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Is there a "deader" US coin series than early gold commems?

RYKRYK Posts: 35,799 ✭✭✭✭✭
I know that there have been a few posted here over the years, but I cannot think of a series that is less active. IIRC, BillJones might own a few. As a gold coin specialist, I have never met someone who collected these, as a series. They seem to linger for sale interminably. They are small, have mostly uninspiring designs, and are expensive.

Post your early gold commems here! (I have never owned one so have nothing to show image )

Comments

  • JustacommemanJustacommeman Posts: 22,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
    no

    MJ
    Walker Proof Digital Album
    Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
  • TahoeDaleTahoeDale Posts: 1,785 ✭✭✭
    When a coin series gets cheap enough, there always will be buyers.

    And the $50 Pan Pacs are still strong. Most collectors dream about owning one.

    edit: just checked the registry, and there are more gold commen collections than almost any
    other gold type.
    TahoeDale
  • LindeDadLindeDad Posts: 18,766 ✭✭✭✭✭
  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,771 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I think the small size of the 9 gold dollars hurt their popularity. The two quarter eagles are a bit larger but they are only dime sized. I think it's a neat series and I put together a complete 11 piece PCGS/NGC set several years ago in MS63/64. The coins are readily available and they aren't extremely expensive. I sure wish I could afford the round and octagon Pan. Pac. $50 gold slugs though.

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

  • GoldbullyGoldbully Posts: 17,851 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Here's mine..........

    image
  • WeissWeiss Posts: 9,942 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I remember seeing the gold commems when I was a kid and thinking how cool they were. Yeah, the $50 Pan-Pacs, but I think the fact that the $1 coins were tiny (kid sized, if you will) made an impact, too.

    I was 4 when I started collecting, and I distinctly remember thinking that the Pan Pac guy was shouting image

    Love the design even more now, and I'm thrilled I own this Mark Feld piece:

    image

    image
    We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in the last.
    --Severian the Lame
  • LakesammmanLakesammman Posts: 17,447 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Just bought a 1926 Sesqui - now I feel like a dork....... image
    "My friends who see my collection sometimes ask what something costs. I tell them and they are in awe at my stupidity." (Baccaruda, 12/03).I find it hard to believe that he (Trump) rushed to some hotel to meet girls of loose morals, although ours are undoubtedly the best in the world. (Putin 1/17) Gone but not forgotten. IGWT, Speedy, Bear, BigE, HokieFore, John Burns, Russ, TahoeDale, Dahlonega, Astrorat, Stewart Blay, Oldhoopster, Broadstruck, Ricko, Big Moose, Cardinal.
  • kiyotekiyote Posts: 5,588 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I have to sound negative on the series but if you've seen one Pan Pac gold dollar you've seen them all.
    "I'll split the atom! I am the fifth dimension! I am the eighth wonder of the world!" -Gef the talking mongoose.
  • mozinmozin Posts: 8,755 ✭✭✭
    Here is one of my most expensive Classic Gold Commemoratives. I agree the design is not very exciting.



    image
    imageimage




    This one I think has a much better design.



    image
    imageimage



    I collect Capped Bust series by variety in PCGS AU/MS grades.
  • HoledandCreativeHoledandCreative Posts: 2,825 ✭✭✭✭✭
    imageimage
  • jhdflajhdfla Posts: 3,030 ✭✭✭
    I've always thought the $2.50 Pan Pac to be a great design. My one and only gold commem:


    image
    image
  • MsMorrisineMsMorrisine Posts: 35,469 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Lincoln shield cents... To answer an apparently rhetorical question.
    Current maintainer of Stone's Master List of Favorite Websites // My BST transactions
  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,771 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The obverse of the Pan. Pac. $2 1/2 is one of my favorite U.S. designs----Liberty holding a caduceus while riding on the back of a hippocampus.

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

  • stealerstealer Posts: 4,029 ✭✭✭✭
    I'm partial to the Grant design, just love the minimized version of the half dollar design.
  • MsMorrisineMsMorrisine Posts: 35,469 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The Grant is ok
    Current maintainer of Stone's Master List of Favorite Websites // My BST transactions
  • ColonelJessupColonelJessup Posts: 6,442 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Silver commems?

    That's a very weird-looking proof(?) LA Purchase. Just wrong, so wrong. Way too much cameo and the rev strike is suspect as a proof, obv looks polished and I have no idea what lighting phenomenon could create the "pie-chart" effect on the reverse. I'bve seen dozens but never one like that. Or a business strike appearing DMPL...

    I'd love to hear njcc's take on the coin imaged. He knows the LA Purchase proofs better than anyone. image


    Did I mention lately that I'm partially blind?image
    "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." - Geo. Orwell
  • Bayard1908Bayard1908 Posts: 4,091 ✭✭✭✭
    I like the $1 coins. It's a denomination that otherwise hadn't been minted since 1889. I find them interesting for this reason alone.

    The series ended before the mid-1930s commem craze. Because of this the coins do not have the often trivial themes, thought up for strictly marketing reasons, of many post 1935 commems.
  • topstuftopstuf Posts: 14,803 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Only the Pan-Pac 50s have any panache.


  • << <i>I know that there have been a few posted here over the years, but I cannot think of a series that is less active. IIRC, BillJones might own a few. As a gold coin specialist, I have never met someone who collected these, as a series. They seem to linger for sale interminably. They are small, have mostly uninspiring designs, and are expensive. >>



    I trust RYK's judgment, as I don't know much about early gold commems. Based on RYK's assessment, I'd venture to say that they are "as dead as Kelsey's nuts," which was a favorite expression of President John F. Kennedy. Now have some fun trying to determine the origin of the phrase.
    "Clamorous for Coin"
  • ManorcourtmanManorcourtman Posts: 8,166 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Only the Pan-Pac 50s have any panache. >>



    pa·nache   /pəˈnæʃ, -ˈnɑʃ/ Show Spelled[puh-nash, -nahsh]
    noun
    1. a grand or flamboyant manner; verve; style; flair: The actor who would play Cyrano must have panache.
    2. an ornamental plume of feathers, tassels, or the like, especially one worn on a helmet or cap.
    3. Architecture . the surface of a pendentive.

    image For those who were wondering!
  • JustacommemanJustacommeman Posts: 22,852 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Just bought a 1926 Sesqui - now I feel like a dork....... image >>



    A dork with a Sesquiimage

    I think that was actually a line in Pulp Fiction

    MJ
    Walker Proof Digital Album
    Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,771 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>I like the $1 coins. It's a denomination that otherwise hadn't been minted since 1889. I find them interesting for this reason alone. >>



    Weren't dollar coins minted after 1889 in silver?image

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

  • ColonelJessupColonelJessup Posts: 6,442 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>

    << <i>Only the Pan-Pac 50s have any panache. >>



    pa·nache   /pəˈnæʃ, -ˈnɑʃ/ Show Spelled[puh-nash, -nahsh]
    noun
    1. a grand or flamboyant manner; verve; style; flair: The actor who would play Cyrano must have panache.
    2. an ornamental plume of feathers, tassels, or the like, especially one worn on a helmet or cap.
    3. Architecture . the surface of a pendentive.

    image For those who were wondering! >>



    This post shows a great deal of elanimage
    "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." - Geo. Orwell
  • mozinmozin Posts: 8,755 ✭✭✭
    This thread revived my interest in this Classic Commemorative Gold set, so I just started an NGC Registry Set for my collection. I needed to go to NGC because I have a number of NGC PL examples. The PLs cost a lot more than the coins without the PL on the label, but the Registry only gives token points for the PL.
    I collect Capped Bust series by variety in PCGS AU/MS grades.
  • johnny9434johnny9434 Posts: 29,109 ✭✭✭✭✭
    them old gold commems. are really cool to own. i like several of them
  • BillJonesBillJones Posts: 34,723 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>I know that there have been a few posted here over the years, but I cannot think of a series that is less active. IIRC, BillJones might own a few. As a gold coin specialist, I have never met someone who collected these, as a series. They seem to linger for sale interminably. They are small, have mostly uninspiring designs, and are expensive.

    Post your early gold commems here! (I have never owned one so have nothing to show image ) >>



    BillJones has one of each. image

    The gold commemoratives have been subject to a number of promotions which drove up the prices, but then when that market proved to be "astro-turf," the prices came back down, sometimes HARD. image I know of a couple of dealers who specialize in classic U.S. coins who will make the sign of the cross with their fingers (Ward off those vampires!) if you offer them or even mention a gold commemorative like the 1926 Philadelphia Sesquicentennial. They are as turned off by those coins, at least from a business sense, as they are by "modern junk."

    The $50 slugs are still popular and bring strong prices. This is especially true because the supply has actually gone down in recent years. How can that be? Fears about pieces that have been puttied and repaired are a concern, and coins that show signs of such problems are basically out of the supply curve as desirable collectors' items.

    As for the rest of the series, the small size of the gold dollars makes them less desirable as it does for all gold dollars. When I was a dealer I had a couple of collectors refuse to by any gold dollars because of the size issue. The before mentioned Philadelphia Sesqui does not have enough admirers to support a strong market, and the Pan-Pac $2.50 is a genuinely scarce coin which does not offer enough survivors to warrant any major marketing programs.

    As for "dead" I'd say that the whole early commemorative series, including the silver, is in the doldrums and has been there for a long time. Aside from the coins that really commemorated important events, like the Antietam and Gettysburg 75th anniversary battlefield coins many of these coins were not that important from the historical perspective. Folks who collect the First Lady series should keep that in mind before they pay much over bullion for those coins..

    To me this is the most interesting coin in the series because of its eight sided shape.

    image
    image
    Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
  • RYKRYK Posts: 35,799 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The Pan Pac slugs are iconic US coins and do not fit in the overall thesis of my thread. I am mostly talking about the gold dollars. I do like the Grant design but would prefer it in the half dollar size.
  • RYKRYK Posts: 35,799 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Mark Feld just emailed me the following:

    <<

    From: Mark Feld <coinguy1@earthlink.net>
    Subject: Dead gold commems
    Date: October 18, 2012 2:36:52 PM CDT

    Hi Robert,

    I had bought one, here in Dallas, before reading your thread. However, based on your comments, I went ahead and melted it. And I feel much better and smarter now image

    Please feel free to post this if you wish.

    Sincerely,
    Mark

    >>

    I guess there is one fewer coin to worry about. image
  • BarndogBarndog Posts: 20,515 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Mark Feld just emailed me the following:

    <<

    From: Mark Feld <coinguy1@earthlink.net>
    Subject: Dead gold commems
    Date: October 18, 2012 2:36:52 PM CDT

    Hi Robert,

    I had bought one, here in Dallas, before reading your thread. However, based on your comments, I went ahead and melted it. And I feel much better and smarter now image

    Please feel free to post this if you wish.

    Sincerely,
    Mark

    >>

    I guess there is one fewer coin to worry about. image >>



    just making them even more rare, cool!


  • << <i>They seem to linger for sale interminably. They are small, have mostly uninspiring designs, and are expensive. >>



    It sounds to me like the market is trying to say that they overpriced.

    While the Pan-Pac Expo may have have a small run, there are 50 of them on ebay at any given time. That doesn't make them scarce.
  • BillJonesBillJones Posts: 34,723 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>The Pan Pac slugs are iconic US coins and do not fit in the overall thesis of my thread. I am mostly talking about the gold dollars. I do like the Grant design but would prefer it in the half dollar size. >>



    Among the commemorative gold dollars, I think that the Grant pieces are the most attractive. I view the Pan-Pac with the laborer on the obverse and the two dolphins on the reverse (Symbolic of the meeting of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans) on the reverse the most interesting.
    Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
  • keetskeets Posts: 25,351 ✭✭✭✭✭
    They are small, have mostly uninspiring designs, and are expensive.

    the part about "uninspiring designs" is sort of intriguing to me when i consider that the entire realm of Gold $2 1/2--$5--$10--$20 issues shared the same design for 60+ years.
  • I know of only one person, ever (personally), who cared enough about them to build the set...to the point that he was talking about acquiring the Norse. "He" would be my father. Not sure what the status of his set is anymore. I do believe the Norse is the last hole. If that's the last hole in his set then I'd call it complete, but then again, I really don't like them much outside of the round and oct.
  • darktonedarktone Posts: 8,437 ✭✭✭
    image


    image

    image


    image
  • WinLoseWinWinLoseWin Posts: 1,659 ✭✭✭✭✭
    HoledandCreative posted:



    << <i>imageimage >>






    Now that would be one of the few gold dollar commems I would appreciate. Was anyone enameling them at the exposition or is it a one of kind piece?

    As far as the others in the series, I do like the two quarter eagle designs.


    "To Be Esteemed Be Useful" - 1792 Birch Cent --- "I personally think we developed language because of our deep need to complain." - Lily Tomlin

  • HoledandCreativeHoledandCreative Posts: 2,825 ✭✭✭✭✭
    WinLoseWin, I always thought it to have been done at the expo because it was so well done. If I remember correctly, a few years ago another one appeared in a sale but I don't know of any details.
  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,771 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>HoledandCreative posted:



    << <i>imageimage >>






    Now that would be one of the few gold dollar commems I would appreciate. Was anyone enameling them at the exposition or is it a one of kind piece?

    As far as the others in the series, I do like the two quarter eagle designs. >>



    Many of the gold commems were made into jewelry. I was offered an L & C dollar by a coin dealer that was lightly circulated and was in Capital holder. It had a nice look to it with light toning and had a reasonable price. Before buying it I took it out of the holder and discovered a trace of solder on the edge at 12:00. It was obviously an ex-jewelry coin. The coin dealer pretended that he never noticed that. Lesson learned---be careful buy any raw gold---especially the smaller coins.


    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

  • CommemDudeCommemDude Posts: 2,323 ✭✭✭✭✭
    PCGS alone has graded 3665 Pan Pac gold dollars as MS64 or better.. add the NGC coins and when you realize there are very few collectors interested in collecting all 11 coins in this series, they still seem overpriced in my opinion.
    Dr Mikey
    Commems and Early Type
  • ambro51ambro51 Posts: 13,940 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I know when I was living eating and breathing gold dollars these commem pieces held zero point zero interest for me.
  • BroadstruckBroadstruck Posts: 30,497 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I've never owned one but do like the designs...

    Maybe if I found a mechanical error I'd add one, but to date all I've seen is strike through errors.
    To Err Is Human.... To Collect Err's Is Just Too Much Darn Tootin Fun!

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