to date to Dec. 1 and about 11% for the past three years. But while many coins have produced strong returns, experts warn that, like stocks -- not every coin is a buy.
Gold prices, too, have fallen since reaching a 26-year high in May of $719.80 an ounce. But many analysts believe those prices have room to rise, based on a weakening U.S. dollar and an uncertain global political outlook; gold is regarded as a safe haven in times of economic and political uncertainty. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. forecasts an average 2007 gold price of $785; J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. estimates next year's average price at $655.
All bets aside, experienced collectors say that newcomers who put together collections because they have a genuine interest in coins will be more successful than those who simply seek coins for investment profits. "If I don't make a dime, I still get all the enjoyment from my sets," Mr. Morelan says.
Some collectors compare their rarest coins with expensive works of art: Both have a value that transcends market worth.
"You can't sit in the bank with a stock certificate and a magnifier and go, 'Oh, wow,' " says Jay Brahin, 52, a Chicago stockbroker who since 2002 has assembled collections of early-20th-century $20 gold pieces. Says Mr. Brahin: "The 'coin geek' has turned into 'coin chic.' "
--Mr. Timiraos is a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal in New York.
Write to Nick Timiraos at nick.timiraos@wsj.com6
well......SOME are.
0
Comments
"Live long and prosper"
My "How I Started" columns
So what exactly does it say about coin folks?
NSDR - Life Member
SSDC - Life Member
ANA - Pay As I Go Member
"Coin chic" - nice one!
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>Man, that Jay Brahin guy is old!!!!
Yes he is...but he LOOKS good!
<< <i>Ha! Two of the three collectors named in the article are board members (could be all three, I don't know the other person).
"Coin chic" - nice one!
That is pretty cool.
Thanks for the link too.
Jay, you've only been doing this for four or five years now?
NSDR - Life Member
SSDC - Life Member
ANA - Pay As I Go Member
Knowledge is the enemy of fear
Will you autograph my copy of the WSJ, Saintguru?
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
The Saints, yes. I collected everything as a kid. Maniacally! You could fill books if you worked hard enough. I completed the Roosey Dime folder from circulation finds. I had every set in circulation, plus Mercs, Buffs, IHC's, Walkers....with lots of filled holes!
I drifted from coins as I reached my teens and found another "hobby" that burned money even faster.
Then came the "GREAT BEAR" of 1980-2001...I was very bearish all metals throughout the 80's-90's because every Central Bank was selling gold, none more than the Russians. I saw the market break out in Feb. 2003 and that was the green light...gold >$318 and I was IN. It was a two year bottoming chart. It never looked back from then.
So...yes and no.
<< <i>Pretty cool.
Will you autograph my copy of the WSJ, Saintguru?
I will have a table at fun. For $25 I'll add any inscription you want. In SHARPIE!
Anyway...Bruce Morlock is the REAL news story here. He is the "serious" guy. I'm the witty one.
<< <i>Ha! Two of the three collectors named in the article are board members (could be all three, I don't know the other person).
>>
Bob Beckwitt is here occasionally - three for three!
Is Heritage getting too big or what????
Ike Specialist
Finest Toned Ike I've Ever Seen, been looking since 1986
I was a bit humbled to see our hobby getting mentioned...
in that little ole Wall Street Journal
thanks for the "chic" link, Jay.
siliconvalleycoins.com
<< <i>
<< <i>Pretty cool.
Will you autograph my copy of the WSJ, Saintguru?
I will have a table at fun. For $25 I'll add any inscription you want. In SHARPIE!
Excellent! Make mine say, "I Owe You one MS65 $20 Saint." I'll have a notary present.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
I presume this will be in the hard copies as well?
BTW, who said 52 was old?
Joe
<< <i>
<< <i>Ha! Two of the three collectors named in the article are board members (could be all three, I don't know the other person).
>>
Bob Beckwitt is here occasionally - three for three!
Apologies to Mr. Beckwitt - I don't know him (now I'm glad I said "could be all three").
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>"The coin geek has turned into 'coin chic.'" >>
Jay, what a great article and a great quote! Thanks for posting it.
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.
<< <i>I'll be doing the Playboy Interview in March. >>
Sorry, Saintguru, I never read the articles.
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.
<< <i>Now that's exposure.
I presume this will be in the hard copies as well? >>
Of What? Jay exposing himself??
The name is LEE!
The name is LEE!
<< <i>
<< <i>I'll be doing the Playboy Interview in March. >>
Sorry, Saintguru, I never read the articles.
He will take a camera.
<< <i>...far more than this 15 seconds of "middle-age" sound bite.
Jay, 52 is only "middle-age" if you live to 104.
My icon IS my coin. It is a gem 1949 FBL Franklin.
I've "virtually" met a WSJ expert, my life is complete.
<< <i>
I've "virtually" met a WSJ expert, my life is complete. >>
You obviously haven't discovered the meaning of life YET.
BTW, for those of you who do NOT know who Bob Beckwitt is, google his name...
your jaw will drop...
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.
<< <i>Man, that Jay Brahin guy is old!!!!
Young whippersnapper!
-----------------------
Born 09/11/55
Never, Ever forget 09/11/01
"Everything is on its way to somewhere. Everything." - George Malley, Phenomenon
http://www.americanlegacycoins.com
<< <i>I'll be doing the Playboy Interview in March.
Just as long as you're not the centerfold.
Is this some new CF obsession?
Just curious how they selected you for a quote in the article. I know you are the Saintguru, but I was wondering if you knew the reporter or are just tied in with people at the WSJ because of your day job.
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
<< <i>Saint--
Just curious how they selected you for a quote in the article. I know you are the Saintguru, but I was wondering if you knew the reporter or are just tied in with people at the WSJ because of your day job. >>
Day job!