Steve’s ongoing Box of Twenty Thread

OK I think I just lost my reply. But to answer your question no I don’t think it’s cleaned. But I have a friend of mine who is telling me it is based on the pictures. To me the coin looks exactly like another one that I have that is sitting in a slab. It seems to have toning basically everywhere so I don’t know where he’s getting that from. I can believe that perhaps it was cleaned many, many years ago Like 98% of all coins that aren’t colored black. I think the guys getting in my head. The dealer said if I sent it to grading service and it came back as cleaned he would refund my money.

 

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If you do have a guarantee from the dealer, then it sounds like it is worth sending in.
I'm not seeing obvious signs of cleaning, but it is hard to tell from the photo.

 

Thanks, LM

I’m having second thoughts about proceeding with this thread under my own name. And I apparently can’t change my name

 

Reminds of Jay Parino a one-time dealer who catered to deep pocket collectors. He was a big proponent of there being no more than 20 coins in a collection that should be the very finest available for the type. Most of the coins he was selling were 6 figures, and this was 20 years ago.

As a world coin collector (like others on this thread) one of the challenges has always been remaining disciplined enough to avoid collecting in too many areas. And so the 20 coin limit idea was philosophically something very attractive even if I couldn't (or wouldn't) subscribe to it.

Like many other collectors who have been around a while, I have slowly morphed into a "fewer coins, better coins" kind of guy, and while I still have about 250 slabs, it's still far fewer than 5 years ago. At this juncture, all of the raw coins are gone, and all of the minors are gone. The next step for me would be eliminating all subsidiary coinage and having only crown size silver or gold coins in the collection. That would shave another 40 or 50 coins off the total.

Problem is, there are a couple that are dynamite coins, even if they are worth less than $1,000 and available enough to be replaced some day if I really wanted another example. It's just very hard to pull the trigger on selling them.

 

Cool coins. I can understand the difficulty in getting down to 20 coins or anything close to it. Especially if you put that much time money and effort into collecting coins. Whether it’s lucky or unlucky for me, I kept selling my coins to buy other Collectibles over the years until around 10 years ago.

I went through a mental exercise in figuring out what the final box of 20 might look like. You know like the fantasy box of 20 where money is almost no object. What I realized is that 20 was doable but constraining. 25 would make more sense. But, and this is the important part, trying to stay at a smaller number like 20 coins will rapidly increase the quality of the collection. I could go after, say, 30 coins from the beginning, but it would take much longer to get some of the better coins. I’m considering doing 20 coins until I get to a certain dollar value per coin and then expanding to something like 30. Sort of like filling museum with great artifacts and then building in addition to the museum. It also helped me see that as the collection improves I would enjoy owning some coins that wouldn’t fit in the collection in the end.

 

I had a thought that there is a certain threshold of coin quality or price that makes collecting more fun. Perhaps the trick is to stay in that quality/price range. For some like me, that might mean limiting the number of coins to 20 for a while. For others blessed with a larger budget they might be happier increasing the number of coins they chase.

 

Several (maybe, many) years ago, I saw a collection of 3 Morgan Silver Dollars, all in one large slab, named "The Wild West Collection". They were all graded MS65 by NGC, Numbered: 1882CC - 3194010-031, 1883CC - 3194010-032, and 1884CC - 3194010-033. Now, I don't buy and sell like many collectors. When I get a coin that i like, I keep it. A question I have is: If I broke out the coins from the set, would the coins lose the value of a 3-coin set, verses 3 coins. Would NGC have to re-grade them individually, before putting them in another slab? The problem is that the slab for the set, doesn't fit in anything. I would have to try to find a display box, or have one built for the set, but if they were able to put them in individual slabs, they would fit in standard slab box. Thanks.

 

Lord Marcovan

Sorry I switched up the thread on you. You must’ve wrote your reply while I was editing mine. I decided that it was too long and too quantitative for the average attention span so I significantly abridged it. The $100-$300 range with what you speak is what I consider to be a sweet spot with comic books and I’ve often wondered if that sweet spot is a little bit higher for coins, but not by much. $300 really opens up doors for coin options, but it’s at the top of my comfort zone.

I think the box of 20 method is more helpful to people like me who live on a beer budget. That’s just a guess though.

 

NGC has been flip flopping on multiple coin holders for a couple decades now. They introduced the multicoin holder then abruptly abandoned it. My understanding is they are now doing it again. If they were my coins, I would leave them in the old holder. Sometimes the old multicoin holders sell for a premium, and provided the coins are all nicely matched for luster chances are they are very conservatively graded in the old holder as well. If you crack them out, and get 66-64-65 then you really don't have a matched set, and while I am sure they would reholder them as 65-65-65 seems like a waste of money to me to do that. You apparently liked the set enough to purchase it that way, my guess is there are other collectors out there just like you who would also find it an attractive offering.

 

I agree with this. The expense is almost certainly not worth it to reholder. If the coins are replaceable, the best option could be to sell the multi-coin holder (there is a chance it will even get a premium) and buy new coins individually. At the very least, one has to approximately price out all options and then decide what makes the most sense.

 

The sweet spot with coins depends somewhat on the series you follow. With some coins, $300 won't get much while with others you can get amazing quality. For me the sweet spot range that covers the most possible coin series is $100-$1,000 (I tend to lean towards the lower end of the range but like having more flexibility to occasionally go higher).

 

I like that idea Lord M!
It's always nice to have options and there is no reason to exclude the cheap fixes (which can bring just as much excitement as some of the big budget coins).

 

I agree I like this idea too. I have a weakness for a wildly toned Jefferson nickels so unless I chase after ridiculously rare die varieties or abandon them all together, that slot will never get expensive.

Dddd: I have to ask this question. I noticed the toned Morgan that you’re selling in the classified ads. If I had the funds I’d seriously consider buying that. It’s a beautiful coin! Yet you state that you’re selling it to free up room in your box of 20? What’s up with that? What are you eyeing ?

For that matter what are you guys (LM) planning to do with your box of 20s from here? What are your expansion plans? And why?

 

And not to belabor this, but if upgrading is a natural part of this process, it seems like one should always have several coins up for sale, but at full retail to open the door for future purchases. Do you guys do that?

 

Feel free to send me a message to discuss further about the classified ads section (via the cointalk messaging system).

The reason I'm freeing up space is a combination of already having bought a replacement as well as having more than 20 coins that can qualify for the box. While I'm not strictly following the 20 coin limit, I am trying to get closer to that magic number. It was a hard choice, but I picked a few coins that I have enjoyed for a while and am ready to pass along to the next curator.

 

And I agree with that. I tend to offer a few coins for sale constantly to help finance future buys. Some of the ones for sale were never box of 20 coins while others are. Pricing also depends on how replaceable the coin is (if it's not something generic). If it's a fairly unique coin (and one that I'm not as ready to let go), I might price it at high retail. That way if it sells, I'll get a decent chunk to spend on a replacement and if it does not sell, then I get to keep a nice coin.