$35,000 Franklin half ?

Seen in this week's coin world ( p23). Who buys this stuff ? I wouldn't pay more than a couple hundred for a franklin. You'd never be able to sell this for what you buy it for. Buy something with potential.

1956 Type I NGC PF 68 UC offered by R+I

I'm sure the dealer is reputable, but these coins are way over-priced, IMO.

 

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I believe that. I'm submitting some of my 1958 proof sets for slabbing and I dont expect to get a $35,000 out of any of them, though I'll cross my fingers.
It's his business and he can do what he wants with pricing his coins accordingly.

 

I wouldn't bet on that.....NGC has only graded a total of 1 (ONE) and that is one reason the price is sooo high....another reason is that it is the ONLY 1956 TY proof that NGC has graded with UCAM.....
I'm betting the coin will sell and if the buyer would keep it a few years and sell it again....I bet he would make a proffit!

The dealer is reputable and only buys the top notch coins around....I've never seen a coin that was way overpriced...it seems that he reseraches his prices and lists them along with the market going price!

Speedy

 

Simple. All you need is a seller and a willing buyer to break new record prices. If someone buys it at that price, what seemed absurd before in the past wouldn't necessarily be true in the future.

 

I have to disagree with you here Speedy, I do not think Rick Tomaska is a very reputable dealer. He marks his coins up 200%-300%. If you buy a coin from him, don't expect to sell it back for anywhere near what you paid; if he even wants it back. He also used to claim to be a PNG member in his Coin World ads, when he is not a PNG member.

JMHO, Charlie

 

The problem I have with this is if you took a road trip and stopped by a 100 randomly found dealers, and offered this item for sale to them, the offers you'd receive would be way lower than even half of 35K, I'd guess most offers would be well under $500.

For the 35k give me 10 nice Bust dollars, or a bunch of gem SG-20's, or maybe a whole bunch of nice ( and scarce) under-rated half-cents, or something along those lines.

this modern stuff doesn't do it for me. Awhile back somebody paid 5 figures for a proof 60's cent, that's insane !

35k might just about buy a low mint state Bust Dollar, give me that over a proof Franklin half anyday.

 

Hey Charlie
Really???...I didn't know the thing about the PNG.....
I have gotten 2 really good coin off of him and they were not overpriced a bit....I called and tried to talk him down on another one but he wouldn't go down to the price I wanted----
I guess I really don't know alot about the big time dealers.....most of my buying is done through small time dealers and collectors!

Speedy

 

One problem there is that most dealers don't do much with Franklin Halves where this guy does almost all of his business with them....also you have to have a buyer for the coin and if you don't have a buyer you don't offer the price that it could bring.

Speedy

 

I went and did some researching and it looks like NGC has graded ONE in this grade and PCGS TWO....so a total of 3 of this date/type/grade slabbed in todays market.....
When thinking of coins with DCAM Franklins don't have that too much---and for one from the 50's that is even less....
I found a listing where one sold on Heritage....a NGC PF68UCAM 1956 TY1---and it sold for $310.50---now this was in 2003 and I would say that it has gone up alittle but I do think that after looking at this the one listed for 35K would need to be a heck of a coin to get that much more....one from ICG sold for about $285.

Speedy

 

$35,000? There's a PCGS MS-64 (FBL) that I was thinking of getting but am not sure I want to spend $20 on a Franklin half, heh. I guess I'm just not that into them.

 

35K would build a nice type set ( 1800-date, no gold). You could probably do the the copper and nickel coins all mint state, and the seated liberty silver on up in mint state, and have enough left to acquire nice circulated examples of the early silver, if you didn't go crazy with every sub-variety.

I'll take that over one coin you'd have trouble selling.

 

The problem with the Franklin is the variety is not well recognized, who really cares about the difference in the mini-eagle ?...not many !

 

Those adds are for the super rich looking to make an "investment" in coins. Sure they're nice and the finest of their grade and etc, but in the end they are only worth as much as you can get someone to buy them for. Personally for 35k I could build a complete morgan set in pretty good condition and that includes the 12-13k for the proof only issue

 

From what I've seen almost all the "investing" in coins is in the classics. The moderns are driven primarily by new collectors and most of the high end coins by registry participants and others trying to complete sets in the highest possible grades.

A lot of people don't like the moderns but the simple fact is that whether you're talking absolute rarity or grade rarity the moderns are a small fraction of the price of the classics. It's also possible to put together very high grade sets of moderns from raw coins for a song. The raw sets will have few coins that command a large premium, but it can be done whereas it's quite impossible in classics even with a lot of money.

 

I had a few Ben Franklin halves (one with the liberty bell on the back?) when I was younger...I was probably 10 years old. Coupled with it was an assortment of other half dollar coins that was part of my "Starter collection" my father gave me.....and well...I spent them on doughnuts by my neighborhood pool. The doughnuts were good....

True story.

So this thread has made me feel even worse than I already did. :headbang:

 

You can get common circ Franklins for about $5 each. The one in the OP is expensive because it is a high grade proof.

Charlie

 

You may not think much of the Franklins, but there is a lot more to them than you may know, check them out.
I personally have several complete sets of them from circulated at about $275.00 to a MS60 TO 66 RAW SET booking around $2000.00 to an almost complete MS65FBL by PCGS and NGC that when finished will be worth about $35,000. I already have a complete set in MS64FBL by PCGS and NG

I think you are wrong that they are not a well recognized series. There are a lot of Franklin Collectors out here.

Madspec

 

WELCOME--I thought I was about the ONLY one that really liked them.
I haven't done the number of sets you have done but I do have about 2 total of ciruclated and UNC mixed and then I'm almost done with my Proof set....all of the coins must be slabbed and graded PF66....I'm down to 2 and then I want to upgrade a few to CAMEO and then someday I want to do a set totaly in MS64 with some FBL!!!

Speedy

 

Franklins are the heart of my collection,i collect MS-state,proofs and circulated grades.definately one of my favorite coins.

 

Be careful thinking that the dealers that advertise in "Coin World" are reputable. I have had to send back everything I've bought out of this mag. R & I may be an exception.