IF THE MARKET IS UP WHY AREN’T MY COINS?
By Laura Sperber of Legend Numismatics
In the past few weeks we have been offered more coins than normal from collectors. However, the majority of coins that are offered were recent purchases that people are coming to find out they can’t resell for a profit, or even close. Some coins came from auctions, some were even bought a year ago, no luck. We do need coins VERY badly, but we are not going to over pay for weak pieces. What’s going on here?
After every major auction you read how coins brought “moon” money and how we all can’t find anything anymore at shows. We dealers make it sound like there is no limit to how strong or how high prices are. It is all true, REAL coins are unquestionably bringing real money.
What is happening is there is now a huge and very real separation of quality. A year ago, it was acceptable to buy a coin that is 95% there for full ticket. Today, if you don’t have 100% full quality and eye appeal in coin, forget it, you most likely will lose money.
Gone are the days when you could buy out of sale and “flip” it to a dealer. The market has reached its saturation point on the lesser quality material. We strongly believe CAC expedited this gap (which was bound to happen any way). The sophisticated buyers either demand CAC stickered coins or they demand the coin be all there. Nothing less is acceptable today. The market-especially in auctions is proving that clearly.
Just because you get caught up in the spur of the moment and bid aggressively in an auction does not guarantee you that there will still be someone right under you. And if the coin has issues (low end, ugly, etc) you are plain old stuck. The grading service does not matter. (more…)

To know which asset class will appreciate in value, you have only to follow the money. When the stock market is gobbling up all of the available discretionary funds, you know that alternative investments, such as rare coins, are going to do poorly. On the other hand, bear markets in stocks cause net withdrawals, which in turn support the prices of alternative assets as investors seek better returns.
On April 15, in the Chicago area,
The 1838-O half dollar is a genuine rarity, with only 20 pieces struck and the fate, 170 years after striking, of just about a dozen known pieces in existence leaves some unaccounted for. I’ve liked this coin for many years and made it a centerpiece of my new book that Krause is publishing in July, “Profitable Coin Collecting.”
The Marquette-Yakima 1932-D is the only 1932-D quarter that the PCGS has graded MS-66. None have been certified as grading MS-67 or higher. The 1932-D has the second lowest mintage of any business strike in the series, 436,800, and has always been the hardest to find in MS-64 and higher grades.

















