Silver Prices And Morgans

Yes buy low sell high is always a good method to make a profit, hence why your magazine says it is a bad time for sellers.

I am no expert in precious metals by any means, but I believe as the spot price of silver has decreased, the premium has increased (for silver eagles and also Morgans) to maintain a more stable selling price from online dealers.

I just bought three common MS64 graded and slabbed Morgans off ebay and they were all about 10% to 15% less than Red Book value. I paid the MS63 price for MS64 coins. Now I am going to try collecting the MS65 and see the deal. From what I can see there is a pretty substantial difference between MS64 and MS65 even on common Morgans. I imagine the same is going for gold coins as well. Looking at spot price of gold it has climbed out of the hole a little bit in the last two weeks. With this much fear in stocks and bonds you know gold and silver should be jumping but they are not. This is unusual, however, home prices are climbing in my area. All commodities react to economic conditions. I am not a gold bug but I have owned stocks for many years and 2 + 2 still equal 4. If silver were selling for $25 an ounce I bet even common Morgans would be selling at a premium or perhaps with intentions of meltdown. If you like big silver coins anyway then why not collect them when prices are lower. Usually, as soon as Guru's say this or that thing is going directly to heck then it is time to buy. I think I could get even better prices from my LCS for Morgans since he has high turnover on these coins and pays about 50% of their value to the 90 year old guys bringing in their collections. I think this is how he makes his money. My LCS gave me ten bucks off a 1998-O in MS63 and sold it to me for $55, so he must have paid $20 for it. 2015 Red Book is not reflecting current prices on Morgans or any other coins I have bought lately. Coins prices seem to have taken a hit. This is good news for those of us who want to fill collection sets.

Damcon3

You know I guess it depends on the condition of the Morgans in the lots, but even so, that is cheap. That is probably less than 12-13 bucks a coin since there is a buyer's premium of 10-15% usually, but no tax on coins. They are just selling those coins for their silver price. You could have bought 40 Morgans for $450. That is dirt cheap.

After today's stock sell off the precious metals market should have lit up like a neon sign, but it didn't. With all this fear around and people seeing their stock investments shrinking by 10-15% you would think there would be a rush to coins like Morgans that tend to keep their value. People flock to bonds when things get scary, but since even 30 year bond has a yield of just 2% that is not the place to be. I am going to check ebay listings for MS64-65 coins and see if there is a bump up since this morning. I bought a couple of nice Morgans today anyway and I got them for a decent price. All this fear could make those of us who own a few silver coins a little richer. I think the silver Washington quarters may be a very good buy for the longer term. Them and the silver Roosevelt coins get little respect, but every coin has its day. Silver Franklins are not so bad either especially in high grade. You can buy them in BU condition very cheaply.

PMX futures and options traders are holding off to see what the Fed does with the interest rate. Dollar is way up vs. the euro as the eurozone continues its death spiral towards currency de-unification, but not ahead nearly as much vs. the RMB.

There's not much pent-up demand, and the bulls at Kitco etc. aren't beating the war drum like they were 3 or 4 years ago when they were spouting off about $2k gold being "an inevitability within 1 year" and pounding their chests about how strong gold and silver positions are hedges against inflation (they're not.)

If I was going to start putting PMX eggs into baskets I'd be looking at the Platinum's gang of friends (ruthenium and palladium) real hard. Ruthenium has a strong driver in the EPA regulations with its heavy use as a N2S reducing catalyzer in power plant emissions and pending applications in Dye Sensitive solar power generation. Its cousin palladium has strong upside if fuel cell technology takes off (which it looks like it's starting to) with its use in high yield hydrogen production.

IMO silver is priced about where it should be. Silver's recent big bubble was riding on the coattails of gold, and it was irrationally overpriced by even the most optimistic analysis. I don't think prices around $18-20/oz are out of the question long-term, but I don't see it going back up to near $35-$40 unless there is a catastrophic supply disruption or political event.



Also, Washington quarters get plenty of respect. ;) Just sayin'.


My Two Cents. AB