Are American Coins Overvalued?

If you can persuade them to include Panamanian coins in the back-of-the-book section of the Red Book, I think you'd find interest in the series would increase, with corresponding increase in price.

American coins being overpriced is even in 'semantics'. The term 'World coins' is equivalent to anything not North American (allowing for Canadian coins having their own corner).

Any cultural and historical thinking only determines what is considered 'second best'.

The country of origin will always have a larger audience. There are almost 1/3 of a billion US citizens all with allegiance to their nation. Compare that to Canada where there's 1/10 of the population and a growing part of that is immigrants workers, and also 2nd generation families whose allegiance to the queen is not as strong.

If you want to look at it in terms of artistry and mintage, well by your definition the Mexico City Mint coins are all undervalued. This mint has been around for centuries and served more than one empire. Its coins were distributed all around the world and even accepted in CHINA. If anything watch for these coins to explode in popularity IMVHO.

It's all in a brand name. I can markup many times more for a ring that says Tiffany on it than another straight up clone minus the trademarks. Brand names, allegiance, this is what I think the matter is.

Now, are US coins overvalued? Maybe a little bit, but that's what stands in the way of the refineries so I'm pretty indifferent on that.

Another point about mints: US mints for other countries like the Phillipines, yet some US collectors don't consider this part of a US set. Likewise with Canada, we produce for Barbados, etc(!) yet I would consider a collection to be of lower quality if they included circulation Barbados coins. That's just me.

Also look at the past year and how many new records rare US coins and paper money have set at auctions.

Argue against me please, I hate feeling like I'm correct all the time. :) Cheers!

Overvalued? Well, they sell for what people are prepared to pay, so I guess not.

But if you're asking whether US coins are expensive compared to some others .. maybe.

It certainly feels as if most of the records for prices paid are in the US, though Hong Kong and Singapore may start to catch up.

And I certainly feel that many US sellers seem to seek much higher prices for British coins than British dealers or collectors would expect.

But maybe it's just that there are more collectors in the US prepared to pay top prices? Recent prices for better examples of British 14th-17th century hammered coins have surprised me and most of my fellow collectors. And the feeling is that at least some of the interest boosting prices has been from the US.

But I guess the same is true of most things. The prices of TVs, computers, mobile (cell) phones, eating out and cars varies from one country to another. Some things seem cheap, some expensive. Depends on the market for the item in that particular location I guess.

We only start to think of something as cheap or expensive when we compare. For example a gallon of gas costs me the equivalent of US$9.70 Which is cheaper than it was a month or two ago. Is that cheap? Or expensive?

A coin is worth what a collector is willing to pay, so I guess technically no. But I do find US coins extremely expensive compared to those from other countries (factoring in rarity and grading of course).

And I think one of the objectives of slabbing was to create an investment product that could literally be traded sight-unseen. Large swaths of better coins are being held by investment groups, not collectors. This creates both scarcity and the impression that ANY 19th C. American coin is an "investment". Therefore hordes of collectors have jumped onto the investment bandwagon, by literally hoarding US coins. Will older US coins always be perceived as that lofty, sure-fire investment? Stay tuned...as the demographic bulge of Baby Boomers cash-out their collections, all those coins will re-enter the market.

Such as it is, I no longer collect US coins. Your average 'collectable' US coin garners a premium, which I call "paying for appreciation up-front". So I only look for one thing on US coins--die varieties which have even better premiums.

There isn't enough history in US coins so there is a demand outweighing supply.Yep overpriced compared to Europe.
Plus you can't dig hammered or Roman/Celtic.

I found this quote interesting:




I imagine a lot of that has to do with availability - it is exactly the same in the Antique market. This is also how some (art/antique) dealers can make a killing in the import/export business.