Do high grade Ike dollars have long term potential?

I picked up an NGC certified MS-65 business strike Ike dollar on Ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1977-D-ONE-...58?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item51ba56cac6

Until now I didn't think that such a common coin would be worth sending out to get slabbed. However, I have read that business strikes are difficult to find without bag marks, and the auction prices for Ike's aren't that cheap for MS65 and above, with MS66's selling for $50 and up. Even the $10 I paid seems like a lot.

Are Ike's genuinely scarce in higher grades, or are there millions of them still sitting in bags and rolls that haven't been cherry picked? I know that a lot of Morgans were thought to be rare in MS65 when PCGS and NGC first started in the late 80's, and then the market crashed after more and more high grade coins came out of the woodwork.

I always thought before that Ike's were ugly and boring, but when I look at the design now it's actually starting to grow on me. This is a coin I can remember from my early childhood that hasn't circulated since then and most younger people now have probably never seen. Could it become a hot collectible sometime in the future or are there just too many of them still around?

 

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no. they are the ugliest coin (second only to the SBA) to be called an american dollar.

 

I think high grade examples do have long term potential. This is a very underrated set. It has many varieties, it has silver and it has a very wide range of strike quality. On top of that...due to the large size of the coin they tend to be marked up and thus are rare in high grade. I don't think the MS65 grade has long term potential in this series...but I think the MS66 and especially MS67 range coins do.

It's actually a wonderful set.

 

ikes aren't very pretty to collect compared to peace and morgans but to each his/her own.

 

I agree. There are MS-66 and -67 Ikes still in their blue and brown boxes just waiting to be cherry picked by an astute collector. A lot of dealers and collectors fail to realize just how few of these large bland looking dollars escaped from the mint in blemish free condition.

I have a set of the silver issues and more than a few were graded MS-66 by the coin dealers I bought them from and the rest were graded MS-65 which I felt was very conservative. They are all virtually mark free. I believe this holder was made by Capital Plastics and I have not seen another like it.

 

I like Ike! The ones with the highest potential are the cupro-nickel circulated versions in high MS. The brown and blue Ikes were made to be collectible so never will be. But the others are usually pretty beat up. I'm sure there are still many hidden away, but those will rarely make 66 and up.

One indicator of their potential is comparing prices for Ikes and any other coin from the 70's in ms 66-68 on the pcgs price guide. None come close. Whatever that is worth.

 

It will be a collectable in the higher grades as already mentioned. Will it be a "hot collectable"? No; but it does offer an affordable way to learn about the investment side of numismatics. Especially those with limited funds.

 

I'm not so sure they won't one day be a hot collectible. The Ike set as a ton to offer. I think it's a true sleeper set right now.

 

Yes, high grade Ikes do have potential for the future. A lot of high grade moderns that have low populations in higher grades will gain value in the future, due to exclusivity. I agree with my colleagues that Ikes are underrated--I have a number of 65-67 Ikes and am definitely keeping them.

 

Unfortunately this uninformed opinion is what has made the series languish at low levels of interest for quite a while. I firmly believe this series should and will pick up interest over time, especially with all the work being done to find and identify new varieties and re-classify older ones.

Being one who has taken an interest in the series, there is quite a lot of history to be found in how this series came about, what issues plagued the production of the coin when initially launched, and the stunning number of varieties of a coin series that lasted only 8 years. It is fascinating to dig into the series and learn about it, and to me it makes the series even more of a desire to collect.

It has a lot of the elements of becoming a very popular set to collect, and a very real possibility of appreciating in value, way much more than current. One of the reasons is the fact that there are very few high grade Ikes out there - until recently there was never anything higher than an MS-66+ for a business strike coin.

So, first to answer your question - MS-65 is, but isn't really a high grade for most of the coins in the series if that makes any sense. There's only a few where a 65 is very expensive, such as the Type-2 and the 1976-P Type I business strike. The rest of the series is "cheap" and/or very reasonable in MS-65, going for $40-60 for most of the series.

The "blue Ikes" are easier to find in high-grade (except for 1971), with even MS-67 examples for 1972, 1973 and 1974 being available for around $100 or so, and MS-66 typically going for half that.

Proof "brown Ikes" are also easier to find in high grade, PF-69 is common especially on the later year clads.

Any of the truly high-grade Ikes are worth many thousands of dollars, so it's extremely tough to find them, but also unfortunately very challenging to be able to own one.

Putting a decent complete set together (about 40 coins) - mostly MS-64 Business strikes, MS-66 blue Ikes and PR68/69 proofs would run you about $1000 right now.

BTW - nice score on the 77, good price, nice looking coin. However, currently in the Ike world there is a very noticeable bias towards PCGS graded coins both getting and maintaining their value and pricing. NGC is for the moment certainly "second fiddle" when it comes down to it.

Hope this helps.

 

I have my toned Ikes that were part of the Golden Nugget Hoard. While they are not high grade, they have historical significance, and they're fun. These were casino tokens at the Nugget for the whales:

 

Cool! I've always wondered whom else nabbed a few of these. Good to see that these landed in good hands. You've got a PM on its way.

 

Yeah, but the peace dollar hasn't been minted in 80 years, and is silver. The Eisenhower dollar was minted in the last 40 years and was clad. Of course it's less desirable. That doesn't mean that it is not desirable. A Morgan isn't very pretty to collect compared to a 1933 double eagle, but they're still cool. Apples and oranges.

 

*cough* any post-2000 "gold" dollar *cough*

 

Is a '73-S 40% Eisenhower worth much?

 

More than the equivalent years due to lower mintages. All depends on what it is, what grade, etc. Blue or brown? Graded or UNC?

If it's ungraded you'll get about $12-15 for the BU, about $25-30 for the proof still in OGP.

Graded all depends, MS-66 and under you're looking at less than $50, 67 and up you're in the hundreds. PF-69DCAM can fetch $60.

 

You can disagree with his opinion, but I do not believe its fair to call it "uninformed". He called the coin ugly, a sentiment shared by most of us. Hence, the series is not very popular. Will this ever change? NO way of knowing, but it could very well remain as is.

So, disagree all you want, but please do not label it "uninformed" simply because you disagree with it. I think they are fugly as well, and only own some from group lot purchases over the years, and I am a hoarder so I do not sell anything. If I were the type to sell coins, you can be sure I would not own any Ikes.

 

Actually...he said more than this. The first word in his post: "no" answered the OP's question. Saying "no" flat out to the question "Do high grade Ike's have long term potential?" is flat out wrong. That is an uninformed answer...plain and simple. The rest of his statement is an opinion and he is entitled to it. But, just because he thinks the coin is ugly does not mean that the series has no long term potential. Based on what I have seen over the past few years...this statement is completely wrong. Thus, "uninformed" is an accurate description of it.

 

Current coin collectors seem to be doing everything in their power to drive new collectors out of the hobby. No, nothing in this thread is over the top but it's a recurring theme everywhere all the time; modern coins are ugly base metal junk and common in all grades. Children and new collectors are told to stay away from all this garbage or they'll be burned. This is great for the stamp hobby and other things to which they are driven but it just might kill numismatics.

We added almost no collectors between 1965 and 1998 and now we're driving away the new ones.

People shouldn't collect Ikes anymore than they should collect Morgan dollars. Collectors should collect what they like and not have to hear people belittle their choices or question the wisdom.

The fact that something as rare as an MS-65 Ike can sell for $10 bodes very ill for the future. Moderns just might plummet from almost nothing to nothing. But what's that condition rare Morgan going to be worth after the last newbie is driven out of the hobby? A rare MS-66 Morgan is far more common than a rare MS-66 Ike and has far far farther to fall.

Is this really what everyone wants? Do we hate moderns so much that we are willing to destroy a hobby to suppress them?

This just breaks my heart but on the bright side newbies in twenty years might be able to find early mint marked buffalos in high grade in pocket change again.

 

Part of it goes to a very simple question: Why are you collecting coins?

If you're collecting to make a ton of money, good luck with that.

If you're collecting because you like history, because you consider coins art, then buy what you love and don't worry about what someone else says. I just finished reading another thread where the poster got rid of a bunch of coins for a particular type set because he or she realized that they didn't like those coins! What a waste!

Buy what you love, and don't worry about it. If the coins do happen to appreciate in value, then when you sell (you do realize you don't get anything back until you sell, right?) then you might make a return on your investment. But if you never sell, then it doesn't matter whether the value of the coin goes up or down.

If you're happy, that's all that matters.