Key date coins
oldgoldlover
Posts: 429 ✭✭✭
I have been watching the O mint $20 coins as I have some in my collection. Based on what I see offered by Heritage there has been a significant decline in higher grade low pop coins in the type one O mint DEs coming up for auction. The more common ones are still available but the 54,55,56,59,60 and 61 dates are increasingly scarce, especially in higher grades. I am curious if other coins are the same going in the same direction. All comments appreciated.
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Comments
Suspect the high-grade low pop is being collected by some who plan on keeping them for a very long time.
Key date coins, in higher grade, low population will always be scarce... the nature of the hobby. Cheers, RickO
A possible wealthy hoarder at work?
This is really nothing new. When I was trying to find a 1796 No Stars Quarter Eagle to finish my type set, the picking were slim. What few coins that came on the market, including the auctions, had problems. They were damaged and usually over graded.
Sometimes things come in cycles. A few years before I was in a position to buy that coin, I saw a couple of acceptable pieces at the Baltimore coin show, but I get got ready to buy, the supply had dried up.
Currently I think that there are a lot of good coins that have gone into "strong hands." They are the collectors with lots of money and no need to sell. Furthermore that prices you get offered to you these days, don't encourge one to sell.
IMHO, very many persons holding United States of America gold coins have simply shut their safes until the return of higher gold prices and higher/improved premiums on such coins than exist at present.
I am not certain that "key dates" are as important in an era where people can't compile coins by date and mintmark. I am not certain that "key dates" are as important in gold coins, where people typically can't afford to collect whole series/ chronological runs of coins by date and mintmark.
I think the whole concept of "key dates" is much less important today compared to fifty years ago. Everything is so much more expensive today and people generally don't have as much discretionary income (as a percentage of their gross income). Nice "Type" examples are the best that most collectors can aspire to.
When I was a dealer, I did not find that to be true. It seemed like the only thing many people wanted was the key dates, and they had little or no interest in the common dates. Of course, stuff like 1877 Indian cents and three legged Buffola nickels are not rare; they are just key dates. Of course not that I have been "out of the pit" for more than decade, perhaps things have changed.
Still it seemed to me that most of the interest was in key dates to the point where they become over priced compared to other material.
If people aren't collecting by date and mintmark, then isn't the whole logic of "key dates" exploded?
The market may well treat the (and price them) as special, but the idea that the coins are "keys to set completion" is highly dicey when people no longer do date and mintmark sets.
If the key dates got over priced t was because these were the coins that have, are and always be the most sought after.