Weekly Market Report: Summer Long Beach Show and Auctions to Test Market Strengths in All Areas

By Bruce Amspacher - May 21, 2002

1886 DMPL Morgan Dollar

Long Beach time is approaching once again, and that means that the rare coin market is about to get an across-the-board test of its strengths and weaknesses. From June 6th through the 9th dealers and collectors from across the country will jam the Long Beach Coin & Collectibles Exposition for bourse activity, auctions and after-hours wheeling and dealing.

Going into the show the market is medium-warm, hot, sizzling or nuclear, depending on which particular series is being discussed. The question is: Will it remain that way?

"The Long Beach show will be incredible if the coins show up," says Laura Sperber of Legend Numismatics in Tinton Falls, New Jersey. "Anyone who has fresh coins that are rare and have eye appeal will be asking -- and getting -- big premiums for them. You will be able to bear witness to this at the auctions before and during the show."

$20K+ coins are selling at record pace.

Is the market as strong today as it was six weeks ago? "We sold five coins last week that were over $20,000 each. That might be a record for us in such a short period of time. The demand for quality coins is truly remarkable, but the supply remains minimal.

"The market is actually stronger than it was six weeks ago because it's more widespread," Sperber continued. "Morgan dollars have reawakened big time, and that includes rare dates, Carson City coins and DMPLs. Morgans are a huge field, so broad strength in this series is highly significant to the overall market."

Anything else? "Mint State Liberty Seated type coins are beginning to move. I believe that a lot of people came to the same conclusion at the same time that there are some superb values there."

Does your PCGS Set Registry set measure up to the King?

Louis E. Eliasberg assembled the number-one all-time collection of United States coins. It was a complete date and mintmarks holding of every known regular issue U.S. coin, plus numerous Patterns and other treasures. Soon a complete listing of the collection will be added to the PCGS Set Registry.

Research on the copper, nickel and silver coins is nearly completed. If the coin is now in a PCGS holder, that is the grade that will be entered on the Registry site. If the coin is not PCGS-certified, grades were computed by considering the catalogue grade from Bowers & Merena Galleries and the auction notes of noted numismatists David Hall and John Dannreuther.

How does your set of Walking Liberty half dollars compare to the greatest collection of all time? Be sure to check it out!

1933 $20 St. Gaudens to be on display.

The 1933 $20 gold piece has been forbidden fruit for nearly 70 years, but numismatists from around the world will be able to take a visual bite at the upcoming Long Beach show.

Controversy has swirled around this coin for decades. Is it illegal to own? Was it stolen property? Was it legitimately released into circulation? All of these questions are no longer of great significance as a deal has been struck and the great rarity will be sold at auction this summer.

Kingswood "Intervale" sale on view, too.

Every lot in the upcoming "Intervale" sale from Kingswood Coin Auctions will be on display at Long Beach. "The sale closes on June 19," said Cassi East, Director of Auctions for Collectors Universe. "The catalogs will be ready within a few days and the auction will be online by June 1st or before."

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).