Thoughts on key date US coins as investment hobby?

This is such an accurate take. If normal collectors stop collecting the series, nobody cares what the "key dates" are. Speculators are left playing in their own sandbox.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

We haven’t had it that long, but we are approaching 15 in a few years.

no storefront for me. I am 23 and began selling in about 2019 once I joined this site. The overhead of a retail location is too much and there wasn’t much business to be had where I was before due to the local coin shop being so good.

So, I operate mostly online.

 

Joseph Kennedy was getting a shoe shine one morning while the shoe shine boy was telling him all about RCA and how he was saving up to buy a share. Kennedy immediately called his broker and sold out all his positions. A few weeks later was the 1929 crash. Kennedy had reasoned they just might be out of players if they were down to shoe shine boys saving their nickels.

I suspect the 60's roll market crash had it's beginnings in a shoe shine boy moment: what do we do with all this stuff now that a collector doesn't really need 25 rolls of 1960 small date cents for his album.

 

Yes, I have been and I am a coin collector.
I remember when you only bought coins in a store or a magazine like Coin World.
I guess that is what it was called.
There was no internet, no pcgs and the like.
Put my 2 cents in about the topic...
Thoughts on key date US coins as investment hobby?

 

I enjoy the hobby, the history and passion to find nice coins and complete sets. You really need to know what you re doing to make a profit.

 

I haven't actively collected US coins in over a decade. I grew up hearing about the 1909S VDB, the three legged buffalo, the 1916D mercury, etc. These were always the rare coins everyone wanted. The biggest thing I've come to realize is a collector can go into about any decent sized show and find a few examples of all of these key dates and others.

Other than the most super rare in number or conditional rarities, I think most key dates aren't going to appreciate much more. In fact, I hear every day on Instagram and discord about the very high pricing at shows and online. For me personally, it doesn't matter how much I want a coin if the price is too high, I'll walk away and most people I know are the same.

Like most of the other posters, I collect for the fun and enjoyment. I love the history behind coins. I look at them like little works of art and I'm curating an exhibit. So, if my choice is to spend hundreds on 1916D Mercury that's slick or a fraction of that cost on a high grade example with satin like luster and beautiful toning, it's a no brainer for me. That 16D is staying in the case.

I'll end by saying, there's a reason you don't hear about people making a fortune off of rare coins every day. Most of the coins a person would need to buy to make this happen are well above most people's means.

 

Indeed, many younger people are sensitive and we were all impressionable. Discouragement of all sorts are common in the hobby and not new but what's missing so much for younger people is real encouragement. They aren't being judged by the depth of their passion but their wallets. I've always thought it was fun to ask young collectors about their collections. -even when they aren't coins.

 

It would be more true if you said the massive profits YOU HEAR ABOUT are for very high priced coins. But the profits there are a pittance compared to many coins made since WW II. Many coins have increased thousands fold, with hundred fold much more common. There are many coins going through the roof this way with millions in aggregate but tiny survival rates in each specific case. The coins are still around but they're harder to find every year because collectors snatch them up.

 

The BU roll market was a mania. But it went bust because in 1964 the mint announced all coins forevermore would be dated 1964. This was the mint's way of saying there's no need to collect modern coins ever again. This broke the back of the BU roll market and undermined the proof and mint set markets. Most of the rest of the coin market just had pullback. Then in 1965 the announcement that they were going to not make silver at all but make clad 1965's forever more had broader effects on the coin market as more speculators took their wallets and went home.

I suppose a lot of sellers into the crash felt like their shoeshine boy had just told them they were saving their nickels to buy a bag of brand new pennies.

The more things change...

 

Got 7 of these federal bank rolls when I was 16 years old.
I was collecting back then too.
Thinking investment.
Still have them, waiting.....

 

If you kept the right rolls - you did good.

1950-S 10c
any 30's/40's 25c
Ike rolls

But what people actually saved were cent rolls..... which aren't worth jack.

 

...because everybody saved them, and so they're too plentiful?

 

And I thought 16 year olds knew everything !

 

So plentiful there was one speculator whose attic collapsed from the weight. If Maalox was around then it should have been a: Who's buying this stuff if attics are collapsing from storage weight "Maalox moment" for speculators.

 

And 1950D nickel rolls.

 

Just wait, someday the penny will go away.
Still here because of the zinc mine politics, or so I've heard long ago.

 

Like most investments, numismatics has an element of risk and you could loose money if the market turns against you. I do not buy coins for investment purposes, but have found that gold coins give the best return (on paper — only because I have never sold anything). Shop for high quality with reasonable price.

 

I'm not buying gold anymore. I bought about a third of an ounce at $3,350 and thought I'd never get it back.

Now we are approaching $3,800 an oz.

 

Exactly right.

A cent roll is a 50c investment... really easy to be able to set aside 50c without needing to tap in long-term.

Plus, cents are just popular to begin with.

In order from least to most valuable rolls - I'd rank it as such.

Cents
Quarters
Nickels
Dimes
Halves
Sm. dollars
Large dollars
Proof rolls

Lots of money in BU Ike rolls right now. If I come across them, they're an instant buy. I missed some at an estate sale in Maine back in August, and regretted it.

Evan

 

And like many investments, don't put all your coins in one basket.
Hummm...who puts coins in a basket ?