I'm back.

Still alive. I don't have a collection any more, I sold it in it's entirety.

I'm moving in a few months and wanted to keep the amount of stuff I'm moving to a minimum, taking a train actually.

I am going to college next fall, and while I have not decided what exactly I am going to college for, I am starting my own business, so I've been slowly socking away money in savings and investments for it.

However, I do like to be diversified. I'm currently holding several exchange traded funds, which in turn hold a basket of over 10 companies each.

I've looked a bit into alternative investments. I might offend people when I say this, but I don't see precious metals as a solid investment.

That being said, while going through my collection, I found a 1992 Red book.

While it's not a good idea to base future performance off past performance, I decided to look into numbers.

According to fair market values, a 1806 large cent is currently worth $1,770 in XF-40.

Looking at the red book, it's price in 1992 was $1,000.

Over 22 years, this is a gain of $770.

If we put $1000 into a stock yielding 2%, and as long as the price did not chance, it would be $1546 today.

Going to a different category...a 1922 no D cent is worth $760 in F-12, in 1992, it was $225, a gain of over $500.

If we put $225 in a 2% stock in 1992, it would be worth $347 today.

So far it appears that coins have outperformed investments, if we don't look into market fluctuations of the stock market.

Here are some more coins...

1916 Standing Liberty Quarter $1,500 in 1992, today $6,720 (wow!)

1877 cent, $900 in EF-40 in 1992, today $2,280.

1916-D dime, $900 in F-12 in 1992, today $2,460.

1855 Seated Dollar, $975 in F-12 in 1992, today $1,530 (not so great)

So while not all coins had good returns, like the '55 seated dollar, others have gone up in price dramatically.

Same can be said for stocks.

However, stocks can become worthless, and while it's not impossible, it's possible we could see another crash, whereas there hasn't been a crash of us coin prices (excluding the silver price fluctuation of the early 80s)

Another thing too...things can happen to rare coins, making them even rarer, collections can get destroyed, either by natural disaster, fire, or people improperly cleaning them.

I am considering putting 10-20 percent into rare coins, but had a few questions.

1. Is there any type of coin that will increase in value? I know nobody has a crystal ball, but wondering what kind of "sleepers" there are.

2. If one wanted to invest in rare coins, would one stick to US, or having a few rare world coins a good idea?

As I said before, I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket, so I'm not gonna sell off my portfolio and invest in rare coins, but diversification is always great.

 

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That's been the general consensus for quite a few years.

 

agreed

 

Thought it was too quiet around here........

 

welcome back. what business you got going?

 

I hope you're not into any of those triple-leveraged ETFs...

 

Welcome back Tim. Glad to hear you are moving forward with life. Good luck!

 

Nope, while I'm not by any means an expert in investing, that was one of the first things I learned to stay away from.

A few of my holdings are "HYLD", "IFGL", "EWJ", and "REM".

 

You're better off putting all of your eggs in one basket, and then watching that basket.

This technique has been working for me and I have yet to lose money in my investments.

 

that method works great until it doesn't.

 

It makes sense if you don't think about it.

 

I wonder if a 1928 peace dollar is a sleeper? The '28 had a mintage of less than 400k, and I'm sure quite a few got melted by mistake.

Only $480 for MS-60.

 

It's like deja vu all over again... and again and again.

Welcome back, Timmy; good to know you're well and that some things never change.

 

That's when your brain makes all the difference my friend.

 

IMO your entire outlook is misguided in a very poor way.
I will leave you with only a few points. Perhaps somebody nicer than I will take the time to discuss in further details. With that said think of the following.
1) What kind of a bozo earns 2% annually from security investing. Despite recessions and periods of growth throughout the long term a simple etf that mimics the S&P 500 will give you more than 7% annually. To add on that to you have not even considered the importance of compound investing.
2) Red book prices mean nothing. You should be looking at what coins have SOLD for during that period of time. Then depreciate that amount by the appropriate inflation rate.

Additionally it is very difficult to consistently purchase choice coins that will be desirable to other people(and easy to sell) down the line. You must have quite a bit of knowledge that can only be obtained through years of experience.

Yet another point to be had is the proper storage of coins. SDBs, silica gels, air tites, slabbing costs, tupperware, anti tarnish strips. All of these do one thing.

Suck up your investment.

Keep looking Detecto. You haven't found the ancient city of gold just yet

 

I hear professional panhandlers can clear 50k a year... all of it tax free. Food for thought.

 

High eye que bust halfs

 

This might be the worst advice I have ever heard...and that is saying something.

 

Not necessarily. if you know when to make the right moves you can do very well. Short term gains are the key.

 

That's not true. It's only a plan to loose it all.