Collectors thinking about upgrading their Athena/Owl tetradrachm might consider this coin offered by Heritage for $180,000 .
These sold for $100 in 1915 and you put it away in your sock drawer for these last 107 years (unless I miscalculated) the investment would have to have returned about 7% compounded continuously to yield $180k. They were sold originally for double face value (as were most commemoratives). Of course, that number would be reduced by the cost of slabbing. However, finding any investment over these times that paid 7% Another way of looking at is might be $50 was about the average income for a man for a month. Women? You don't want to know that number. I wonder what ancient coin you could buy for $100 in 1915?
Here's another perspective on investments, albeit for a somewhat shorter time period. The compounded annual return on the S&P 500 (including reinvestment of dividends) since the start of 1928 (yes, including the entire Great Depression) is 1.0995 through the end of calendar 2021. If, instead of buying this coin for $100 in 1915, you had kept the $100 and invested it in the S&P 500 at the start of 1928, your $100 investment would be worth $745,335.78 today. No, that's not a typo. You could buy this coin today and still have over $565,000 in your bank account. My conclusion: Invest surplus money that you'll never need in the S&P 500, not coins. Buy coins you like as a hobby, not an investment.
Now preach that message to the fools in the recent auctions! And, maybe, just maybe prices might return to "normal".
Those $50 commemorative slugs have a lot of sex appeal, especially the octagonal Pan-Pac coin. There is a round flan that is valued lower, but I am still sure that one would have to sacrifice one's first born to to acquire it. These coins have a lovely classical Art Deco style.
You'd have to live a long time to be able to do that. Seriously though, that is great advice and I wish that more people would understand and think about the power of long-term investing like that. The greatest asset young people have is time, by far.
You're right, the coin is an excellent example of early Art Deco. Robert Aitken was strongly influenced by ancient Greek coinage as this coin proves . I like his use of dolphins too, giving the coin a sense of movement.
Yes! The dolphins also are a reference back to the coinage of Syracuse, I think. It is a very classy and astronomically expensive coin.
