There were other fads in the 60"s I remember, yet I was but a young lad then. BU date sets in plastic Capital holders (like 1968-D cent through half), BU roll collections like Memorial Cent Sets, contemporary proof sets, proof sets in Lucite cubes/other shapes, silver art bars (not really coins). BU rolls of 1955 coins, especially the cents and dimes from the San Francisco Mint, but the Philly and Denver Mint coins were really hot, too. Oh the days.
The gold Kennedy half was a real flash in the pan.... The Wisconsin 'leaf' coins and the 2009 Lincoln finger cents...They were a flipper's heaven for a while.... Cheers, RickO
The remember the run up and subsequent collapse on the Statue of Liberty commemorative set.
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
But coins like the 73S Brown Ikes were $100+ at one point and there weren't less of them around. They just fell out of favor.
The 1973-S Brown Ike was up to $250 on the Gray Sheet circa 1979-80. I remember it well because I took mine to a dealer and sold it for $175. He didn't want it when I walked in the store but became a buyer when I told him my price.
Why did I sell cheap? The bids on the Gray Sheet were phoney. No one I knew was paying that, I knew as a collector that the coin was massively over priced. The $175 price was great because I knew it was going a lot lower.
Why was the price so high back then? Coins were a "prime investment." The good stuff was selling for huge money. I watched a couple of friends pay $21,000 for a 1912 Proof set. Everything was raw back then. The set was original, but the silver coins were toned dull. They bailed out at $14,000 and were darn lucky to do that well. It was down to $5,000 or less when the dust finally settled.
The 1973-S Ike was a "coin investment" for Junior coin investors who couldn't afford any better. It had a "low mintage" of just over 1 million pieces.
Perhaps people thought that the low-mintage 1973 dollars of all sorts were going to be the keys someday to the long-running and wildly popular Ike dollar set.
In the Fall of 1968 I started college, and by coincidence Proof sets returned at $5 each, maximum order 20. After buying my books all I could scrape up was $85, so I bought 17 of them. One Friday when I got home from school there they were. Took them to a coin show that weekend and nobody had any. Sold them to a dealer I knew for $13.50 each. The profit paid for my tuition for the next Quarter.
Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
The first think that came to me was 1973 and 73-D Ikes, along with the 73-S Silver Proof.
1987-P and 1987-D Halves were hot for a minute or two......
1975-S 1c is a great example too that has already been given.
I remember I wanted one of them very badly but didn't want to buy the set so I traded for it...I'm sure I gave way more than it's worth now.
BU rolls of 1955 coins, especially the cents and dimes from the San Francisco Mint
Yeah, the 1955-S Lincolns were quite the thing. That was to have been the last year ever for Lincolns with S mint marks, and so I was gobbling them up as a ten-year old, thinking that they were going to be real rarities. The parents and grandparents had the perfect birthday and Christmas presents for me, for a year or two! I must have had six or seven by the time it was over....
@PerryHall said:
The remember the run up and subsequent collapse on the Statue of Liberty commemorative set.
I remember when the Proof three piece gold set was selling $450 just after the authorized mintage sold out in 1986.
In September of 2002 I bought the four piece set in the wooden box for $165 which was slightly below melt.
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 ... ?
1841-0 quarters in unc were very rare - up until the New Orleans hoard broke. Even nice XF/AU coins were very hard to come by. The hoard consisted of a number of uncs. A significant number of the coins were the obvious DDO. I would imagine that the DDO was quite rare up until that point as well. I was able to purchase a PCGS AU58 DDO from that hoard about 15 years ago. Got if for $275 and flipped it to forum member Michael for $300. I regret that one.
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There were other fads in the 60"s I remember, yet I was but a young lad then. BU date sets in plastic Capital holders (like 1968-D cent through half), BU roll collections like Memorial Cent Sets, contemporary proof sets, proof sets in Lucite cubes/other shapes, silver art bars (not really coins). BU rolls of 1955 coins, especially the cents and dimes from the San Francisco Mint, but the Philly and Denver Mint coins were really hot, too. Oh the days.
The gold Kennedy half was a real flash in the pan.... The Wisconsin 'leaf' coins and the 2009 Lincoln finger cents...They were a flipper's heaven for a while.... Cheers, RickO
The remember the run up and subsequent collapse on the Statue of Liberty commemorative set.
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
No. I try not to think that way. There is value all the way to the refiner and assayer.
Perhaps people thought that the low-mintage 1973 dollars of all sorts were going to be the keys someday to the long-running and wildly popular Ike dollar set.
In the Fall of 1968 I started college, and by coincidence Proof sets returned at $5 each, maximum order 20. After buying my books all I could scrape up was $85, so I bought 17 of them. One Friday when I got home from school there they were. Took them to a coin show that weekend and nobody had any. Sold them to a dealer I knew for $13.50 each. The profit paid for my tuition for the next Quarter.
My Coin Blog
My Toned Lincoln Registry Set
The first think that came to me was 1973 and 73-D Ikes, along with the 73-S Silver Proof.
1987-P and 1987-D Halves were hot for a minute or two......
1975-S 1c is a great example too that has already been given.
I remember I wanted one of them very badly but didn't want to buy the set so I traded for it...I'm sure I gave way more than it's worth now.
BU rolls of 1955 coins, especially the cents and dimes from the San Francisco Mint
Yeah, the 1955-S Lincolns were quite the thing. That was to have been the last year ever for Lincolns with S mint marks, and so I was gobbling them up as a ten-year old, thinking that they were going to be real rarities. The parents and grandparents had the perfect birthday and Christmas presents for me, for a year or two! I must have had six or seven by the time it was over....
Here's a warning parable for coin collectors...
I remember when the Proof three piece gold set was selling $450 just after the authorized mintage sold out in 1986.
In September of 2002 I bought the four piece set in the wooden box for $165 which was slightly below melt.
1841-0 quarters in unc were very rare - up until the New Orleans hoard broke. Even nice XF/AU coins were very hard to come by. The hoard consisted of a number of uncs. A significant number of the coins were the obvious DDO. I would imagine that the DDO was quite rare up until that point as well. I was able to purchase a PCGS AU58 DDO from that hoard about 15 years ago. Got if for $275 and flipped it to forum member Michael for $300. I regret that one.
Rotated reverse Congresional dollars.. disappearing "3" 2003 proof Lincolns.
$20 1857 S