l have an icon on the right side of my screen when on cointalk. Otherwise, here is a link. Mike and Matt are quite fun to listen to. Mike is a collector and Matt is a seller. They have different perspectives that make it a fun listen. I laugh when Matt tries to guess the states where the ATB's are located. I must say, I really don't know many of them either but it is funny to see him get almost all of them wrong. http://www.coinshowradio.com/listen-to-the-show/
I will give a like to the first person that can put these famous folks with the less than famous ATB locations. The famous folks are Joe Biden, Edmund Muskie, Andrew Jackson, Ronald Reagan, Mitch McConnell, Barack Obama, and Gerald Ford. The ATB's are Great Smoky Mountains, Hawaii Volcanoes, Cumberland Gap, Pictured Rocks, Acadia, Yosemite, and Bombay Hook. If you can do it without help or Internet searches, you get extra credit.
Only the Hawaii Volcanoes has risen in value; the others have lost a little value since my last market value update.
With the release of the Apostle Island's puck, I thought it was a good time for an update on their values versus their mintages. Generally, the pucks have lost value in the past month. The Hawaii and Acadia pucks took big dives as well as Denali. The rarest puck, George Rogers Clark, has settled in value at about $270-$275. Ellis Island has lost value and settling near the value of many other pucks at about $157. It is not a good time to sell pucks but it may be a good buying opportunity.
The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore puck went on sale in April 2017. The mint has already sold 15,125 in the first couple of weeks after release. It is interesting that the mint is releasing three pucks in a row from the upper Midwest, Pictured Rocks (Michigan), Apostle Island (Wisconsin), and Voyageur (Minnesota). I kind of like the first two of the year. From the mint website. Established in 1970, the park includes 21 islands in Lake Superior and a 12-mile-long strip of mainland shoreline. The park encompasses more than 69,000 acres, almost 40 percent of which are part of Lake Superior, and lies within the heart of the ancestral and modern homeland of the Ojibwe people. The park features pristine stretches of sand beaches and coves, spectacular sea caves, some of the highest quality stands of remnant old-growth upper forests in the Midwest, and a diverse population of birds, mammals, amphibians, and fish. It also has the largest collection of National Register lighthouses (nine) and lighthouse complexes (seven) in the national park system.
With the release of the Voyageur's puck, I thought it would be a good time to update the market values versus their mintages. The pucks continue to decline in value. The Hawaii puck seems to be holding its value but it is the outlier. The others are losing value including the rarest (HRC). Six pucks remain on sale but collectors aren't racing to buy them. The mint has sold only 14,184 Voyageur pucks since it release three weeks ago.
The Voyageur's National Park puck went on sale on 14 June 2017. The mint has only sold 14,184 in the first three weeks after release. The Minnesota offering is a nice design as were the ones from Michigan and Wisconsin. I'm liking the 2018 designs much better than the ones from 2017. From the mint website. Voyageurs National Park was established in 1975 “to preserve . . . the outstanding scenery, geological conditions, and waterway system” inherent to the park. Visitors can see and touch rocks half as old as the world, immerse themselves in the sights and sounds of a boreal forest, view the dark skies, or ply the interconnected water routes. The park protects 218,054 acres of land, with 84,000 acres of that being water. In essence, this park is miles of undeveloped shoreline, with hundreds of islands and numerous large lakes. The combination of rocky shorelines, the meeting of southern boreal and northern hardwood forests, and the open water creates a distinct home for bald eagles, loons, black bears, moose, and wolves (with wolves, moose, and bears most commonly seen by visitors).
The Cumberland Island National Seashore puck went on sale on 27 August 2018. The mint has only sold 12,980 in the first week of sales. The Georgia offering is another nice one from 2018 as were the earlier ones from Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. From the mint website. The 2018 America the Beautiful Five Ounce Silver Uncirculated Coin™ – Cumberland Island National Seashore (Georgia) is the fourth release of 2018 in the America the Beautiful Quarters® Program. The reverse (tails) design depicts a snowy egret posing on a branch on the edge of a salt marsh, ready for flight. Inscriptions are "CUMBERLAND ISLAND," "GEORGIA," "2018," and "E PLURIBUS UNUM." Cumberland Island National Seashore was established in 1972. It maintains the primitive, undeveloped character of one of the largest and most ecologically diverse barrier islands on the Atlantic coast, while preserving scenic, scientific, and historical values and providing outstanding opportunities for outdoor recreation and solitude. Cumberland Island contains a rich concentration of cultural resources that recount 4,000 years of human habitation and include a remarkable diversity of ethnic and social backgrounds. There are almost 18 miles of pristine beach open to the public for recreational activities such as swimming and walking. The island is also known to have one of the largest oak maritime forests remaining in the United States, which provides an unparalleled visitor experience. Cumberland Island National Seashore protects the largest designated wilderness area on an east coast barrier island. The island’s physical location provides visitors opportunities to experience outdoor recreation in an uncrowded, undeveloped setting.
With the release of the Cumberland Island puck, I thought it would be a good time to update the market values versus their mintages. The pucks continue their value decline in 2018. Seven pucks remain on sale but sales are very slow with little demand on the secondary market. The low price of silver is probably not helping the market values. The mint has sold only 12,980 of the Georgia puck in its first week of sales. It may be time for the mint to lower the sales price.
I collected these for a while but now that they have $70 worth of silver and charge $155 per puck it seems crazy. It also didn't help that when I went to sell them dealers didn't even want them for anything over melt.
I think that the mint should lower the price to say $135. You can sell the pucks on the bay for the prices above. You will surrender 15% but you'll do far better than melt. If you sell on the bay, you should use the "Buy it Now" option. It seems to get the best result, but you will need to wait a bit.
Yesterday at a local coin show, I purchased two 2017 George Rogers Clark "P" pucks for $150 each. $300 total spent on two GRC "P" pucks. I decided to list one on ebay and keep the 2nd one for my self. I feel great about this purchase because I missed out on getting it at the USMint.gov web site when it got sold out. This appears (for the time being) to be the lowest final mintage "P" puck out of all of the "P" pucks that were minted up to now. The 2018 Cumberland Island "P" puck mintage currently stands at 14,158 (as of October 28, 2018 U.S. Mint Sales report). It will be interesting (to me anyway) to see where the final mintage of the Cumberland Island "P" will be.
In the long run we are all dead. I figure I'll be long dead before, say, First Spouse uncirculated gold -- nearly all with mintages well under 5,000 -- trades much higher than spot.
The George Rogers Clark puck at $150/each at a coin show is a good deal. They are still selling for over $220 on the bay. The Frederick Douglas puck seems to be sold out. The last few weeks has shown no increase in sales volume and it is removed from the mint website. It hasn't had much action on the bay with a market value before the sellout of about $130. Let's hope that the sellout helps its value.