I like the commemoratives too but maybe the only commemoratives being interesting investments are possibly the lowest mintage uncirculated coins, the wheelchair dollar, the high jump, tennis and rowing. I think they are around 15,000 mintage each which will never happen again. The only problem is they don't seem to ever go up in value either so they may not be good investments. However if the entire commemorative market turns for the moderns I think these will have to go up with the others, even more so.
One interesting set may the United States Mint Lincoln Coin and Chronicles Set released later this year. If it is limited to 50,000 that may be a decent buy.
Commems are lovely designs and fun to collect, learn about, etc. They just seem to be too much of a high risk area of 'coin investing' (esp. with those initial Mint premiums over bullion on new release commems and/or even more so on commems timed with huge marketed events or anniversary dates). Commems seem to get 'coin investors' who are in it for the prediction and mintage numbers game really going, so there's something for everyone, I caution all to understand who is hyping what aspect, when they hyped it and why. By all mean collect what you love and are interested in collecting.
Just read this too... via Mint News Blog & Coin Update News "Although design candidates have been released and evaluated by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee and Commission of Fine Arts, the final obverse and reverse design choices have not yet been revealed."
that's why i propose make more silver half dollar. discontinue the silver dollar and clad half dollar.
Originally, the mint regularly used halves for commems more than any other denomination. What on earth happened? I guess some themes, events, and persons demanded more attention. I think the idea behind clad halves is they can use the same blanks as the JFK halves, and there's probably a higher mark up than for the silver issues. I agree also Elaine, and think all commem halves should be in 90% silver.
Does not really seem like inspiring designs. The mint really needs to start doing high releif designs on commems. The artists might be more inspired.
i got enough modern commemorative silver dollar. i have no plan to buy any in the future. my last trial is the franklin dollar. again that one crushed to $23.00 bid. in fact i have stop buying since 1994.
Unfortunately too many modern US commemorative coins are political in origin. The only one I have bought in 20 years was the San Francisco Old Mint silver dollar, and only because I live near San Francisco.
I not only stopped buying them I sold most of what I had. I just got tired of many of the mediocre designs. If the mint starts obtaining truly classic/artistic designs and can some how pull off a high relief for commems I would be a permament buyer.
I too sold nearly all of the modern silver Commems I had and like the direction of the UHR gold and potential palladium coin designs. I am still partial to a few of the $5 gold commem designs. It seems more effort, skill and design aesthetic went into producing the modern gold commems from about 86 - 99.
The only series I like on a regular basis and which they did in silver is the Platinum. They had a revolving design each year and each design was very well done. Unfortunately the price of the series is way too much for me to afford.