Does anyone save clad half dollars?

I don't know about you, but I won't be around to see if your prediction comes true. I knew there was a reason I have a Kennedy-free collection.

 

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I too have ordered Kennedy half dollars a couple of times to search and dumped them all. I got some clad Ikes from the bank that were sitting on a tray but sold them at face to be given as gifts to my niece.

 

I grab a few rolls from the mint each year. Why? Stupid I guess, but my great grand kids may be sitting on a gold mine (yeah, sure).

 

OK. I understand your point now but I believe you are mistaken. Indeed, my experience and knowledge say you are mistaken.

These coins simply no longer exist. Sure they made a couple million 1973 mint sets and every single one hasn't burnt up or been flooded and I'm not saying they are all gone but rather they for all practical purposes they are "all gone".

The reality is a few sets (~40,000) trickle onto the market every year from people who bought them from the mint. These are original sets and not cherry picked in any way (by definition). This number is more than adequate to supply new demand and the price is stable. There are another 150,000 sets in the hands of collectors, speculators, dealers, and hoarders. Other than about 150,000 sets in the hands of original purchasers this is it. There are no others. There are, of course, at least 250,000 singles and rolls of the Ikes.

What you might not realize from these huge numbers is how few of these are actrually available to purchase. Most of these would not be sold except at substantially higher prices and most of them are not extremely attractive coins. About 60% are nice chBU or better and nice enough most collectors would be satisfied with them.

Essentially the entire market has always consisted of only the flow of original sets onto the market plus whatever speculators are divesting themselves of. Right now this second category is high due to tarnishing sets and tired longs.

The other coins simply aren't really available. Collectors are not extremely sophisticated and are unlikely to sell into higher prices. Speculators aren't going to be quick to sell.

If prices went higher there is every chance that instead of spurring selling among the public, it would spur buying instead. Nothing breeds success like success.

 

You ignored the entire point of what I was saying that the reason supply doesn't exist is the lack of a market.

The part you quoted was my thoughts on the market collapsing once you were no longer the market maker. The coins are out there, but no one bothers to sell them, since the "coin store" owner offers them less than face value (usually out of laziness and lack of understanding of what is in the sets) with a $3 bid. If they were offered the prices the sets go for on eBay (which, in many cases, they "don't understand how to use"), they would likely be willing to part ways with their sets, thinking they "made money" (sell at $9, bought at $6.50 or w/e). There are those sets that were given away to grandkids or nieces and nephews, which have "more sentimental value" than the ask. *Those* sets might "never be sold" simply because the perception would be they're "worth $50 or more."

The hoarders are likely getting close to the age where they start to die off. Within the next decade, a ton of these sets will be hitting the market (if they haven't already) in the form of kids or grandkids settling out estates of the hoarders.

The coins didn't go "nowhere" and were rarely used in commerce. They're out there, somewhere, and you only want less than 1% of the population. I'm telling you, if you were sincere about this (and not merely being hypothetical), you could achieve your goal with some time (say two years), some money (say $200k) and some effort (not blanket over-bidding, but making a reasonable bid and paying a premium for premium coins).

 

You're missing the points.

The coins aren't available and for the main part the sets are gone. There is only one way for moderns to survive and that is for someone to set them aside or to sit in dealer inventory. Collectors don't collect them and dealers don't like stocking them. This is as simple as I can say it.

The ones that are hoarded are mostly in the hands of younger collectors.

There is no demand and no supply. No amount of demand will cause coins to materialize from thin air.

There simply aren't enough of most moderns to exist in a mass market. If the demand materialized then the supply would have to come from circulation and there's some question as to how many coins like half dollars exist in circulation.

 

I'm not missing the points. I think they're flawed in nature.
1) Hoarders are young. If the hoarders are young, you can likely get the coins out of their hands by offering double what they paid. Since they're hoarding, this was likely just a little over face per set. So, either you can get supply by offering double the bid to young hoarders or the hoarders aren't as young as you think.
2) Collectors don't collect them and dealers don't stock them. That means they're somewhere, since it wouldn't be efficient for the original purchasers to cut out the coins and roll them, just to get face value from a bank. Just because they're not out for sale doesn't mean the coins aren't in inventory, it merely means they don't warrant shelf space.
3) The sets are gone. This is basically a rehashing of the first two points, so go reread my responses on those.

Again, if demand were generated en masse, so dealers would find it worthwhile to haul the sets out of storage, there would be supply. The sets didn't enter into circulation or the hobby would have heard something somewhere about a hoard found in bankrolls. The coins, for the most part, are still in Mint Sets, stored somewhere. The question is merely about making a market for them.

I'm telling you, if you took out a national ad offering $10 per set, you'd probably get responses far exceeding 50,000 sets. This argument sounds better in theory than in reality, because, in practice, the sets still exist, therefore, the supply still exists.

Edit: Nevermind. I don't know how to rehash/reword any of what I've said, so you're right. Low mintage Ike dollars have no supply, even though they exist in mint sets that still haven't been cherrypicked.

 

Here's half your problem.

You don't seem to be aware that as these sets flow onto the market they have been destroyed for half a century now. No one wants them so they get cut up and put in the cash register. Which brings us to another thing you apparently don't know; these coins are not worthless in quantity. The wholesale price on rolls of half dollars ranges from about $15 to $40. You can cut up vast numbers of mint sets and make rolls that are worth much more than the mint sets.

This is what's been happening. Everyone is cutting up sets from one at a time to thousands at a time.

They're gone now and no amount of demand and no market can evewr bring them back. We live in a disposable society and these coins have been disposed.

 

I understand that the thread title is about halves, but your entire argument up to this point has been about Ikes. I've never heard of Ikes going for $80 a roll in today's market.

Edit: That should be $80 per common date roll, not $40.

 

The '76-P tI Ike from the 1975 mint set, rolls, and bags wholesales at $80/ roll.

I'm sure you can get much more for nice choice rolls whether they are bank rolls or from mint sets.

 

Again, I said common Ikes. This conversation began with 77-P Ikes.

As each point you made was addressed, you evolved the conversation to 1973-P and 1976-P Type I (1975 Mint set) coins.

Anyway, as I said, there's nothing more I can say to logically show you why it would be fairly easy to get 10,000 BU 1977-P Ikes for a reasonable premium (on average) over current bid. Each time I've presented a solution for you, you've changed the question. I'm tired of having to argue this, since it's eventually going to devolve into "You can't find 1976-P Type I MS-68 Ikes in rolls."

I'm done.

 

You can probably get 10,000 BU 1977 Ikes without disturbing the market too much.

It would be harder than you think but it can be done.

 

I love coins. Got an Ike at the local truck stop. the manager did have over 40 Kennedy's but his partner/manager banked them. I enjoy looking for Kennedy's and examining them. Have not found a "valuable" one but I look. I keep them to have solid money on hand. I do not want thousands of dollars of coins but like to keep a few hundred on hand. Also, I can get popular at events/gatherings when I trade some Kennedy's to friends/people.

 

I can't remember the last time I got a half in change.