"Impulse Gold"

Is there any more foolish phrase in the English language?

I know diddly about gold coins but I keep buying them. Now, how does it make sense that I could land this coin for about $430? Before buying it I looked it up and the (PCGS) retail is $700. NGC shows $555.

Have I made some stupid mistake? Please try and be gentle. (Wow if I only had a dollar for every time I've heard that phrase...)

It's an 1893 2-1/2 Dollar. The only denomination I've yet to score is the $3. Presuming this one is legit.

Please message me for the auction link. I feel weird posting it publicly, so please don't.

Though this photo is most of the way there...

TIA for useful advice.

 

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Disclosure: I like AU58 coins

 

Well it's got what $235 in gold weight?
You paid up for the numismatic assumed value.
That year was a higher mintage, maybe people weren't looking for that year to fill a hole?
Now let see you do that again with a 1893 $3

 

As it happens, that's another question I had. Morgans are rare that year because of the Panic of 1893. What about other coins? I was surprised to see that this issue isn't rare at all. I did learn that much before pulling the trigger.

I love reading about all the old panics. No safety nets of any kind for anyone. Now that's scary.

And yeah, the $3 is now my current obsession.

 

Okay, better late than ever I did my research. Turns out it was an okay buy but nothing worth writing home about. No disaster either (presuming it's not counterfeit).

The main thing I don't get is the PCGS values. I know they're retail but really. NGC at $555 seems like a reasonable retail for this coin.

https://www.pcgs.com/prices/detail/liberty-head-2-5/758/grades-25-60/ms

 

Super nice coin ! I really like the A/U grades 53,55,58 you get a real quality coin
at a good price point, and most of the time all you give up is a little shine, heres
a couple of my A/U examples.

 

Thanks, wow those are spectacular!

 

Let me just say, I saw and damn near bid on/bought this coin because it was at like 395 or so with 2hr left... Had it been Monday, I probably would have. I'm actually really happy someone here won it

 

The PCGS, CoinFacts values tend to be high. I learned that the hard way, and it seems that they are getting more out of whack, not less. They now say that my most valuable coin is worth $1.5 million. Yea, right. In my wildest dreams. It’s worth a small fraction of that. It’s better to look at the more recent auction results which are listed below.

As for the $3 gold, please buy a certified one in an NGC or PCGS holder. Counterfeits have been a big problem with those coins for as long as I’ve been a collector, which is over 60 years.

 

Actually the low mintages for the silver dollars in 1893 was not a direct result of the Panic of 1893; it was a response to it. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act required the government to buy 4.5 million ounces of silver every month. The silver was to be coined into silver dollars that were to be used to back the paper currency.

Unfortunately that currency could be redeemed in gold or silver. That resulted a run on the government’s stock of gold because gold was far more valuable than silver at the official rate of 16 to 1. The government gold stock pile reached a dangerous low. At a time when the “civilized nations” were on the Gold Standard, the U.S. was close to not being able to meet its obligations in gold.

The solution was to repeal the Sherman Act and silver dollar production dropped way down until 1896. Then the mint system started issuing large numbers of dollars until the government’s stock of silver for the dollars ran out in 1904.

 

Most ancient collectors don’t like slabs… Opposite must be true for Gold.

 

I like to look at the auction archives on Heritage for comps. when attempting to price many coins. There are not a lot of recent sales of 1893 2.5s, but from what I can find they have been going for 350 to 400 in au58, but one recent sale from oct 2021 was for $630. So it looks like you did ok price wise ( in terms of not being burned) my question would be: is it a really nice AU58, with nearly full luster and few distracting marks?

 

The opposite is true for most all collectors of U.S. coins. They prefer certified coins, especially if the piece is fairly valuable. It is now quite true for old U.S. gold because there have been many counterfeits through the years.

The older (1960s) gold counterfeits were made of gold. The contemporary counterfeits that were made in the 19th and early 20th century often do not, but they are usually pretty bad with the gold color worn off the item. I hesitate to call counterfeits "coins."

 

You did okay now watch it grow... Good luck thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks everyone for your contributions. Naturally I can't say much yet about luster etc until it's in hand.

Then I guess I'll reholder it, though I'm not crazy about NGC holders especially with small coins--the prongs are so much more obtrusive. But the obsessive in me wants my gold slabs all to match.

 

They are high, low, all over the place. You would think with algorithims and the early advent of AI chips plus a decent interactive Excel spreadsheet that you would have prices that are within 10% maybe even 20% of what most consider FMV.

Last sales price....average of the last 5 or 10 sales....maybe throw out the high and low prices for the last 7 quotes sales...WHATEVER.

I just inputed all of my coins into both the PCGS and NGC Apps on my smartphone so I have an inventory other than my PC's Excel Spreadsheet. After uploading the coins, I would check the prices. Most were off by a TON. My 1923-D Saint MS-66 was quoted at $6,000 which must mean that gold soared to $4,000 an ounce in the last few days.

Tons of other coins didn't have any prices (mostly silver bullion coins like ASEs, Pandas, Brittanias, and various Australian animal coins)...lots of others were too low or dated.

I can live with the super-low prices over no prices....I can even live with the high prices over nothing (though I prefer low prices rather than be deceived on the high side)....but the NO PRICE coins need to at least have their price listed as the bullion value plus a small premium for the value of the grade, holder, plus grade (usually a 69 or 70; sometimes PL/DMPL/DCAM, etc).

With all the sophisiticated computer power we have today, the Apps should be able to grab various recent sales and then apply some formula to at least be within the ballpark. I'm not looking for accuracy to within 5% on average; I'd settle for 20% on higher-priced coins and maybe 30-35% on lower-priced stuff.

Rant off.......