What is the minimum collector grade?

For a gold or silver coin what is the minimum grade before it essentially trades as bullion?

Does this depend on the denomination of coin or is there an official or unofficial minimum grade?

 

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It would depend on the date.

 

It is totally dependent on the date of the coin. For example...lets talk about a Morgan Dollar. If it is a 1921...I'd say anything below AU is bullion or not much more. However, with an 1893-S...it's worth A LOT more than bullion value in any recognizable grade. It just depends on how many coins of a given date remain and how collected they are.

 

Ok. Lets assume common date so we can limit this as close to condition of the coin.
Also lets assume pre 1933 including both US and World coions.

 

I would say...with US coinage and an extremely common date. As a VERY general rule, below AU would be melt or very close. This might vary a little with the series.

 

Nope, you can not judge a coin like that, every coin is different. their is no 2 coins a like every date and mint mark is different to determine if a coin worth below collector value could only be assessed for the particular coin you are looking at !!

 

Modern Gold?

PF/PR68 then it might as well be bullion.

 

I once read in an old 1960's Redbook that collectors should not buy coins below Fine condition, save for extreme rarities.

 

Dealers treat modern graded gold as bullion. This is one of those items you should sell yourself - if you are letting if selling.

As to the original poster - I do not believe there is a one answer fits all. There are just too many variables. Not sure about world coins - but there are some harder to get US gold coins that go for just a few dollars more than common date coins. Of course these are not trading at bullion prices - just something I noticed on a few of them. Just my humble opinion.

 

Things have changed a bit since 1960.

 

That's not totally true. With many coins they do...but not always.

 

if a bullion coin trades as a coin, it costs a premium, but many gold and silver coins trade simply as bullion because their value as coins doesn't really exceed their bullion value and they are common enough to not command any premium.

 

What is the minimum collector grade?

Slug........that's if ya wanna collect 'em that way though......

 

It has as much to do with the price of them metal as it does the grade of the coin. higher grade coins hold their collector value more than lower grade coins in periods of low metal prices. however, as the price of the metal rises, it's common to see the "collector margin," that is, the spread between the melt value and the market price, shrink considerably. eventually, the collectible value will rise, but during the peak prices a couple years back, particularly in the case of gold, there were a lot of nice coins trading modestly above their melt values.

 

I think this is a great point. A few years back when silver was in the $40/oz range a lot more coins were "worth melt" because that collector margin shrunk to zero. With silver down quite a bit from those days...many coins have a larger margin.

 

I don't think that has changed much. most serious collectors still want a fine grade at a minimum. the best price gains in better date/mint coins over the years (decades) I've been in collecting have been in the better grades.

 

Well, in the 60's, there were not so many of us and prices were not so high (even adjusted for inflation). For many of us without seven figure incomes, many series and individual dates are only possible in lower grades.

I love Colonials and early copper, for example. I want to buy an Oak Tree piece next year. I can't spend more than $1,500 and I'd rather spend $1,000.00 - do you see any PCGS F-15's in my future?

 

There are low grade collectors. I think that would be kind of interesting to have a collection of coins (type or series) where you are trying for the lowest grade in each coin you can get. I think it might be hard to do for some series to do one that actually has all the coins in less than a 10 grade, since some series have some coins that didn't circulate well or for long. CHALLENGE!

 

People do that. Actually graded coins that are super low grades (Pr1) tend to sell for a premium due to this type of collector.