A very beautiful looking limited mintage (under 10,000) set RP Maple Leafs are beautiful coins, hope you had fun assembling the set and if you like them, that is all that counts in collecting. The more you get hung up in "investment" "future value" et al, the less fun this hobby can be.
Now the harsh realities. Many people consider gold gilt coins
PMD and takes away from the value. These however don't really fall into that category since they came from the
RCM that way and that was part of the sales appeal. If you are going to buy modern bullion for value, PF/MS70 is the only real value, however ER/FS really means nothing except to the non-initiated.
Back in the old days, when they used dies to death, first strike used to mean the first coins struck with new dies and were highly sought after as better struck coins. The TPGs adopted this nomenclature for any coins submitted in a certain time period following the release of the coin by the mint. Soon they were sued for false representation. NGC caved and agreed to change their slabs to "Early Release" , PCGS stuck by their guns and eventually compromised by agreeing to be more clear as to what "First Strike" means, but they were allowed to keep the First Strike nomenclature. FS/ER means coins that were submitted within the first 30 days post release, or are in sealed, dated boxes from the mint indicated they were struck within the first 30 days. Since the coins like the
ASE are minted to the tune of 3 mil per month, First Strike can mean anything from the very first coin off the die, to the 3 millionth coin off the die. Since these have a very limited mintage, it is a good possibility that the whole mintage was done at once, which would further render the ER/FS meaningless.
The set originally sold for $199.00 USD ungraded. And this PF70 set sold at Great Collections in Jan. for $603.00, who knows where it will go if silver rebounds. Beautiful set, keep it because you really like it, don't get caught up in investment value
Posted 04/15/2015 10:15 pm
