What Modern Coin Would You Hoard?

From a bullion perspective either pre 82copper pennies or stacks of nickels for the metal content. Long term numismatic perspective would be high grade early zincolns. It's hard to find an 83-87 zinc penny in high grade without issues.

Nice, bright solid date BU rolls of Lincolns dated 1983-1986.

For me it wasn't so much a matter of preservation as a matter of being able to invest in something that is in it's own right not inexpensive now, and will only go up in value as time goes on. I fully expect some of these rolls to exceed $100 each in the next 20 years.

I would hoard any gem zincolns that can be acquired at face. They're inexpensive enough that you're not sinking tons of money into them, and the attrition rate is crazy. You also never know when some new rare variety will pop up, and Lincoln Cent variety collecting seems to be taking off. It was only a couple years ago that Ziggy of CCF found that incredible 1982 small date zinc DDR. I wish I had some BU '82 rolls to dig through for that baby.

And the mint seems to be producing a lot fewer errors, but varieties are still getting turned out. 2011 was a great year for doubled die cents, and 2006 had some dandies as well.

Gem '82-'83 coins in all denominations seem like a good choice as well. Also, lower mintage silver proof sets (e.g. 1999); sometimes they can be acquired for close to bullion value. Maybe wait until silver finishes collapsing...

I started hoarding moderns in 1972 when I heard that they were goinmg to start rotating the FED and mint coin stocks. I knew these coins weren't being set aside and rotating the oldest coins out of storage would result in all the coins becoming heavily worn. This has come to pass and it shows up on all the low mintage coins in varying degrees as well as the highest mintage. Scarce coins like a '72-D type "b" reverse quarter had a mintage of only about 80,000 according to expert estimates and well over 99.9% of them are gone, lost to the ravages of time or in a highly degraded condition. Anything over F can be considered scarce.

But the moderns being overlooked really includes all of them. Sure nice gemmy '72-D quarters are "common" with nearly 100,000 examples surviving but this might just lead to higher demand or more demand for even higher grades. Modern collectors have been, are, and probably will always be fairly grade conscious and they want nice attractive coins. What people don't realize is that nice attractive coins of many dates are quite elusive. Coins that are considered common as dirt are only cheap because the demand is still tiny. Take a coin like a nice gemmy (MS-64+ or better) 1977-D cent. I've looked at many rolls and have seen few good ones. There are millions set aside but it's possible that this date or some others will not be found nice in rolls or will be rare as such. This leaves a paltry 1% of the surviving mint sets as a source for gems and 2% for gemmy specimens. Sure, more than a million surviving mint sets assure the coin isn't rare but only 20,000 nice specimens would be a pittance compared to the potential demand if they can't be found nice in rolls.

This really cuts across the board. The quarters historically are the most ignored so if you're going to hoard something this might be the place to start. I like the '69 quarter because there are no rolls. If a roll turned up it would probably be junk because I remember looking at many of these rolls in 1969 and they were all terrible. They were bad strikes by bad dies and then they were ground up in counting and rolling operations. Mint set coins are pretty horrendous as well with fewer than 10% even being choice condition. Gems and MS-64 account for less than about 1% of mint set coins. This date set has had extremely high attrition and of the few sets surviving half are now tarnished because of bad packaging material and improper wash of the clad. In other words even those willing to settle for lower grades will be fighting over a very few coins.

I, too, like the '82 and '83 issues that are well struck by good dies. I even save these all the way down to XF now. Uncs are great and might be a steal at current levels but nnice strikes are going to have a lot of demand someday and the supply isn't there. The BU '82-P is the most underrated coin in the world today when it has a nice strike by good dies.

Of course I no longer believe in investing or speculating in coins but this is how I started many years ago. And, yes, I have continued to hoard what I consider "key" dates. Even though I was right and have huge gains in many moderns if I had it to do over I'd do more collecting and less speculating. Even being right is no fun if it takes too long. Even being right can be wrong. The hobby is a hoot so enjoy it and the best way to enjoy it (for most people) is through a collection. But to each his own.

The early zincs were hoarded in almost as great a quantity as the copper Lincolns were but the survival rate on these is low. Plating problems were common (nearly ubiquitous) and some hoarders just got tired of saving them since there was no demand at all until the mid-'90's. I really like them all but the '84-D will probably be toughest. These are expensive now days though and toiugh to find. I like most of the early zincolns in gem condition and the '86-D comes spectacular once in a while. Both '86 P& D can be found extremely nice.

It's a matter of time too... Classic coins are interesting to collect because the designs are something you don't see in your everyday change. Up until the last decade, US coins were extremely stagnant in terms of design. Nickels had the same design for 66 years, and dates from the '40s are ordinary pocket change. Quarters didn't change for 67 years aside from the bicentennial reverse, and the obverse still hasn't seen a change. It'll be decades before the eagle reverse is unusual in circulation. The biggest event in dimes over the last 67 years was a one-time special mint-mark, and that coin is abundant in high grades.

25 year design runs were more typical for classics, which meant a design would go from normal, to outdated, to antique in a lifetime. I think scarcity of a design in circulation, but not complete absence, is what makes a series start to become collectible. Wheats are popular because they're not "ordinary" change, but kids and casual observant collectors can find them in their pocket now and then. They're perceived as "scarce" and unusual but are still available (new coin designs can have this same effect until they become common). Ikes and SBA dollars didn't really circulate at all, so most people didn't get them in their pocket change, so they haven't gained much traction.

On the other hand, with the explosion of designs coming out of the mint now, practically every coin is "unusual" which means that none of them are unusual.

I am basically a numismatic collector, not a bullion accumulor.
As a result, all of my bullion is scrap silver, from my numismatic activities, except for one coin only.

I have only one bullion round: A one ounce Perth Mint Platinum Koala, of 1991.
I bought this coin when Pt was below $500, some time ago, mainly for the reason that platinum, as coinage metal, was not represented in my (numismatic) collection.

Also have about 10 ounces AGW of junk silver coins. I guess that you could call THAT a hoard, because it was accumulated, not actively collected.