Are coins dead as an Investment?

As an investment, coins are as alive as Beanie Babies.

Some people can make money off of 'em.

Just not me. I just spend money on them, and then only sometimes. I'm in it for other reasons.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Not necessarily.

 

They are commodities. They're special because they keep better than pork bellies, and they take up less space than gasoline.

If silver and gold "are money", please explain how the gold-silver ratio fluctuates so widely. For bonus points, explain why the loaf of bread that cost a silver half-dollar ($2.50) in 2002, then cost one silver dime ($3.00) in 2011, costs a silver quarter ($3.25) in 2020. I don't remember any great wheat shortage around the turn of the millennium, and it doesn't feel like my fake fiat dollars buy two and a half times as much food and fuel as they did nine years ago...

 

This could be a way to do it, if you want. It surely is not the only way sir.

I buy coins for what they ARE, not grade. I would challenge nearly any US coin that could show the appreciation of coins of Julius Caesar, Cleopatra VII, etc. Coins with important historical figures have gone through the roof if they are scarce in the last 15 years. My Cleo's are up 100% or more in that timeframe.

So, even if you wish to collect for profit, (which I do not, and with the buy/sell spread is very difficult), there are many, many ways to approach it versus a condition only requirement. "Pretty", common coins may look pretty, but in the end of the day are COMMON coins.

 

2 year old article but still relevant.
I find that much of the investment grade coins, belong not to the 1% but to the
1/100 of 1%. Constantly reading about a million dollar coin which is held for a few years and then sells for much higher than originally purchased.
This is no guarantee, but it seems that the very top most desirable coins, almost always resell for more.
And I am not talking about some common high grade overpriced pop 1 of 1 coin.
But a coin that everyone in the hobby talks about, and knows about. 1913 nickel, 1943 copper cent, etc.

 

I completely agree.

 

I love all of my coins (and all my other stuff lol)! I do think some coins make a quasi-investment. Kudos to those who bought ASE, certified, early on - that was an investment, at least that's how I see it. Those early MS70's ASE will always have value.

This morning I went out and stopped to get a "cup a joe", and started picking thru the penny tray on the counter. I picked out 2 wheaties and a few others, then slapped an extra buck down for the pennies. Made for a nice 10 min conversation to someone knowing nothing about coins. Made my morning!

There is nothing better than hearing that sound of getting a silver coin in your change!

 

I generally buy at prices where I don’t lose money if I need to sell, and often at prices where I will make money. Other coins I buy at full retail knowing I would probably lose money in the long run. It all balances out, though in my case it is a bit on the positive side

 

I once thought about coins as an investment, I laughed about it, then I forgot about.

 

Because he was speaking of taking an investing approach.

 

I kept back dozens of nice coins I found in circulation. Too many more than I needed but not enough to think of it as an investment. Then, much to my surprise, I ended up with a bunch of grandkids and great grandkids. Keeping them was, therefore, a good investment for me. I am able to pull from stock and make sets for them that are relevant to their individual family trees.

 

Coins are a great investment. They've saved me 10's of 1000's of dollars in medical bills over the years simply by relieving stress and anxiety.

 

Coins never were an investment and never will be.

But there are lots of coins soaring in price though they never get mentioned because they are base metal moderns and no one in this country cares about them. This should continue for decades but before you buy them read the first paragraph again.

I believe that eventually US moderns will soar as well.

 

The US Mint is making so many coins that they will NEVER be popular to serious collectors world wide. I have all the general circulation coins (dollar, half dollars, dimes, nickels and most quarters and pennies) from 1900 and earlier. I stopped these sets several years back because I need to pay a premium for so many of them.

 

They really aren't making that many coins. They have expanded what they're doing in the last year or two, but for the longest time a significant percentage of their offerings have been the same items over and over in different packaging. The major world mints will do many many times more products in a year than the US does

They're doing better now but they were left in the dust for so long when it came to innovation that it's easy to see why they never captured the world market. Design choice is really hurting them on many things as well

 

Coins are a rotten investment, so be very careful and choosy what you buy. You had better like something a real real real real real real real lot to buy a sure-fire losing item. I have drastically cut down on buying coins (near to nothing, actually) because for me the pleasure of owning them doesn't outweigh the disappointment of the money I have almost always wasted buying them. Instead, I can read about coins, look at pictures of them, discuss them here, etc. I don't need to own many, or possibly any, to enjoy them. I have better things to do with my money.

 

I was really referring mainly to base metal coins made for circulation. these are the ones that have been soaring in price. There are lots of coins that were available for pennies ten years ago (if you could find them) that are selling for thousands now. There are still a lot of circulating moderns that are quite scarce and very inexpensive. These coins have never had any demand and now that a little demand is arising there just isn't any supply.

I looked for some moderns for decades and never found a single one.

 

Gold is the universal currency. It doesn't fluctuate - the baseless fiat currencies of the world fluctuate. An ounce of fold is an ounce of gold.

Let's compare silver. In the 1960s, a gallon of gas was right around 25 cents a gallon. If I have a silver quarter, I can still buy a gallon of gas - actually more than a gallon at present.

In 1964, minimum wage was $1.25/hr. If you got 5 silver quarters now for an hour of work, you would get about $15 in FRNs - isn't that what the huddled masses are asking the minimum wage to be?

So, tell me that the monopoly money issued by the private business called the Federal Reserve is MONEY. What would J.P. Morgan call it?

 

It seems like you've completely ignored my second paragraph. If you claim that gold doesn't fluctuate, you're saying that every other common good dropped drastically in price during 2011, then they all rose in synchrony over the next several years, and now they're all getting cheaper again.

Better yet, look at your minimum wage argument. From July 2009 (when the Federal minimum wage was last raised, to $7.25/hr) to July 2011, the minimum wage dropped from 0.435 troy ounces of silver per hour to less than 0.16 troy ounces per hour. Does that mean workers could afford only one-third of their former gasoline, or bread, or housing? OF COURSE NOT. Those items did not spike in price, and the dollar did not plunge in price; silver spiked.

You're cherry-picking years to claim that silver and gold never change in value (how much of other things they'll purchase). Allow yourself to look at other years, and you'll see that that's ridiculous -- unless you've simply decided that gold and silver are immutable yardsticks. And in that case, you've mastered the art of doublethink, because the ratio between the two changes constantly.

 

Some people thing that PMs make something money instead of the backing of the government that issue it. It makes no sense and isn't true, but there's probably always going to be people that buy into that notion