Whats the best coin to collect?

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Whats with this, I seen this on e-bay 1921 MORGAN DOLLAR MS-67 NTC LISTS FOR $11,000, so the coin then sells for $160 thats about $10,000 off the NTC price, maybe I should get the NTC to appraise everything I own and tell my insurance company before the next hurricane comes.

WOW

 

It's more fun collecting for fun you know.

Coins to me are a hobby, say you enjoy buying cars or something, you wouldn't expect make a profit on them generally would you? But you can enjoy owning the car and admiring it. Well that's my approach to coins.

 

I like the 'hobbyist' approach to coins. I buy what appeals to my eye. I get some pretty good stuff in my eBay lots, but if it's not what I collect, then I have some stuff to get rid of. They're nice coins and all, but not what I collect. I've never sold on eBay, I just like to buy. Soon, I'm going to have to get rid of some stuff so that I can keep buying the stuff that I like.

 

Sounds very familiar!

I sell stuff here and there myself, but it's always so i can upgrade or purchase another coin i need/want!

 

This is a good idea, and I'll have to give it some serious thought. Right now I'm sort of stalled in my collecting, or between collections, or whatever. The very first coins I ever collected were Canadian coins that my parents sometimes received in change. This would be sort of like returning to my coin "roots." I believe I have one Charlottetown commemorative.

 

Nothing wrong with cleaned coins! I have many.

 

I really like the DMPL Morgans, with plenty of eye appeal. Can anyone tell me what I need to watch out for when it comes to collecting these?

With me the Morgans give me something to really look at, BIGGER BANG

Where are they in the price cycle? top, middle or bottom

 

Its tough to make a call on what will go up during an inflationary period as far as from a collectible standpoint, so I will not address that facet.

I would suggest token collecting to you. True rarities can be had for cheap (most of the time), even in Unc. Many Civil War and Hard Times tokens fall into the price range you mention. While most cwts are similar in diameter to our present cent, there are a considerable number of them quarter sized and larger as well. You can collect only the large ones if that is the method you choose. While there is not a large following, there are not large populations either. Something like 75-80% of cwt varieties have pops of 20 or less, yet some cwts list for as little as $20 in Unc. The highest amount I have seen paid for a cwt was a little over $20,000, and it was not even a unique token. IMO cwt interest is on the rise, and prices have risen very noticably over the past two years. I used to be able to purchase many tokens at half or even less of the 2002 catalog values. That rarely happens at present, and a few of them have cost me double the 2002 values. But deals can be had on ebay as a relatively high percentage of cwts are incorrectly identified as a common when they are in fact a rarity. This is often due to a popular token catalog that only lists the most common variety for each merchant. Trust no one's id. Even the few who are usually pretty good have made more than one mistake.

If you enjoyed collecting large cents in the past, hard times tokens may appeal to you as they are very similar in size, and somewhat similar in appearance as well. Prices are typically not extremely high here either, although true Uncs are hard to find and often command a hefty premium.

Collectors of exonumia are not nearly so caught up in the MS craze as are collectors of regular coinage. Unfortunately, there is a growing shift towards that direction, and token slabs are becoming more common. I suppose if one was looking for an opportunity to capitalize on those willing to pay high prices for a token entombed in plastic, this area would be prime if someone was knowledgable. Cleaning and even damage are of far less concern with tokens as well, likely due to the extreme scarcity of so many examples. Fuld's book on cwts discusses the effects of cleaning (neglible in the past, but increasing somewhat in importance) and damage - even holing typically only lowers the value by about 15% (I would agree with this in a general sense, although it is greater for the commons).

You would not be buying rolls of cwts. I have never seen a group greater than 4 of the same token ever offered as a lot. Knowledge is an extremely valuable asset in this portion of the hobby. New varieties are still waiting to be discovered if you are into that sort of thing. I find discovering a new variety of cwt to be extremely exciting! For example, just today I won an unlisted cwt on ebay. The seller had an unlisted overstrike example in Unc, and my winning bid was only $78. The seller did not know what the original piece was, but I feel it is likely I can identify the original once I get the token in hand, which would greatly increase the value of this token.

Well, I see I have been rather prolific with my words, and I imagine you have gotten the drift of my suggestion(s) by now, so I will leave it at this. Good luck with your decision, and enjoy what you collect, as therein lies the greatest value.

 

cwtokenman -- great post!