Where Is The Best Value In Coins Today?

Hi, where in your opinion is the best value in coins at this time? Gold? Silver? Platinum? Palladium? United States coins? World coins? Silver Maples? State Quarters? Rare Morgans? I just would like to hear your opinions, and also why you think your choice is a good value. Thanks! This could be interesting!!!

 

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If you're talking about what coins, if purchased at normal retail prices, have the greatest appreciation potential, then I think ASEs are the best value for a few reasons. (1) Silver is undervalued. (2) Inflation seems probable. (3) One day the Mint will discontinue the ASE series and almost immediately the coins will have at least some scarcity and numismatic value above what they have today. (4) The ASE is probably one of the best looking US coins.

 

Well alot of things can happen, but ASE's have a ton of collectors. More collectors= more value

 

Key dates and properly atrributed variety coins.

 

Well, it depends on what you're looking for. I mean, ancients, as far as what you get for your money is probably the best buy right now. Where else can you get a 2000 year old coin with a mintage under 10000 for well under $100? The potential there is enormous.

In US coins, I think early halves are a winner. Low mintages and a multitude of varieties....I think it's a very overlooked area that will explode someday.
Guy~

 

Interesting point.

Let's look at Draped Bust halves (only the years 1803 - 1807). Yes, relative to some coins they are low mintage. But they are the highest mintage of Draped Bust silver ! So a 50c is often less expensive than a 10c ! ...or h10c !

In that respect, Draped Bust halves are a good value.

That said, they are not "sleepers". I see no indication they will suddenly explode in popularity. Dealers say they move slow for some reason.

But many people really admire the Draped Bust silver design, and I think a solid 50c is a good value.

Beware raw draped 50c ! Almost all are cleaned, retoned, tooled, whizzed, or messed with in some way. In fact, be very, very choosey with slabbed coins as well.

 

I'm betting on the mint sets mainly because I've got a plethora of them.

 

The early half dollars(Pre-Walking Liberty) are pretty pricey in mint state. My coin budget would'nt last long buying those. But i agree, the potential is surely there.

 

True.

But there are are many wonderful circulated coins. Be patient and picky; you'll score.

 

I personally believe some early series of Us coins are way underpriced when comparing mintages and survivng coins. Seated Liberty Dimes, Two Cent Coins, 3cent Nickels would be a couple of choices. You can still put together a nice collection of all of these minus any rare one in mid grade extremelt reasonably. Modern coins do not make a case at this time, too high mintages for one reason although it's still a good idea to keep up with them.
Many foreign series are also tempting when looking at mintages. Australia comes to mind. And they are a cheap way to assemble nice looking sets. One of these days someone will start promoting them and then...!

 

Im going to look back at history, I know modern mintages are multiples more than the early 20th century but look back at what people thought about mercury dimes, buffalo nickels, walkers etc. at that time. It was basically pocket change, even the numismaticists of that day did not look highly upon much of the coins at that time because they were too "modern". You see much of that same attitude towards current coinage. I would say stock up early sets of modern coins, like the first 2 pages of washington quarters, a set of lincolns, they will always be popular, and even a good jefferson, roosevelt, kennedy, frankin, IKE set while they are fairly cheap. the higher the grade the better and include the proofs. The worst that would happen is they flatline around where they are at and you have a nice collection to maybe pass on to the grandkids.

 

1957 proof set, 1940's BU Jeffersons, some 1980's proof sets. Also circulated 1950-D Jeffersons are pretty scarce and can be had for less than $10 a lot of times. Modern commemoratives too.

 

Just wanted to say, that I am also very interested in your guys opinion here. I am a newbie and any thread like this really peaks my interest. I did not realize how much fun coin collectin could be. I mean I picked up 10 pennies from the 7-11 jar the other day just to see the dates, I am getting out of control here. I need major help. So this type of thread keeps me focused on what I should be looking for.
Cheers,
Chris

 

Yes any help is always appriciated. I figure I should work on one thing at a time right now mine is my wheat cents. Then I want to go for the Indian head cents and then the flying eagles... Then ill move to other things but I have a plan and I'm going to try my hardest to stick to it.

 

When answering this question one must have in mind that for 30 years now I have studied almost exclusively in the Lincoln cent series. It stands to reason that my answer will be constrained to that which I know...the Lincoln cent.

While some earlier Lincoln cents are grossly overvalued there are a number of coins that have yet to meet their potential, and this being an anniversary year for the Lincoln cent, some additional interest has found its way back to the lowly cent. This almost certainly spells additional attention from those with money, which will undoubtedly increase the prices realized for a number of pieces.

So my suggestions to the wise - early mintmarked Lincoln cents in clean uncirculated grades which are graded at the low end of today's scale and still have some red in their color. Getting tough to find, but very value conscious people with a good eye and some patience can stand to reap 100% or more in profit in less than a year's time on the right examples.

 

These threads do provide experienced insight. We can see much better collectively than with our single perspective.

 

real good advice too, I would also recommend early to mid 20th century proof singles, low mintage but you can still pick many up for $50 or less. And as someone said before odd coins are very undervalued for the rarity, shield nickels, 3 cent pieces, early dimes can be a good value too.

 

Value? Bullion coins.

There is little "value" in coins that most of us collect, IMO. Transaction costs and a falling and fickle market along with buy side risk are the primary reasons.

 

Talk about the impossible question to answer.

It depends SO much on one's budget and interests. If I had the funds I would have been snatching up a totally different class of coins. Class being high grade and keys basically.

Yes, they would have been U.S. for the most part as well as that's what I collect.

Instead I have chosen on many occasions to procure semi-keys whenever the price was right. Some would have said "why buy a 13-S Lincoln in G-VG for $5?". Well, I felt they would increase and they did. Semi keys can be very good sleeper coins and I like sleepers.

There is no "set formula". Often it's a hunch. How many were minted? How popular is the series? How many do you actually see?
One has to take these factors into account when the budget is small.

For example, years ago I thought the 27-S Standing Liberty quarter was WAY under rated. I could pick up solid G4 examples for $6-8. I did just that. Built a nice little stash and they started to move. Now dealer bid is over $30. Big money? - No. Big margin? - yes.

There are still many sleepers to be found out there but REMEMBER this. How many people collect them? How many will CONTINUE to collect them?

If you're going to "invest" put your money into proven coins that have held value and proven to be consistent or, at times, on a nice upward trend. Stay away from those that fluctuate with markets.

I have little respect for "modern" coins but there are anomolies for sure. Biggest problem I see is their are so many it's a crapshoot. When you do find one latch onto it and if it really starts to move sell it in most cases. Why? - because they tend to level out or lose pretty quickly.

I still peruse what's available from the mint. Actually have something in mind but it's "top secret James Bond kinda stuff". May do well with it or may not. It's my decision.

Like I said - this is the impossible question IMHO.

 

Personally, I really think that Kennedy halves are underrated. They've been in circulation for 45 years now, and I think within the next 5-10 years they will be replaced and will immediately see a small jump in pricing.

It's getting harder and harder for me personally to find decent copies of silver Kennedy's now (for example, I went through $800 dollars worth of halves recently and didn't find ANY silver, ANY keys, really anything worth keeping at all besides one that had a whole in it).

I also feel the same way about Eisenhower dollars, although not quite as strongly.