Are high silver prices causing the death of album collecting?
Russell12
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Another thread got me thinking. With the high price of silver and the end of circulating Lincoln cents, is album collecting over? I do not see anyone spending $7-10 for common Mercury dimes or pre 1965 Roosevelt dimes. $17-20 for common silver Washington quarters, $35 -40 for common Liberty Walking, Franklin or 1964 Kennedy halves. $80 or more for common Morgan or Peace dollars. Not to mention future cost of Lincoln cent rolls to search. With NFC half dollars and dollars, all that would be left is Jefferson nickels, clad dimes and clad quarters.
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It'll slow it down maybe but not kill it. It should level off, jmo
I thinks its a little too early to tell...
WS
Not for me. Just completed my first Dansco album and had a blast doing it.
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1119795/trade-dollar-dansco-album-long-with-lots-of-pics
chopmarkedtradedollars.com
I have the Dansco Lincoln, Mercury, Roosevelt, Washington Qtr all completed so not killing them but I will stop adding after 2025. The Roosevelt 2025-S silver Proof at $49 is just ridiculous. I'd gladly add silver proof at $7 or even $10 but not at $49+.
USAF (Ret.) 1985 - 2005. E-4B Aircraft Maint. Crew Chief and Contracting Officer.
✓ Everyman Mint State Carson City Morgan Dollars (1878 – 1893)
✓ Morgan Dollar GSA Hoard (1878 – 1891)
✓ Everyman Mint State Lincoln Cents (1909 – 1958)
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I doubt it will have a huge impact. I think slabbing coins has had a much larger impact.
Dave
You could have asked the same question in 1980 when silver was $156 (2025 dollars) per ounce. It certainly hit the pause button on it, but eventually silver tanked and became more easily collectible. I doubt it'll hit $10 ounce again, but is $60, $40, or $30 out of the question at some time in the future? Meanwhile, there has been 45 years' worth of clad stuff produced since then that is well-suited for album collecting. While the gold page of my 7070 is going to be dormant for a while, I have Statehood and ATB Danscos on my shelf.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
I stopped album collecting ages ago. I believe many people do album collecting putting stuff from change in album then buying tougher coins for album.
I actually did my first album in over 40 years when I decided to build a one a year cent collection. It was for the Flying Eagle and Indian cent collection. I was not going to pay over $100 for slabbed, common date Indian Cents. I bought them raw in EF and AU. "The Penny Lady" had a big inventory of them at the big shows, and I ran into a few at the local shows. The album has OPA World War II tokens sitting in the spots for coins that are slabbed and the coins themselves in the other spots.
I also bought two sets of BU Franklins in albums a couple of years ago. I cherry picked and built one set, and blew off the others. Given the current price of silver, I'm actually making a "paper profit." The Franklins are fun. I can look them and remember where I was (born, 1st grade, 5th grade etc.). Obviously they have aged better than I have!
Back then, silver tripled in 1979 and then tripled again in 6 weeks in February-March 1980. But it collapsed like 80% in a matter of weeks which would be like silver going back to $25 or so today.
I think the effect this time could be more pronounced. The rapid sell-off after the Hunt Brothers Fiasco saved lots of Morgans from the smelter. You might not see that this time.
It will also be a situation where silver -- or gold -- buyers need to know: if you buy a numismatic coin at a big premium to the underlying metal, that premium might fade and years or decades from now it may just be bullion.
Purely antidotal, but my guess is that album collecting has been in decline for some time.
Short answer: No.
Long answer: Heck, no way.
It probably would slow me down since I don't personally feel like prices will only go up. Once there is some more political balance (however one wishes to assume what that is) and people feel confident again then prices will go down as people shift resources there. That said, of the albums I've worked on with raw coins I have almost all of them and the remaining ones are generally keys or prohibitively expensive (like I'm going to crack out a bust dollar to put into a raw album?).
What I'd be curious about is if this impacts counterfeits any. Obviously there will always be people who will take advantage of someone but with the prices the way they are I have to wonder if that is affecting how people are choosing what to buy and how.
Maybe in it's current form, but it will adapt. Album collecting is one of the first joys of coin collecting and has been done for the past 100 years, it can never go away for good.
Is there a chance it increases album collecting? The premium and added value from slabbing a ton of coins is now gone, and nice coins can be had for spot and put into albums, thus making albums nicer and more appealing?
I don’t know. I’ve never collected in albums, but just a thought on the other side.
Is anyone thinking “now that all these MS coins are at spot, maybe I’ll gather them up on an album” ?
Not stopping my album efforts. Multiple Danscos including three each in several series. Annually buy from 5 to 8 Uncirc., Proof & Silver Proof sets. Break three out to fill the albums and put the other 2 to 5 in the safe. Not this year. I'll buy the three to break apart for my albums. That'll cost me around $ 1400. No extras this year.
Most date/mm sets are raw. Probably 90% of them
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I doubt it. As I said to someone else, 90+% of date/mm sets are already raw. The price of an ugly VG Washinton $1/4 set just got prohibitive for the people who were doing that.
Now, 10 years from now, if it's the new normal, it may be back to the previous levels. But, I don't know. Hole fillers aren't terribly patient. Those empty holes mock them.
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I doubt that.
I don't know the percentages but I'd think the majority of date/mm collections are not slabbed.
Ask any coin shop.
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All those old blue Whitman folders. It never paid to slab a bunch of VG to VF coins. I bought an estate once that had over 200 partially complete 1909 to 1958 wheat cents Whitman albums.
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Not sure, but now all of a sudden, all my different albums containing matched sets of circulated coins of different grades suddenly are really valuable if I sell them as bullion. I’m not going to sell them, but it’s amazing to me how valuable they suddenly are
Mr_Spud
Albums will remain popular for lower priced sets. I just purchased a custom holder for displaying my 2nd string Newfoundland halves. I look forward to completing the album in the future and enjoying the visual presentation that an album provides. I could see doing Roosevelt dime or Washington quarter albums in the future as a fun way to acquire and store silver.
Album collecting better not die out, otherwise I'll be out of a job!
Until the recent precious metal explosion, my gold sets were doing well. The silver sets may do okay but year sets are becoming popular.
Custom album maker and numismatic photographer.
Need a personalized album made? Design it on the website below and I'll build it for you.
https://www.donahuenumismatics.com/.
With the obligatory YMMV, the dealers I've asked say they practically never get offered slabbed sets, everything's in folders.
Admittedly, a lot of the sets I'm talking about are incomplete and low grade. But this forum seems to forget those exist.
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I expected that's what you meant.
edited to add... one of the local shops had a stack of the three page Whitman folders 3-4 feet high in the corner. I should have asked how long it took to pile up to that level- maybe next time, I will.
It’s too early to say. The silver spike in the 1980s was relatively short lived and the result of market manipulation. If the current run in bullion is similarly short lived, I say no. If it stays up for a prolonged period then there will be a great purge of numismatic coins. Circulated 19th and 20th century common date silver will be hard to find. At current levels common date Morgan and Peace Dollars and generic gold in lower uncirculated grades may also find their way to the melting pot.