.

Fletcher · December 3, 2005 1:44PM

BaronVonBaugh · December 3, 2005 1:47PM

Well, if I had 50K to burn my collecting habits would be different!

Bear · December 3, 2005 2:33PM

Repeat after me....ONE NEVER INVESTS IN COINS AS A COLLECTOR......

If you are a dealer, it is your bussiness and you buy coins to sell them at a profit.

You collect with frivilous money not your serious money. We are heading

into a whirlwind of economic chaos, for the time being, put your money into either

Government I bonds or 6 month Treasury Bills. When the bottom to our house of

cards falls out, coins , even valuable , rare and desireable coins, might be a hard

sell. Please do be careful at this particular juncture. No Government can inflate its

monitary supply, without causing serious fracturing to the financial and investment

underpinnings. No Nation can be in debt asd much as we are without repercussions.

Fletcher · December 3, 2005 2:40PM

RedTiger · December 3, 2005 2:44PM

If someone is asking, they are better off with a CD in a bank or something else boring. It is far too easy to get stuck with a "dog" coins listed at $50k with a retail value of $40k or even less (sometimes a lot less in the case of telephone boiler room scammers). Plenty of non-collectors get the fever and end up with these "investment" coins and pay up, or bid up and get the rude wake up call some years later. All things being equal, the multiple coins are better because a person can sell off 10%, 25% or 50% quite easily. Not so easy with one $50k coin.

If someone knows coins, then again, they don't really need to ask. It is the coins that matter and not the investment potential. As auction results show, two different coins in the same grade from the same company might vary in price by 50% or more. The coin itself is more of a variable than the category.

No one really knows what coins will do well 20 years out. Most think that trends over the past 20 years will continue for the next 20, but the odds probably are only 50-50 or less of that coming true. As always, the standard disclaimer, past performance is not a guarantee of future results.

elwood · December 3, 2005 2:46PM

My preference would be to own 5 $10k coins or 10 $5k coins. Then you can call it a collection

One coin is hard to call a collection.

Bear · December 3, 2005 2:46PM

There is no Fundamental religious basis to my answer.

No Armageddon or End of Times, merely the historic, economic

ebb and flow. If you choose to place this kind of money in coins

may you have good fortune. Might be best to spead out your purchases

so you dont get in all at the top.

zkcoins · December 3, 2005 2:48PM

For me I would have to say that the 1795 Dollar would be a very highly prized coin in my collection. I would prefer it over the other choices you gave.

Fletcher · December 3, 2005 2:49PM

granddad · December 3, 2005 2:52PM

I agree with elwood, go with the former.

Have a Great Day!
Louis

Freak1c · December 3, 2005 3:13PM

Hmmm... If I were givin' this money for the sole purpose of "investing" in a numismatic form, I would diversify it by splitting it up. $25,000 in gold, $15,000 in silver, and $10,000 in a mining stock/fund. This is based on the info provided above only for investment mind set.

Tom

MikeInFL · December 3, 2005 3:16PM

I would chose the $50k coin. Here's why. First, DMPL Morgans are much closer to a top than a $50k coin from 1795, IMHO. Second, I would think that with a single coin it would be easier, not harder to sell. Finally, I believe that the price of a $50k coin is more likely to go up than a $10k coin over my investment horizion.

pursuitofliberty · December 3, 2005 3:32PM

I like Elwood's idea, but would take it a step further with a 20 year horizon.

Given that at about $2,500., a coin gets out of the range for at least 90% of the collectors today (a guess, but I think an accurate one), and that liquidity IS an issue for investment purposes, and that inflation should peg a 100% increase in prices over the next twenty years, not withstanding any other gains/losses, and we want a colelction and not a single coin ... I would concentrate on buying coins that are strickly original, attractive, and of higher colelctor grades, of the better or scarcer dates in several different ever popular series or types that are currently not priced out of the range of most buyers today (coins valued at say 1,000 to 2,500. ~ or a little less). When you go to sell, these will still be within the advanced collectors range of purchase, and seeing as how original coins are in short supply, these would probably see spirited attention on their re-entry to the marketplace.

The box of twenty (or maybe two boxes with 50k) comes to mind. Hand selected and well researched, with diversity of type, these selections will probably yield the best long-term "investment". Not all will be winners, but if carefully selected, enough will probably prove to do well enough to make up for any lagards.

curly · December 4, 2005 12:22AM

Personally, I would never bet my future well being on anything rare. The investment world and the collecting world are two different entities. Collect for fun and invest for profit. Stay in the stock market, CDs, t-bills, for capital appreciation.

I would like to know how many of the forum members here have consistantly made a killing on coins. If it is so easy, why don't the mega dealers just hold on to their "one of a kind" rare coins instead of marketing them?

I love coins, I enjoy buying them, looking at them, reading about them, but I do not invest in them.

Thats my take on it anyway.

mrearlygold · December 4, 2005 12:25AM

What Elwood said

CarlWohlforth · December 4, 2005 12:35AM

Personally I would INVEST in something boring that pays me cash along the way, like a boring balanced mutual fund.

If I had $50K to SPEND on a coin collection I would build a basic type set with a budget of about $1K/coin. I would take my time and try to find original coins that are nice for the price range.

TorinoCobra71 · December 4, 2005 12:54AM

<< <i>Repeat after me....ONE NEVER INVESTS IN COINS AS A COLLECTOR......

If you are a dealer, it is your bussiness and you buy coins to sell them at a profit.

You collect with frivilous money not your serious money. We are heading

into a whirlwind of economic chaos, for the time being, put your money into either

Government I bonds or 6 month Treasury Bills. When the bottom to our house of

cards falls out, coins , even valuable , rare and desireable coins, might be a hard

sell. Please do be careful at this particular juncture. No Government can inflate its

monitary supply, without causing serious fracturing to the financial and investment

underpinnings. No Nation can be in debt asd much as we are without repercussions. >>

SUCH a WISE old Bear.........

TorinoCobra71

jayboxx · December 4, 2005 1:02AM

I would have a lot more really nice proof IHC's, but that is just me, and maybe Carl's proof Buffalo.

mozin · December 4, 2005 2:43AM

I spent some time thinking about this thread. I actually wrote an exact list by grade of what I would collect as a set of twenty coins. After very careful thought, I decided it would not be in my best interest to tell others what I am wanting to buy. No sense in creating more competitors.

I can say that I would put together a set of twenty PCGS/NGC coins housed in a new silver NGC box. It is necessary to include NGC because the census numbers are so small for some issues. An alternative would be to lower the acceptable grade by a notch, and include only PCGS coins. The individual values would be between $1K and $10K.

Based on the past twenty years this set has increased in value far more than my collection overall, multiple times increase in value over entire collection.

ColonialCoinUnion · December 4, 2005 2:56AM

I'd favor one exceptional coin over 12 lesser coins, though you may find having a single coin is not that interesting and does not satisfy your collecting hunger.

This scenario may be more realistic if contemplated as having 5 or 10 fantastic coins instead of 50 merely average ones.

Fletcher · December 4, 2005 3:42AM

Actually, this is a very realistic scenario. I just completed a box of 20: 19 CC DMPL Morgans and one Goloid Pattern just for fun. All of the are valued between $1k - $5k. However, I am going to stick the box in the bank and step away from collecting for a while. I was just interested in the opinions of board members whether I should convert my box of 20 in to one really spectacular coin, or just sit on the box of twenty during my break. Don't get me wrong, the box of 20 contains nothing but really great coins. I just think that it would be neat to have a "oh my god you have one of those!!!!!" truly spectacular coin.

roadrunner · December 4, 2005 7:55AM

Depends on the 1 coin. It would have to be special and very underrated imo. But in general I would go with the box of 20 rule.
For a $50K investment/speculation I would say box of 10. It's far easier for a $2K coin to double in price than a $5K or $50k coin.
Assuming they are all decent and worthy. coins.

My box of 10- could be 10 pretty No motto Proof 65 seated halves.
That's a great $50k imo. But I would likely diverse out to a few gem MS65 gold coins, a gem bust half, and coins like that. Maybe a few killer commems and Morgan. The key thing is to get killer coins that make you ooh and aah each time you see them. But don't pay 50% more than they are worth either.

I did have a box of 1 coin recently and had it for 18 years. I always knew it was special since I first saw it in 1975. I owned it from 1986-2004. It turned out to perform better than my box of 20 cheaper coins. And I sort of knew that when I bought it. I loved that coin and had to own it when it came up for sale. But over time, it became just too expensive to own and had appreciated quite a bit so I sold it. In fact it went up 5X in just the first 4 years I owned it.....but I missed an opportunity to sell it at that time. That was dumb. The collector in me couldn't part with it. But I knew if I was going to be an investor as well I had to sell that coin eventually to break the "spell" of anything being untouchable in my holdings. The deed is now done. I now have a 2 boxes of 20...and nothing is untouchable....as it should be imo.

roadrunner

Coxe · December 4, 2005 8:03AM

As a serious DMPL guy, I'd say put it into the DMPL side and buy one of the two 1893-CC MS64 PCGS DMPLs. The rest of the dates are overpriced.

.

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