Coin dealers are lousy economists so I don’t want to waste your time discussing the economic background of the last few days. What I would like to share with you is my take on how it’s impacted my business and what I see are the short term effects of the credit crunch, liquidity crisis, Dow meltdown, etc. on the coin business.

My business was screamingly active in July and August. It slowed down considerably in September and it has been extremely slow in October. I have read on a few dealers’ websites that they are still selling lots of rare coins and that they have people calling from out of the blue purchasing items from their inventory. I think this is a crock. Unless you are a dealer selling bullion right now, you probably (there are exceptions…) are not doing much coin business. You might be purchasing coins from clients who bought them a year or two ago but selling your existing inventory right now? I doubt it.

That’s not to say that the coin business has shut down entirely. It definitely has not. I’ve sold some nice collector grade coins in the past week and my wholesale business is actually a bit better than I would have expected. But my regular clients are taking a wait and see attitude towards the coin market, as am I. With the Dow dropping hundreds of points every day, it’s hard to be excited about the coin market right now.

As recently as a few weeks ago, I commented that the generic gold market was very weak and that premiums for $20 Libs and Saints were as low as at any time I could remember. You literally could not give away double eagles. Three weeks later and the world of generics is a very, very different place. As I write this, gold has a spot price of around $863 but Brilliant Uncirculated (MS60 to MS61) double eagles are worth between $1250 and $1300 each.

I actually recommended in one my recent blogs that it might be a good idea to stock up on gold as the premiums got so low and, for once (!) I was right. I think the moral of the story is that it’s a good idea to have a small position in double eagles for your personal protection and to move in and out of as premiums ebb and flow. My guess is that the premiums will stay very high for a while.

Here are some more thoughts and suggestions for rare coin collectors in these uncertain economic times: (more…)

Anyone who spoke to us last Monday knew we thought the sky was falling and the coin market like all the financial markets was going to die. We were trying to figure out if a minimum wage position was next for us and just how much we’d really lose (dollar value) of our inventory. The financial markets were in such turmoil people were paying little attention to things like coins (its funny, the few who did buy early in the week-were Wall Street types).

Thank goodness for Congress stepping in to try and calm the mess. Apparently word of action did sooth the general public. As the week went on, collectors started calling. From Wed on the phones and emails were non stop. Activity was almost overwhelming! If you had asked us Monday how much we’d thought we’d sell for the week, our answer would have been $50,000.00-if we were lucky. Happily, we can report sales in the many multiples of that-including one six figure transaction! Whew!

Only one smaller collector and one six figure collector (bailing for personal reasons) sold coins to us last week. That ended a 45 day run of unprecedented Legend buying (or coins being consigned to us) worth OVER $3.5 million total. Prior to that we had no luck buying from the public. Now, it seems the tide has turned and we are back to sensing a drip of fresh coins or less.

Collectors now want to buy-and buy with a fury. However, they are being picky and want real value for their money. Probably because we do not deal in them in quantity, we did not get any requests for generics. It is our understanding the major telemarketers are now flooded with orders for things like MS64+65 Saints (vs. MS 61-62’s the week before). If we had the coins-truly rare and high end, we could easily SELL $10,000,000.00 today! We’re talking coins like a Bust Half in MS67, An MS66 twenty Cent piece, just about ANY Choice to GEM Early Large Cent, a GEM white 17S Walker, or a killer PR65 PR higher 2C piece. (more…)

By Pinnacle-Rarities.com

There was no shortage of excitement during last week’s Long Beach convention; Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection after failing to receive a government bailout; Insurer AIG pleaded for $40 billion in assistance from the Federal Reserve.

With all of the extra money that the government is likely to be printing, inflation is almost a certainty. Metals prices reacted sharply, with gold making its largest single day jump on Wednesday (almost 11%) from $771 to $855.

The rare coin market, meanwhile, didn’t miss a beat, with a truckload of six figure rarities crossing the auction blocks, mostly in the Pre-Long Beach Goldberg Auction taking place September 14-16th. Below are a few of the impressive prices realized.

* 1793 Wreath 1c PCGS MS64BN $224,250
* 1796 Liberty Cap 1c PCGS MS66RB $690,000
* 1798 1c PCGS MS65BN $207,000
* 1803 Stemless Wreath 1c PCGS MS66RB $241,500
* 1807/6 1c Small Overdate PCGS AU53 $172,500
* 1794 Flowing Hair $ PCGS VF35 $192,625
* 1807 $2.5 PCGS MS65 $276,000
* 1873 $3 Open 3 PCGS PR65DCAM $212,750
* 1839-C $5 PCGS MS64 $172,500
* 1907 $10 Rounded Rim, Periods PCGS MS65 $230,000
* 1870-CC $20 PCGS EF45 $345,000

In Bowers and Merena’s preshow sale, an 1851 Humbert $50 Reeded Edge, 880 Thous., NGC MS65 brought a hearty $460,000. And in Heritage’s Friday evening session, a couple of key-date Saints brought hefty prices: $184,000 for a 1929 $20 PCGS MS66 and $161,000 for a 1927-S $20 PCGS MS65.

Despite what many are calling the worst credit crisis since the Great Depression, truly rare and high quality coins continue to trade at record prices. Although overall sales at the show were a bit sluggish, this has been true for the past several September Long Beach shows. There is still plenty of money chasing the serious coins. In fact, most of our clients feel more comfortable with their numismatic holdings than their other investments.

We are extremely pleased with our show purchases which include a varied assortment of elusive dated material from the Draped Bust, Capped Bust, Seated Liberty and Barber series, as well as a smattering of early and better-date gold, some beautiful Two Cent Pieces, and some gorgeous, high-grade Twentieth century material.

By Greg Reynolds for CoinLink

On Sunday, Sept. 14, a 1796 Large Cent sold for $690,000 at an auction held at The Crowne Plaza Beverly Hills hotel. Before the mid 1850s, pennies were about the size of quarters.

This cent was consigned by the family of the late Ted Naftzger, who formed the all-time best collection of large cents. A selection from the Naftzger collection was a highlight of the auction extravaganza conducted by the firm of Ira & Larry Goldberg, a few days prior to the Long Beach Coin, Stamp & Collectible Expo. Naftzger’s ‘middle-date’ large cents will be auctioned at the same location in Feb. 2009.

The main reason why this auction result is astounding is that this coin is not rare. Moreover, the rarity of its variety, which is known as S-84, may not have played a substantial role in this Naftzger 1796 Liberty Cap realizing $690,000. All large cents of a particular die variety were struck from the same pair of dies, which are cylinders employed in a mechanical press to impart designs on prepared blank discs that are thus transformed into coins.

It is true that, if fewer than a dozen of a particular large cent die variety are known, then the rarity of the variety could be responsible for each being worth a large sum. There probably exist, though, between two hundred and four hundred 1796 Liberty Cap cents (S-84) that were struck from this same pair of dies.

One characteristic, of this (S-84) variety of 1796 Liberty Caps, is that numerals ‘1′ and ‘7′ are higher than numerals ‘9′ and ‘6′. Another characteristic relates to the proximity of a leaf to the ‘F’ in “OF” on the reverse (back of the coin). While specialists are very serious about such matters, most collectors have little interest in die varieties. Details of varieties are outside the scope of the present discussion. Most coin buyers collect ‘by date’ or ‘by type.’

There are at least fifteen hundred 1796 Liberty Cap cents, of all varieties, in existence. So, these are scarce, but not rare.

Many early large cents are corroded, damaged, or have other serious problems. The key factor regarding the value of this Naftzger 1796 Liberty Cap is its quality. (more…)