Thread: Is it just me that coin prices seem to be going up and up?

Originally Posted by gxseries

Not too sure if this is what you are seeing with the field that you are collecting but with most of the coins that I am looking at - I don't really see a bargain this year. Maybe time to change to a different area to collect?

this is a good thing for you, now your collection is worth more. what's "hot' tends to come and go over the years. 8-10 yrs ago bust halves had been doing nothing then about 5-6 yrs ago prices started rising as people realized they were some fairly old coins historic that could be had cheap. maybe try to look to another series that has seemed flat for a while and change what you collect. rising prices are a good thing as long as you don't chase too much hype.

Careful, "What goes up must come down"




Originally Posted by rickmp
NASA has proven that old adage wrong.




Originally Posted by Kentucky
Which one? They all came down, or will come down somewhere.



Voyager 1 and 2 will never return to Earth. Neither will the craft left on the surface of the Moon, Cassini, the Mars rovers, the Juno polar orbiter (orbiting Jupiter), Messenger (exploring Mercury), and countless others. Once they leave Earth's gravitational pull they ain't coming back (unless we bring them back).

Never said they would return to Earth, just that they would come down sometime. In the case of the Voyagers, maybe a loooooong time. :-)

I would echo Bruce's observations from CICF. Lots of interest from foreign nationals. I have heard a lot of the coins the US bought in the 90's when the dollar was strong is flowing back overseas nowadays.

The biggest thing I see is lack of hoards hitting the market. Usually at a show like CICF you see hoards being sold off, I did not see really any evidence at this show. This is especially acute in Parthian and Sassanid issues. I have not seen a quantity of this material hit the market in a few years now, with just a few pieces from old collections being the only thing available except for a small hoard of Hormizd II a year or two dispersed. Its amazing how much fresh hoard material really does drive buying opportunities, and with them slowing down evidently, its slowing down low cost buying opportunities.

Coin prices can go up and down - I guess it all comes down to just demand and supply at a particular time.

For instance from my experience a Soviet 1980 in soft plastic sheet, not in hard plastic casing used to be as expensive as 200-300 dollars, way more than the hard plastic counterpart at around 30 dollars.

These days, the prices have fallen down to 100 or so for the soft plastic and 50 for the hard plastic. At one stage, a seller was selling more than 40 of those mint sets at once. Price did deflate for a while.

Another instance is a Russian bi-metal coin - can't remember what it was but when it was rumored that the mintage will be a lot smaller than what is going to be, prices went mad and I bought one as well. That can come down to hype which I fell for. Bought it at 30 or so and prices fell down to 5. On the other hand, the Chechen coin that I remember buying was around 40 or so and is still going around at that price.

However in most cases, a lot of the coins that I did buy have risen in most cases. Japanese coin prices on the other hand still seem to be stagnant with the prices except exception UNC coins.

Originally Posted by Hobo

Voyager 1 and 2 will never return to Earth. Neither will the craft left on the surface of the Moon, Cassini, the Mars rovers, the Juno polar orbiter (orbiting Jupiter), Messenger (exploring Mercury), and countless others. Once they leave Earth's gravitational pull they ain't coming back (unless we bring them back).

Yeah but, when in space, which way is up and which way is down? They could be going down and we're just not aware. Something with a very strong gravitational pull could suck them in as well, like a black hole. Would that be considered going down if that happened? Don't mind me, I'm just thinking out loud at this point.

Originally Posted by silverfool

this is a good thing for you, now your collection is worth more. what's "hot' tends to come and go over the years. 8-10 yrs ago bust halves had been doing nothing then about 5-6 yrs ago prices started rising as people realized they were some fairly old coins historic that could be had cheap. maybe try to look to another series that has seemed flat for a while and change what you collect. rising prices are a good thing as long as you don't chase too much hype.

Prices going up is only a good thing if you're planning to sell. If you're buying it doesn't help you any. While I may sell my coins someday, I don't have any plans to do so now, so having to pay more for them is not a good thing for me.

Originally Posted by GDJMSP

Back in '04 (I think it was '04) I had a short piece in Numismatic News about the prices for world coins going up. Since then, they have gone up dramatically. Due to several things I suppose.

I think the increases in prices started because US coins were getting so expensive that it seemed like a no brainer for collectors to switch over to world coins which were still a bargain at the time. Gold, silver, copper, it didn't matter. They were all a bargain - compared to US coins.

But since then things have gotten as crazy as they did with US coins. More and more pics being shared on forums and talk about reasonable prices greatly increased the popularity of world coins. And even the common stuff, because of increases in bullion, they went up too. In today's world, if I was still collecting, I would not be buying !

The European market lags behind the US market in several ways, price is just one of them. But eventually the European market catches up and mimics the US market in all ways. It just does so a few years later.

So the next thing I would expect is a drop in prices for world coins. Just like the one US coins had that started in '08. And if the typical timing follows, that is pretty much due.

From 1980 through 2010, prices have risen, stabilized risen, and dropped. If you don't believe me, look at the price that it would cost to assemble the 95 type coins (copper, clad and silver) that make up the Red Book types (remember that the dated 1981 reflects 1980 prices).

Since 2011 probably have risen somewhat (I don't have hard statistics on these since the 2012 Red Book did not list type coin pricing—and I haven’t seen the 2013 Red Book yet).

As proof, the graph below shows relative pricing of an 85-coin type set (excludes chain cent, 1796 quarter and 1797/97 half dollar and clad coins—as to why, see “Pricing Relationships of United States Type Coinage”, The American Journal of Numismatics Second Series, 23, 257 – 263 (2011) which gives the reasoning behind the graph)

So, for the short term, will coins increase in price, decrease in price or ?

The diamonds show relative prices compared to the 1981 Red Book prices, CPI is the Consumer Price Index (use the left vertical axis for values. The S&P500 (use the right vertical axis) is the Standards & Poors index of the 500 largest companies listed on the (various) stock markets.

So coins have gone up 340% (about 3.4 times) and the SP 1700% (about 17 times)?

Originally Posted by areich

So coins have gone up 340% (about 3.4 times) and the SP 1700% (about 17 times)?

It's sad, but for non-keydate US coins that's probably an accurate statement. Especially for coins in VF or lower grade. The local coin store has all sorts of circulated 19th century coins in their case that sit there for years at a time, no one wants them even though the prices on the 2x2 have not been updated in 18 years etc etc.

since the recession started coins and bullion have gone on a steady rise in value as people look to a more profitable return than the stock market..............

Originally Posted by moneyer12

since the recession started coins and bullion have gone on a steady rise in value as people look to a more profitable return than the stock market..............

People have invested in PM primarily for diversification and investing in asset with less risk due to poor return rates with CDs and bonbs PMs have become most attractive alternative not as alternative investment to equities. For those who invested in PMs expecting such return we have seen how well last 2 years have panned out.

Originally Posted by jjack

People have invested in PM primarily for diversification and investing in asset with less risk due to poor return rates with CDs and bonbs PMs have become most attractive alternative not as alternative investment to equities. For those who invested in PMs expecting such return we have seen how well last 2 years have panned out.

I suspect most investors in precious metals are more concerned with return OF principle than they are return ON principle. Which is a good thing, since any rise in interest rates will make precious metals much less attractive to anyone concerned about a return on their investment.

I've noticed that people are paying way more than the silver value for silver world coins. Take a coin like a British 3 pence or Australian 3 pence. Hardly any silver in it, but you'll see 4-5 bids pushing it up to $2-3 or more.

Originally Posted by Hiddendragon

I've noticed that people are paying way more than the silver value for silver world coins. Take a coin like a British 3 pence or Australian 3 pence. Hardly any silver in it, but you'll see 4-5 bids pushing it up to $2-3 or more.

Lower auction prices often bring in slew of inexperienced collectors who are simply bidding for heck of it or getting started without reading up on the details to how much silver is in the coin.

Hello

And the silver collectables? The charges are out of hand.

Amanda