Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;19Lyds, post: 2224314, member: 15929&quot;]In order to acquire a 1995-W Proof Silver Eagle, you had to buy the 10th Anniversary Gold Eagle Set so it wasn&#039;t really a question of whether or not you wanted to buy the 1995-W coin. It was a question of did you want the other 4 coins that came with it.?</p><p><br /></p><p>I have been buying from the US Mint since 1975 and have been purchasing Proof Silver Eagles since 1986.</p><p><br /></p><p>When the 10th Anniversary Set was announced by the US Mint in 1995, I received their snail mail flyer and did not purchase the set for a few specific reasons.</p><p><br /></p><p>1. Gold was $383 an ounce and Silver was below $6 an ounce. The PM content of the set was around $715 with an asking price of $999 from the US Mint.</p><p><br /></p><p>2. I did not collect gold.</p><p><br /></p><p>3. Back then, everything I bought was in multiples and putting $2,000 on a charge card was simply out of the question for something I didn&#039;t even collect.</p><p><br /></p><p>The set itself, was simply NOT that popular at THAT time due to a couple of factors.</p><p><br /></p><p>1. The PM content. Gold and Silver simply were NOT speculated as heavily as they are today.</p><p><br /></p><p>2. The US Mint and Treasury Department had FLOODED the market with World Cup Sets, Olympic Sets and Special Commemoratives. It was impossible to keep up with all the offerings and stay out of bankruptcy as a &quot;personal coin buyer&quot;. Selectivity was required. I did not buy what I did not collect.</p><p><br /></p><p>3. TPG&#039;s were non-existent in the &quot;Personal Coin World&quot; meaning, you had to be &quot;an authorized coin dealer&quot; to submit coins for grading and it wasn&#039;t cheap. PCGS&#039;s Collectors Club and NGC&#039;s Collectors Society did not exist.</p><p><br /></p><p>4. There was no impetus for getting coins graded. eBay didn&#039;t exist and neither did Registry Sets and PR70DCAM Grades. For that matter, there are very few PR70DCAM 1995-W Silver Eagles but there are a whole lot more in lessor grades as the quality of THAT coin simply was not there.</p><p><br /></p><p>The net result was that the final mintages were extremely low. But then that fact was not available until well into 1996 because, remember, the US Mint did NOT have an Internet Presence. It was all by US Mail. Dealers that HAD purchased the sets had no incentive to go back later and purchase more because the quality just wasn&#039;t there and the market hadn&#039;t been built yet and the number actually sold was simply NOT KNOWN.</p><p><br /></p><p>Once the final figures did come out and folks realized the low mintage and that a 1995-W was only available in that expensive set, it was too late and prices for that particular coin started going up. Individually, the coin could be acquired for a few hundred bucks.</p><p><br /></p><p>But that all changed once the TPG&#039;s got their registry sets going and the Internet got fired up. The Instantaneous Hype Machine was born and the rest is history.</p><p><br /></p><p>Do I regret NOT buying the set? Not anymore than I regret NOT buying Microsoft Stock.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in