http://www.ocregister.com/articles/coins-725297-coin-cent.html "Two rare, 1792 one-cent coins sold for a combined total of $869,500 at an auction Wednesday in Anaheim. The sale was part of a five-day auction of world coins taking place at the World’s Fair of Money at the Anaheim Convention Center. The event was expected to bring in $30 million. The pennies, known as the Birch Cent and the Silver Center Cent, were made in the early days of the U.S. Mint, according to Heritage Auction spokesman Eric Bradley. Heritage is the auction host..."
That Birch Cent hammered at $564k just last year at winter FUN. Somebody tried a flip (you don't hold a coin like this for only 18 months if you're a collector), and lost $50k on the deal.
Or they needed capital, or they completed a set and set off on a new challenge, or half a million is pocket change to them and they shrug it off the way I shrug off a $10 mistake on eBay. But this is another interesting counterexample for all the "bigger the coin, safer the investment" arguments.
My thinking is the "high-but-not-top" examples, MS67's when 68 is Top Pop, things like that where the value is not so inflated that you can only expect the very deepest pockets to even attempt the purchase. Given that value includes demand as a component, if you're going to collect with an investment mindset you need to heavily factor demand. Coins like this one are not a good example of numismatic investing. You're too dependent upon the right people being interested at that moment when you sell.
Well said...mid grade slabbed Walkers (I'm talking ms65-66) have a much higher collector audience with that amount of money to spend on a nice coin...??
When you MUST sell. Otherwise you can just hold on for longer until the market can meet your price... 1804 dollar for $10m anyone?
Quite agreed. So, part of my thinking when contemplating numismatics as "investment" is the reality that you may not get to decide when you have to liquidate, and need to factor that eventuality into your decisions as well.
I definitely do not think so. Per a prior comment, very expensive coins are less likely to hit the market at a loss unless the owner must sell. However, I have seen some that have, though cheaper than this one. As an example in my series, Heritage sold the Patterson example of the Mexico NGC AU-58 4R (with assayer and MM) in the third installment of the Rudman sale for only slightly more today than its prior sale back in 1996. Rudman's 1732 Mexico gold 8E sold last year for about the same as it realized back in 1985. These are much cheaper coins than these two but are among the elite within the broader Mexico series and there isn't any reason to believe that the more elite coins are immune to price declines either, regardless of origin.
