After reading alot of economics and history relative to money.. I have more recently took an interest in buying older US coins... I was wondering what others have experienced with this... I have several questions if anyone does.. for example. has anyone had any success investing in numismatics as opposed to straight bullion.. has anyone done any real quantitative studies when it comes to numismatics.. I recently have made some purchases on ebay.. no great deals for sure but i've been getting a better eye for things... Does anyone have experience with this.. or with Heritage auctions..
%%%%%%%%%%%%%% I've studied it quite a bit, 200 +years of US coins.Its an unusual market , in that, say compared to real estate, or stocks.Real estate appraisers, they[realty appraisers - leaders] never have decided to change the definition of 1 foot[12 inches].Not saying they[coin appraisers] changed the US mint engraved face value. I dont really care to explain that further ; and +on the plus side, an honest [i think] coin dealer named his coin books ''1987'', he does pretty good.Interesting way to study US history-coins.
When precious metals prices increased (going back to the 80's), the intrinsic metal value of the coin exceeded its numismatic value making investable coins more of a commodity play than a collectibles play.
That's why I always buy 67 Mustangs, they still have a little oil in the pan, and someday oil may be worth something.
Did you know gold in the USA was nationalised by Roosevelt in the 1920s and had to be handed in ? An ounce of gold was taken at $21 ! That's where Fort Knox got all it's gold from. Canada has sold off nearly all it's gold. The vaults are empty. Rumours have it that The Bank of England has been renting out loads of gold which the Swiss have sold onto the jewellery market. They won't comment. And nobody not even The President is allowed into Fort Knox to see if there is anything there still. It was last fully audited in 1954. Suspicious or what ?
On old coins much of the value is down to the specific date and condition of the coin. The latter is a matter of opinion. Beware fakes.
during the 1980's numismatics were one of the better investments. They aint making any more new old coins. I'm pretty sure that nickel I'm looking for went down on the Titanic. The trick to numismatics is to put together a complete collection with one stunning center piece. When it comes time to sell, they will overpay for all the auxilary coins to get that one prized possession. When I had a paper route, a coin collecting friend would do all my collecting for me. It's always better to be the dealer.
In Europe hoards of coins from Roman times particularly do get found. This may alter the rarity value of some coins but generally their prices are fairly stable.