USA Commemorative Coins

Hi toast

The RedBook is a price guide and in most cases does not reflect an accurate market value ,,

some of the commems are highly sought after and the market value will be multiples of what the RedBook says, others the mintages are very high and this keeps the price down.By the way MS and PR 67 is an average strike for the commems the very high grades 69 and 70 will be several times what is listed.

With silver fluctuating as it is, I would expect most of the silver issues to be a little to a lot higher than what is in the RedBook.

The best way to check the market is by finished auction prices either ebay or heritage or others.

Rick

Toast,

I believe I can address some of your questions. I'm happy to hear that you appreciate modern US commems. You will find that the prices listed are for high grades (not the super 69-70), but that's how you will find them--typically still in original govt packing and with high levels of preservation.

I recently did some reading about the modern commem program. Up until '89, the Mint made millions of these coins. As a result, most of them trade for much less than their issue price. Some of the silver coins trade like bullion (e.g., the constitution silver dollar).

In the last month or so, I bought a proof 89 Congressional Bicentennial half for $6.30 (incl. s&h) on ebay; 82 proof Washington half for $5 (90% silver!) at a dealer's store; 92 Columbus proof half for $9 at a local coin show (greysheet bid); and an 1893 Columbian half (choice AU) for $14 at a dealer's store. So yes, you should be able to find many of them at Red Book prices.

Since 89, the Mint was much more responsible about making smaller numbers of coins so as not to flood the secondary market. As a result, many of the recent coins are much more expensive.

Most of the classic commems did not circulate, so are not typically available in lower circulated grades. The reason for the AU quotes is that collectors did not handle and store them properly, thus destroying their MS status. One notable exception is the 1892/3 Columbian Exposition half. They made 2 1/2 million of these and they really were in circulation. Consequently you will definitely find them in lower circulated grades--but why bother? The AU coins are still very affordable.

Hope this helps,
Mick

ebay has a category just for you!

Home> Buy> Coins> Coins: US> Commemorative> Modern

You can even specify 82-94 or 95-date.

Have fun!

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Originally posted by shatsi

Recently I've become interested in this too and have searched ebay. Is there anyway you can search ebay only for Modern Commemoratives?

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