Which Would You Buy? Investing For The Kids On This One.

Peace dollars are relatively devalued as much for a lack of demand as anything else. With that said, the deal for the 3 Peace dollars is a better one than the Walkers and I'd probably go that way as an investment.

From an investment standpoint, the Peace dollars are a better deal from what we know now. However... Liberty Walking half dollars are very highly desirable and have been since they were minted. It is very likely that the demand for them will remain fairly constant, while the interest in Peace dollars seems to be more variable. If this is a long term investment you're looking at, you might want to take a second look at the Walkers. Or, you could play it safe and see if you could get a better deal by purchasing both sets!?

I'll be really blunt. What do your kids like? I say this having received a stack of modern US proof sets which were bought for me. I don't like them, and on a really lucky day maybe someone would give me $10 per set.

I really like coins but my tastes are a lot different from my dad's. He sees them as an investment in commodity collectibles while I see them as tangible history. I doubt that my daughter cares about them one iota. I hope she finds a good buyer when she inherits them. She wouldn't know the difference between my 1853 and 1925 dollars other than that one is older. Maybe the grand kids will appreciate them, but I can't guess.

With your daughter in mind, I'd go for the Peace dollars, as the prettiest of all the Liberties. I used to go through the dealer's bullion cans to find the ones with the best struck hair details. My AU 1925-P avatar is one I dug out for melt price. You can find good strikes in any year but 1924-26 P's are easier to find. I also like good cartwheel luster, which makes Liberty dazzling. I'm not so hot on blazing whiteness, because it obscures the detail.

If that isn't proof that everyone's taste is different I don't know what is because to me the Peace dollar is the ugliest coin that ever came out of the mint except for some that has come out in the modern category. With that being said I would probably buy the Peace dollars myself too if it was for a long term thing like you describe. You may get lucky and some super rare VAM be discovered between the purchase date and the time they start thinking about selling them also. That is one plus with a series that doesn't have a huge following

http://thepreciouscoins.com/gold-si...de-francisci

I think that Teresa de Francisci is attractive and well-realized on the Peace dollar, especially on a well struck 1921 high relief with her cheeks rounded out. The later dates have a flatter portrait but can have the windblown loose hair detail. I've only seen a couple of auction photos of 1921's with full point detail and they're way out of my price range.

IMHO, these are all relatively common coins, even in high grades. One can find them in quantity at most coin shows. As such, they don't seem like investment coins to me. The trade papers are full of ads, touting these plentiful, slabbed coins as investments. To my way of thinking, the true investment coins are those that don't appear in the ads; better dates in higher grades.

I think that full horn Buffalo nickels, like the 1921-S, '24-S and '26-S, offer great investment potential, being "condition-rare." Such coins without problems rarely appear on ebay. Today's semi-keys may well be tomorrow's keys; especially so, in higher grades (e.g. - early D/S Lincolns in XF-AU; problem-free, pre-1880 Indians with a full Liberty). Early type coins, problem free in XF and better, offer great investment potential, methinks.

Getting back to Walkers, the early dates in VF-XF and higher are getting harder to find. With regard to the Peace dollar series, well struck, high-relief coins will always be in high demand.

Back in the 1980's, many an investor learned a hard lesson, buying slabs. Those who bought "the book" and bought "the coin" fared far better in the 1990's and beyond. Whether it's coins, paper money, exonumia (my personal preference) or whatever, investments tend to better pan out when one focuses on material that is NOT so readily available in the marketplace.

It disappoints me that high grade in both Peace and early walkers does not mean a sharp strike. The appearance of an AU is often better, at a fraction of the price. The later walkers don't have that problem.

One high relief walker that's usually well struck is the 1916-D, and can be fairly affordable. Here's a really nice one. http://briangreerrarecoins.com/inventory.html?c=39