I am curious to know why these are seriously undervalued. With mintage figures for each type under 1,000,000. Especially the 1988-D Silver BU with a figure of 191,368. Why are they selling for only a couple dollars over spot. Especially when you factor in coins like the 2019-W Quarter. Even if collectors only pull 100,000 in total of the population of 10,000,000 why is this coin so special in comparison. Am I ranting here? Am I the only one that thinks that all versions of the Ellis Island and Olympic Half dollars are so undervalued. I assume that the most logical reason is because all of them sold to collectors, but surly not all of them could be in the same condition they were shipped in originally right?
Supply and Demand Or, more likely Supply and no demand Over time youll find many of these commemorative/ special type coins prices float down close to spot. Upon initial release they are an Emotional Buy. Over time thise emotions wear off and their true numismatic price comes out. If you check the online places many of them sell the various half dollar proofs alongside the uncirculated varieties as a first come first serve scenario at the same price. Good for PM stacking.
Coins are, first and foremost, collectibles without any inherent value apart from their precious metal content. As said above, their value comes from people's willingness to purchase them. Mintage alone won't set a coin's value. People have to want it. Low mintage and high demand make for some really high prices, but low demand will bring the value of just about anything down, in or outside of coins. This introduces risk into the purchasing of collectible coins. Something wanted today may not be wanted tomorrow and a coin purchased for $100 may only go for $60 a year or two later. The opposite can also happen, but it seems to happen less frequently to modern commemoratives.
Give it some time. After thousands and thousands start turning up, the price is definitely going to crash on these. As for modern commemoratives, I love them. Many cool designs.... but there is very little demand for them.
A mintage of 191,368 might seem low in the context of coins that went into circulation, but it's quite high for an issue where the survival rate in high grade is huge. The main source of attrition for these coins comes from the fact that thousands of them are going to the melting pot. That’s right. Today a fair number of modern commemorative coins going to scrap which might improve the market for the survivors in the future. BUT don’t hold your breath. There are now so modern commemorative coins that collectors are getting “commemorative fatigue.” I’ve got it. I used to keep up with all of the new issues, and I’ve stopped doing it. Even the market for the “old” commemorative coins is in the doldrums and has been there for years. Back in the late 1980s the prices were many of the “old” (1892 – 1954) commemoratives were several times higher than they are now. Dealers marketed them as “rare” because of the “low mintages,” but the truth was you can’t compare the mintage of a commemorative with a 1916-D Mercury Dime. The dimes circulated; most of the commemoratives didn’t.
The 1988 was a Silver Dollar. Most commemorative half dollars that were clad, didn't do well. I think they would have done better if they had been made of silver.
You think the BU 1992 Bill of Rights half is crazy, look at the BU commemorative silver dollars. There are only 8 issues with mintage higher than that 1992 half dollar. Of the roughly 80 issues, 20 of them have mintages below 30,000. Almost half of those are below 20,000. The 2017 Boys Town and 2018 Breast Cancer are just over 12,000 and I purchased both of those last two for less than mint issue price. There are only 23 with mintages over 100,000. I have half the set now and my average price per coin is probably less than $30. (Yes I have paid a good price for several but a lot of them I purchased for just a little over melt. There are really only 5 "expensive" coins in the set, the 4 1996 olympic dollars (mintages of 14 to 16 thousand each) and the 2001 Buffalo (which makes no sense, mintage of 227,000 sixth highest in the set) And these "expensive coins" run around $150 to $175. This years American Legion dollar has been out for a month. It sold 6,000 the first week, and in the next tree week 3,000 more. Sales right now are at 9,500. I think it will probably end up beating the 2017 and 2018 dollars, but I wouldn't be surprised if it comes in below 20K. I don't really expect to make money on these, but I do like low mintage issues.
