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 Replies: 27 / Views: 3,908 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1450 Posts |
I see the values of many of the coins such as Buffalo nickels, Mercury dimes, LWH, LSQ, key dates for all recent silver coins falling fast since 2014. I coin that sold for $400 in 2015 is not selling for $300. I am not talking about super rare coins, but key dates for the most popular coins besides Morgans are skidding. The values are falling there is no doubt. I bought 1932-S Washington in AU condition for $175. 3-4 years ago that coin would have sold for twice as much. Have many coins been dumped on the market? It can't be price of silver. Numismatic value has fallen.....why? Are collectors bailing out of the hobby? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4468 Posts |
Buyers are being more selective in their purchases that are being made as the market is soft. Coins with nice toning, outstanding for the grade, or CAC sticker coins that have eye appeal are holding their value. Many of the average type coins are only purchased if they are priced at a value.
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Rest in Peace
United States
17900 Posts |
If you want a really easy way to check the actual selling prices for nice coins, I suggest you visit Heritage's free site. If you look up ANY US Coin (those worth TPG), (or any world or ancient coin, or many tokens, for that matter), then put them into most recent to oldest columns, you will see the REAL selling prices for any coin in any date in any grade. I can pick out dozens of examples to refute your supposition. Especially in some key areas that you mentioned. Walkers in 65 and 66 are strong. Type Classic Silver Commemoratives are MUCH stronger now that two years ago, etc, etc. But the real point is that prices always have and always well fluctuate. If you are trying to make a case for your supposition give us some facts, figures, and references. Then what you are saying has more impact. |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1450 Posts |
Moxking We are not in the same universe. Just look at the price of Buffalo nickels in grades less than MS65 and you might get my drift. Not many people I know have 1913-S, Type 11 in MS 66 condition. These are fantasy coins for most of us. Perhaps you have a 1921-S LWH in MS66 condition. I am talking about the coins most of us collect who don't have a trust fund. Let's compare apples to apples. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3843 Posts |
I wonder if the early 20th century series, like Walkers, SLQs, Mercury dimes, and Buffalo nickels, have benefitted in recent years from baby boomer collectors trying to purchase a piece of their childhood and thus keeping prices high in series that have a lot of supply available. Now that some of the boomers (or heirs) are dispersing their collections that there is some downward pressure in these very popular series. Newer collectors may not feel the same attachment to these series as older collectors who saw them in circulation when growing up. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1304 Posts |
Quote:Just look at the price of Buffalo nickels in grades less than MS65 and you might get my drift. Prices of MS63 graded common date Buffalo nickels have mostly stayed the same the last 10 years when looking at Heritage Auctions archive. Quote:
Are collectors bailing out of the hobby? Maybe they are bailing out of the super common cheap lower grade Buffalo nickels for something else to collect, or, seeing how nothing in that series actually quantifies as "rare" prices are correcting? Everything comes and goes in cycles. Edited by EFLargeCents
03/24/2016 07:46 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1316 Posts |
Quote:I wonder if the early 20th century series, like Walkers, SLQs, Mercury dimes, and Buffalo nickels, have benefitted in recent years from baby boomer collectors trying to purchase a piece of their childhood and thus keeping prices high in series that have a lot of supply available. Now that some of the boomers (or heirs) are dispersing their collections that there is some downward pressure in these very popular series. Newer collectors may not feel the same attachment to these series as older collectors who saw them in circulation when growing up. I think that we will see a lot of this over the next 10-20 years as these coins transition from pieces of nostalgia to pieces of history and the massive abundance of these creates a supply that FAR out-paces the demand for those interested in 100+ year old coins that were generally gone from circulation when the collecting base were young. I feel we are starting to see this already as a lot of estates and major collections are hitting the market, but there is still enough well-financed demand to generally absorb the supply for now. The demand will steadily decrease for the commoditized stuff as the baby boomers pass on, however, and the real rare and eye candy pieces will maintain value as always. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1450 Posts |
You know you may be right on Baby Boomers because I am a Baby Boomer and I do feel a lot of nostalgia about the coins I saw as a kid but were unable to collect due to lack of funds. Many Boomers are in their mid to late 60's now. The baby boom lasted from 1946-1964, and most of us remember seeing Buffalo nickels, Mercury dimes, LSQ's, Walkers with semi-readable dates. We well remember silver coins because dimes, quarters and half dollars were silver until 1964. I had a bottle of LWH dollars in the 1950's. I have not seen a Buffalo nickel with a readable date in circulation in 30 years or longer. Same with Mercury dimes and all the rest of the silver coins. Just referring to 1932-D and 32-S Washington quarters there were only about 400,000 of them minted. Yet there price has fallen in dates less than MS and that is obvious to anyone who has bought one lately. I bought a graded 1937-S 3 Leg Buffalo nickel in VF35 for $680. 2015 Red Book says that coin should have been worth about $1100 bucks. I know Red Book is just a general guide, but that is a huge drop in value. I am talking about a trend. A VF35 Buffalo nickel is a pretty nice coin unless you only collect MS coins. We will never see these silver coins of the early 20th century again or anything like them. No more circulating silver or gold coins ever. That is something to think about for younger collectors. If any of you guys watch "The Pickers" show they make money collecting old cast iron tools and motors and such because they are gone from the American story forever. How much more rare are silver coins in future years as millions get melted down because they melt value is more than their face value. If silver and gold spikes again I can see millions of silver coins being sold just for melt. Even the lowly Benjamin Half Dollar is 90% silver. |
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Valued Member
United States
156 Posts |
I think part of the problem is the poor employment record of this country for the last eight years. Those who can find jobs are often working for less than they made before. That leads to tightening budgets for most collectors. They simply can't buy what they can't afford.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1450 Posts |
Afab67 You may be onto something. When I visit my LCS mostly what I see are older guys selling coins and not buying them. I actually buy collectible coins whereas 50% of the business is people buying junk silver. Really, good coins that are on display don't last long which is true. I only visit once every two weeks because I always end up dropping a few hundred bucks. I am not trust fund baby so I must watch my budget, but when you see a coin you really want you better buy it when you see it. I guess when I see people selling entire collections for 50% of their value I think many are just bailing out. I saw an entire Roosevelt dime set from 1946-2013 selling on ebay for about $300 bucks I think. Just man-hours to fill such a set must have some value beyond the coins themselves. |
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Valued Member
United States
450 Posts |
A lot of good comments and insights. I see the softness in the market as well.
My theory is that a lot of the coin collections put together in the coin collecting craze of the 1960s are coiming into the market as these collectors are passing away.
A lot of average condition whitman folder stuff is flooding the market without enough demand to absorb it all.
I wonder if the really high grade 20th century stuff is doing poorly, as these coins are truely rare ?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1450 Posts |
I think the high grade stuff is doing OK from my checking H.A. archives. If you have Walkers in MS65 they are doing just fine, but Walkers in Vf-EF even ones like 1921-d's are not getting the prices they used to get a few years ago. If you have a 1916 LSQ in MS condition you can write your own ticket. I talked to a collector who is 70 years old tonight. He is downsizing he says as he sells off sets of dimes, quarters and Peace dollars. I almost bought his set of Peace dollars but the photos were so poor I held off. A guy here got a 1913-S, type 2 Buffalo for $317 he said and the coin is in VF-EF condition. Now that is a heck of a buy IMO. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1180 Posts |
I've always worried that valuable coins today may tank as older folks pass away and their collections hit the market. For example the 1934-S Peace dollar In MS. Will more turn up eventually to drive down the price? On the flip side investing in PMs seems popular so I think gold and silver in general will always be fairly valuable though. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1450 Posts |
I guess it depends on your time horizon. If you have 30 years of collecting before you this is a good time to buy up cheaper but good coins. Things do go in cycles just like the stock market or any other market. I remember paying big bucks for certain antiques a dozen years ago and now they are worth half while others such as paintings of so-so American painters sell for millions. The precious metals are so volatile that in a couple of years the price could be $2000 an ounce for gold or $600 an ounce.
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Valued Member
United States
175 Posts |
Quote:
I think that we will see a lot of this over the next 10-20 years as these coins transition from pieces of nostalgia to pieces of history and the massive abundance of these creates a supply that FAR out-paces the demand for those interested in 100+ year old coins that were generally gone from circulation when the collecting base were young. I feel we are starting to see this already as a lot of estates and major collections are hitting the market, but there is still enough well-financed demand to generally absorb the supply for now. The demand will steadily decrease for the commoditized stuff as the baby boomers pass on, however, and the real rare and eye candy pieces will maintain value as always. That is exactly how I see the Silver Eagle series. With the exception of a few key date sets. I don't think these willl ever climb a whole lot higher than spot values. Which really kinda stinks for me because it's really the first series I've begun collecting on my own. The rest I am riding off of grandparents shirt tales. Edited by silverbob
03/30/2016 06:34 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
527 Posts |
 very interesting topic .... I like to read the smart comments ! |
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Replies: 27 / Views: 3,908 |
Posted 03/23/2016 7:12 pm
