Hey Ya'll With the higher price of Gold and Silver is anyone other than myself going to coins that aren't minted with Silver or gold?? I find myself looking more at nickels and copper coins....since the up on silver I've really only started one set and that is BU Silver Washington quarters and since silver is up I have only bought about 5. Other than that set my Proof 66 Franklin Half Dollar set is silver but so far the silver value hasn't changed that price much......they have stayed the same OR some of the dates have gone down!!! With the up in silver I think the market will find more buyers in non-silver coins.... I don't know if that will make the price of silver fall or if it will even hurt it....it might go right on without any harm.....I think right now Investers are hoarding silver hearing that it is on the up....I wouldn't be shocked to hear that people are again melting silver coins to get the bullion. :rolling: What are ya'lls thoughts on this matter?....will there be a change from silver to nickel and copper coins? or not? Speedy
Yes, my field is getting a bit too pricy to touch. Ironically, while US coins are usually depicted as expensive, I'm starting to believe that US coins are actually somewhat cheaper than the Russian coins that I am looking at. Some of the crappiest Russian coins that I need to fill my type set are getting way out of my hands.
Honestly I can't say whether or not copper-nickel coins are really going to take off. If silver starts getting above $20 an ounce I could see a lot of people selling off collections, quitting the hobby, or moving to copper and nickel coinage. I'm enjoying my world coin collecting quite a bit now. The major problem is finding enough of the coin and countries I like at dealer shops. Ebay prices aren't bad but shipping is killer.
I expected this to happen eventually, which is why I began collecting again a couple of years ago, particularly silver. The prices of gold and silver coins are up a lot at the places I usually shop. I've only made on purchase this year during the first week of January. The only things I collect that are not silver or gold are a few Hard Times Tokens, Civil War Tokens, and Canadian Bank Tokens. The attraction there is to be able to obtain a 140+ year old coin with historical significance and great details for under $20 and under $10 for the Canadians. Maybe I'll go back to that for awhile. The possibility that is probably unexpected in the numismatic community is that silver and gold may be establishing themselves at a permanantly higher level. This has happened before in the 1970s when silver rose from $2 and gold rose from $42. It eventually soared and then crashed, but never returned to $2. It is possible that silver will never return to under $9-$10 or gold to under $500, and we'll all have to adjust our thinking or stop collecting.
I see what you mean Cloud...I think if silver gets back up to the place it was in the 70's people will start to think about mining silver again as it would again bring a proffit. But if that happens I think silver will crash too. Its funny really.....where as the price of silver helps us know the price of a silver coins.....only the market tells us what the price is for a Nickel coin or copper coins. There is no spot price that we watch....for that type of coin we just watch what people are paying and such. I know that Nickel and Copper aren't "precious metal" and that is something to remember.... If (and I think it will) the US Dollar would ever fall or if the stock market would fall like it did years ago it could be nice having precious metal to use to get food and etc. But that isn't going to stop me from buying nickels Speedy
Speedy, You bring up an interesting point that I've looked at but can make no sense out of. A copper or nickel coin is pretty close to a 100% numismatic value. Silver and gold coins have a bullion component and a numismatic component. I've played around with price guides subtracting the bullion value from the total value of silver and gold coins to try to come up with a numismatic value for the coins. Then I compared the result to other coins with approximately the same age and mintage with little or no bullion value. What did I learn? Nothing. It seems there should be some sort of relationship but I couldn't figure it out if it is there. Maybe someone with a database of coin values could run a program and find some linkage that would be useful in determining when coins are under and overvalued.
With this recent increase in value of Gold and Silver you should notice that Copper and other metals are also going upward at a fantastic rate. Many people are talking about melting down coins for Gold, Silver and Copper. As already noted this happened once before and down it came. That is a better possibility than not. If the prices continue, the Mint will have to go to Aluminum, Zinc or combinations of the cheapest metals available. All it would take though is for someone, somewhere to discover a massive rare metal ore find and down will come the prices of all of them. The worst or maybe best thing about the idiots melting down coins for their metal content is it will make all coin collections worth much more.
you should also determine the rarity or how many pieces actually exist. Coins in a certain grade (lets say ms61) may have a value of $200.The next grade up is over $1000.The lower grade has a good chance in moving up.But this is not always true. Strong demand can push up prices if there is few to go around thanks CLAW
Claw I did something like that not too long ago....I got a PCI F-15 1926-S Buff nickel....sent it to NGC and it came back VF20....a nice price jump from F to VF! Speedy
The jump in silver has effected my foreign sliver coin collecting. So I jumped into ancient roman bronze. Cheep cheep cheep and fun =) I’ve found some low grades for $2.30 each. At that price I can give them a way to friends and co-workers.
SPEEDY I am how working on a lincoln set all coins from 1909 to 1958 from the Philadelphia mint only.All coins gem bu and I will stay with copper coins for now. I still like my silver coins but the price is geting out of hand. Plus I am looking more a lincoln error coins it is a nice change.
Bruce! That will be a pretty set when you are done!!!....I've been buying RED wheat cents when I find them cheap and plan to upgrade part of my collection sometime soon.... Speedy
