By Jim Fehr, Numismatic Director of North American Certified Trading

Politically, the pro-silver factions in this country have always been very strong. The Bland Allison Act and Sherman Act in the late 1800’s required the U.S. Government to purchase large quantities of silver and coin it into silver dollars that, at the time, were not being used in circulation. Therefore, Morgan silver dollars flooded into the treasury vaults. In 1918 the Pittman Act was enacted in part, to sell off the excesses holdings of silver in the treasury vaults, not more than 350 million silver dollar pieces were to be melted.

But pro-silver factions helped convolute the Pittman Act. Due to their influence, one provision of the PittmanAct required the U.S. government to buy domestically one silver ounce for each silver dollar ounce the Pittman Act required be melted and sold.The silver was sold to England at $1 per ounce. In other words, as the government was buying up all the silver dollars in circulation and melting them, along with what was stored in the treasury vaults, they were also forced to replace the melted dollars with domestically bought silver bullion - which they then coined into the new 1921 Morgan silver dollars.

Yet, because of the domestic silver purchase provision in the Pittman Act, many of the silver dollars were never melted and in this way the government unintentionally kept a hoard of about 155 million silver dollars for over 40 years. Since silver dollars during the early 1900’s were used frequently only in Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, circulating Morgans dried up quickly.

Fast forward to Kennedy. From 1960 to 1964, the government suddenly released over 152 million silver dollars, at face value. The government was the last to learn that many of these coins were worth more than face value because they were prized by collectors.Three years later in 1967, silver prices were up enough to make any silver dollar worth over face value in bullion alone. Afraid to let go of any more too cheaply, the government held back 2.8 million of the lower mintage Carson City dollars. (more…)

By Jim Fehr - North American Certified Trading

Which are the best markets today? With all the touting that goes on, it’s important to always keep in mind that no one knows which coins will perform best. Based on the history of the certified rare coin market, however, some areas appear more promising than others.

You probably already know which coins have been doing exceptionally well over the past five to ten years but lets take a look at them again.These are series that are widely collected by date or have such a strong collector or numismatic appeal that they have risen repeatedly over the past decade and still seem to be a good value today.

1. Key Date Coins; XF to MS65.

The best performing area of the rare coin market for the past nine years running. Think maybe they are topping out? Prices seem a bit silly relative to other coins? Acquisition cost relative to bids are too high? Well it doesn’t matter. These coins are the best, rarest, most known and most sought after, and they are being bought up by coin buyers with the deepest of deep pockets. They are desirable, rare, and not often seen for years at a time.They rarely go down and if they do it’s proportionally less to the rest of the market. This all translates to plenty of upside.

2. Early Walking Liberty Halves, MS64 and higher.

Rare date Walkers prior to 1929 have seen modest price increases over the last three years, but have done very well over the last ten. Rare dates from 1916 to 1928-S in gradesMS64 and higher are constantly in demand and are always on dealers want lists. Among the earlier dates, 1917-D , 1917-S , 1918-S, 1919-D, 1919-S, 1920-D, 1920-S, 1921-P, D and S, 1923-S and 1928-S are dates that inMS63 and higher grades have seen the strongest demand and the biggest price jumps in the series over the last nine years. A 1921-D in MS65 now trades for two half times more than it did in 2002 (more…)