Market Movers and Shakers

The coin market has been extremely busy for the entire year, with lots of great coins being bought and sold by dealers and collectors. We recently reviewed the PCGS's top 10 Gainers and Losers list among U.S. price changes for the past year to get a gauge for the current coin market.

These 10 coins are some of the best-performing coins of 2024 as of press time. Overall, the list represents a good mixture of different denominations. A few Morgan Dollars, some gold and copper coins, and even patterns made it on the Top Gainers list. We also recently updated prices for Morgan Dollar VAM varieties.

Space limitations prevent us from discussing every coin on the Top Gainers list in detail. However, we will mention a few of the highlights to give our readers a little glimpse at why these coins increased in price recently.

The first coin on the list is an 1880-O Morgan Dollar with a VAM-5 Oval O variety. The previous price on the PCGS Price Guide in AU58 was $215. Previously there was very little auction or sales information in any grade for this coin and in this condition. Then we ran into a sale from Heritage Auctions that took place in December of 2023, where a PCGS AU58 example sold for $1,680. After further research, we concluded that the price definitely needed to be adjusted upward on the PCGS Price Guide, with the coin now listed at $1,700 in AU58.

The second biggest gainer is an 1882-O Morgan Dollar with the VAM-4 O/S EDS variety in PCGS MS62DMPL. The previous price listed on the PCGS Price Guide in MS62DMPL was $4,000, as we had initially compared the coin to other similar varieties when pricing it. But to our surprise, a PCGS MS62DMPL sold at Heritage Auctions in January 2024 for $31,500, or a gain of $27,500 – an impressive price for a scarce variety, especially in higher AU and an uncirculated condition.

Another amazing piece that we’d like to briefly discuss is none other than an 1860 J-71 $5 gold pattern. This coin is as large as a gold eagle, but it was struck on a special thin planchet. The design is just as attractive and beautiful. The coins were struck in hopes of deterring counterfeiting at the time of issue, which seemed to be a big problem during the 19th century. Interestingly, the reverse has a backward “A” instead of a “V” in the word “FIVE.” As of today, only two examples are known to exist, making it an extremely rare coin. In January 2024, Heritage Auctions offered an example that fetched $1,140,000. And this is why the price on the PCGS Price Guide was raised to $1,250,000.

The featured chart also reveals the top 10 coin Gainers for the year based on the PCGS Price Guide changes. To view many more coin price changes for the year as well as for market data from other date ranges, you can visit the PCGS Price Guide and click on “Price Changes.” Once there, you can view coins listed on the PCGS Price Guide Gainers list, including the top daily gainers, weekly gainers, three-month gainers, one-year gainers, two-year gainers, three-year gainers, five-year gainers, and even the leading 10-year gainers.