To complete a type set, I would like to get a $3 gold princess in decent shape (AU55 - MS60), and have been watching for a while. I expect the price of gold coins to go up when spot gold goes up, but these things are CRAZY. Does anyone think they're totally overpriced ? I understand about "supply vs. demand" and "market price", but I've compared populations vs. MS 63 / 64 $10 Indians (which have low populations) and I just can't justify the big fat price tag for these $3s. Does the bubble ever pop on a rare coin issue that's overpriced ? Or do they advance and establish a floor, and never come down ?
The total minted of $10 indians was still many times the number of $3 gold minted. So while the populations graded may be similar, there are evidently more $10 raw indians, than raw $3. Also counterfeiting of the $3 was quite common years ago and most people had theirs certified, which would also skew the graded populations. Mine had such a soft strike ( as did many) that certification was almost mandatory. Also, the $3 gold was not a very popular piece when issued, whereas the $10 indian was/is a classic beauty IMHO.
I looked into buying a $3 gold coin briefly, but balked at the prices. I too have heard many stories about cointerfeiting, and they served to scare me away even more. I guess I could have bought a slabbed example, but I really wanted a raw coin, and I didn't want to take the chance that I'd get burned. I've kind of accepted the fact that I will probably never own one.
Funny thing- most of those are in cleaned condition. There must have been a time when folks thought it was a good idea to give them a good scrubbing. My brother picked one up quite a few years ago for about melt (a cleaned on that is). The "collectable" or non cleaned one will cost ya', and be careful of that lightly cleaned thing (buy a cert. coin on this one since most of them were monkeyed with).
