"Thirty days hath September..." begins the old axiom and it looks as though the rare coin market is going to need every single day to take care of business in the upcoming month. In addition to the "Rarities Sale" and the Jay Roe collection being sold by Bowers & Merena Galleries on September 14, there's also a Long Beach Coin & Collectibles Exposition on the agenda along with Kingswood Coin Auctions' Orleans sale on the 25th.
Meanwhile, the dog days of summer have turned out to have a high-quality pedigree as far as numismatics is concerned as the market continues its unrelenting march due north. For several months now the question, "What's selling the best?" has been met with many different answers or the all-encompassing, "Everything!"
Ed Lee of Lee Certified Coins, Ltd., in Merrimack, New Hampshire recently spent "about $3 million" on a single coin, the famed Eliasberg 1913 Liberty nickel in PCGS PR66. Since this finest-known specimen was purchased for personal investment it's obvious that Lee is bullish on the future of rare coins. Which areas are his favorites at this time?
The key to success? One critical fact...
"The key to success in rare coins as an investment includes one critical fact," Lee said. "All top collectibles are hot now, but rare coins are the most underpriced of all by a wide margin. Take the $3 million that I just paid for the 1913 Liberty nickel. Name another top collectible series where the number one item can be bought that cheaply! Paintings? Colored diamonds? Furniture? Historical documents? The correct answer is nothing but rare coins.
"This bodes well for all of us," Lee continued. "We just need to get the message out. Coins are great fun and a fine way to preserve the purchasing power of our money. Americans don't save enough and coin collecting/investing is an exceptional way to save and prepare for a better retirement. Time and tide are finally on our side."
How about the people who don't have $3 million to spend? What do you like for the average collector/investor? "I recommend MS63 Saints [$20 St. Gaudens gold pieces] as a core holding for gold-oriented investors because they're safe from confiscation and have a nice combination of quality and an historically reasonable price. The greatest demand is for the rare and semi-rare Saints. I feel that this is because of the beauty of the coin plus the fact that it contains roughly an ounce of gold. It is extremely difficult to work want lists on the rare dates, of course, as the demand far exceeds the supply."
What else? "The key and semi-key coins of the popular 20th century series," Lee said. "Mercury dimes, Buffalo nickels, Standing Liberty quarters and Washington quarters. I sell every one that I put up [on eBay]. Early type from 1793-1807 is very strong, especially for attractive coins that aren't too dark and don't have overly distracting adjustment marks.
"Undervalued coins include silver commems, nice Standing Liberty quarters, silver type in general and Pioneer gold. Demand for top rarities and finest known coins continues unabated, which is why I switched personally from the less expensive rarities to the 1913 nickel, the 1804 Proof $10, some finest known Stellas [$4 gold Patterns] and so forth."
Morgan dollars are among market leaders.
The demand for Proof and Mint State Morgan dollars continues to grow each week as this always-popular series has become red-hot once again. "Any Proof 65 or 66 Morgan is gone from our lists within 15 minutes of sending it out," says Dale Larsen of Spectrum Numismatics in Irvine, California. "The Mint State coins are nearly as popular as long as it's something nice and/or unusual. Another hot area is Trade dollars. A lot of want lists are showing up for most dates in Mint State.
"Walking Liberty half dollars are strong across the board. The demand for the early dates is tremendous, but the same is true for the short-set [1941-47] and long short-set [1934-later] dates."
What other coins are selling especially well? "Standing Liberty quarters come to mind. In gold there's a lot of action in large quantities of $20 Liberty pieces. Dealers are looking for MS63 specimens in lots or 50 or more," Larsen said.
Click, click and click again for auction action.
The Bowers & Merena Galleries "Rarities Sale" is now online. To view the lots and/or to bid, click here.
The Jay Roe Collection of California gold is now online as well. To view the lots and/or to bid on this landmark collection, click here.
The "Orleans" sale from Kingswood Coin Auctions will be online on August 29. This 966-lot sale features PCGS and NGC-certified coins and bidding is accepted through the Internet or by telephone, fax or e-mail. The sale closes September 25.
Bruce Amspacher has been a professional writer since the 1950s and a professional numismatist since the 1960s. He won the OIPA sportswriting award in 1958 and again in 1959, then spent eight years in college studying American Literature. This background somehow led him to become a professional numismatist in 1968. Since then he has published hundreds of articles on rare coins in dozens of publications as well as publishing his own newsletter, the “Bruce Amspacher Investment Report,” for more than a decade. His areas of expertise include Liberty Seated dollars, Morgan and Peace dollars, United States gold coins, sports trivia, Western history, modern literature and the poetry of Emily Dickinson. In 1986 he was a co-founder of the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS).
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