2001 Sacagawae Dollar

Do a search for past threads on this subject. The price of the '01 Proof set actually took off long before the price of the '01 Proof Sackie did.

 

It isn't rare at all. It's just supply and demand.

 

I've explained this many times - guess it's time to do so again.

My opinion, the best way to describe it would be like a feeding frenzy. If a whale dies in the ocean, at first one or two sharks find it and begin to eat. But as they eat, more and more sharks gather. And the more the sharks gather - the more more sharks come and the whole thing snowballs.

It's the same way with coins. There's nothing special about the 2001 Proof set or any of the coins in it. It doesn't have a low mintage - nothing. The increase in price is the result of pure coincidence - nothing more.

In '99, it was the first year of the SQ's. So dealers bought up the Proof sets in large numbers. But the craze for collecting them hadn't really taken off - so the dealers ended up sitting on Proof sets that were not selling and thus they didn't go up in price. By the time the 2000 Proof sets came out, the craze was heating up - the sharks were beginning to come but slowly at first. So the dealers didn't buy many. But the collectors they bought lots of them direct from the mint. So there was no need for the collectors to buy from the dealers. And the price of the 2000 sets again stayed stagnant. But by now the price of the '99 sets was heating up because the collectors didn't buy them and the dealers did - more sharks had shown up.

In '01, the collectors who bought all the '00 sets were sadly disappointed because the price wasn't rising. So they didn't buy very many in '01. But the dealers, now seeing what was happening with the craze for collecting SQ's - the feeding frenzy had started - bought lots and lots of the '01 sets. And by the end of the year - all those collectors who didn't buy from the mint, now watched the price of the '01 sets start to creep up as the other collectors began to buy from the dealers. There weren't any more available from the mint - the only place they could get them was from the dealers. So into the shops they'd go. And the more collectors that came into the shops asking for the '01 sets - the more the dealers raised the prices. The feeding frenzy was in full swing.

Now - the price of the individual coins began to rise as well - sum of the whole. Then the US Mint stepped in and threw more blood into the water - they announced that the Sackies would not be produced for circulation in 2002 - only for Mint and Proof sets. This led collectors to begin thinking - hey, they're gonna end this series. Prices are gonna skyrocket - we better buy some !! And the price of the '01 Proof Sacky began to climb. This only helped to push the price of the '01 Proof set higher. The more folks wanted them - the higher the price went. And it still is.

So nothing special about it at all - nada. It's just pure luck and coincidence. That's supply and demand in action - a feeding frenzy.

Problem is - eventually the sharks get full and swim away - or another whale dies in a different part of the ocean.

 

The 50-D Jeff is the key too. In the '60s they sold for around $1000 a roll - that's $25 apiece. Today you can buy 'em for $2 - $3 - been able to for years.