Is coin collecting an investment?

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Few of us here could sell our collections at a net profit, so no, coin collecting isn’t a particularly good investment.

Coin collecting is mostly just a great hobby that combines educational value, artistic appreciation, and the thrill of the hunt into a single activity.

Best of all, it’s almost infinitely flexible. When I play golf, the rules never change and the objective is always the same. When I collect coins, I can make my collection whatever I want it to be and I can change the rules as often as I like.

All of that said, as hobbies go, coin collections can be a decent store of value, relatively speaking. I take a small measure of comfort in knowing that in a certain type of economic crisis, those silver and gold coins in my collection could put food on my family’s table, which is more than I can say for my golf clubs.

 

I have been a coin collector for 63 years. Never a dealer. A fun hobby? An aid and inspiration for learning history? A combination of the aforementioned? This is what happened over the 63 years. I used my blueberry money and princess pine money to buy a coin every now and then. First coin show around age 7 bought a good 1918/7 Buffalo nickel. Still have it. Aunt gave me an uncirculated 1882-O Morgan dollar at 8. Turned out to be an O/S and still have it. I like errors and varieties. Found a 1939 Doubled die reverse nickel in circulation and still have it. As I worked, I kept buying the rare coins first to fill my blue books of circulated coins. I studied coins which led to learning some History from the time of the coin. I finished my first circulated set of Morgan dollars in 1975. Learned a lot about the history of coinage. While owning a gas station, dabbled in buying silver and gold and using those profits to buy more coins. Had to buy the small bank a large safe deposit box to secure my collection. Have over $4,000 in coin reference books. Continue to study as I approach age 70. I continue to enjoy the Hobby and History. The key to enjoying the coin collecting hobby is study, study, study and enjoy History. If you go to small shows and study, study, study your reference books, you can cherry pick the dealers who don't study errors or varieties. I have been doing this for the past 20 years. Buy coins for the hobby, buy coins for the history, the surprise will be the appreciation in value over 63 years. If you don't study and become knowledgeable, don't think investment if you buy coins on the shopping channel. Please, go to coin shows. Happy coin collecting. Sorry for no paragraphs.

 

I collect for all the reasons above.

(A) My coins are an investment for sure. I buy high-grade, rare Mint error and variety coins. I pick ones I know that are very desirable to Mint error and ""standard" collectors now and in the future. For example, my errors all have full dates (except unstruck blanks/planchets) and are not improperly cleaned nor damaged. They are all certified as genuine and slabbed that give future buyers peace of mind. I purposely overpaid for some, got a few for next to nothing if a seller didn't know what they had. But they will retain value more or less.

Is that the reason why I bought them, to make money? No. It would be foolish to do so.

The only coins safe for investment purposes are ones that almost no one on this forum can afford.

(b) I collect to display and teach. I brought these in for my students to see the last day before Christmas break started. I am going to have an educational table at some coin shows in a few months and even might get picked to have a temporary exhibit at the Buffalo and also the Rochester Museum of Science. I am working on more permanent displays, but here is a sample of what I brougt in last week to work:



(c) Most importantly I collect because it is fun and I enjoy reading and learning new things about the hobby. I am even writing a book that will be on the way to three professional reviewers to then hopefully get published.

I do believe we all have a responsibility to be a good ambassador for this Hobby.

~Joe C.

 

To answer your original question: No.

Coins are relaxing and fun. The investment markets provide an adequate amount of stomach acid.

 

It's a hobby for me, but i tell myself that if i needed to i could sell and recoup at least some (hopefully most) of the money i spent.

 

Good point, Bob. Time is the investor's best friend. The majority of my most valuable coins are ones I purchased over 30 years ago — frankly, coins I probably wouldn't consider at today's prices. Even factoring in the wholesale/retail differential, I can sell those coins at a nice profit . . . but I doubt I ever will, because I'm a collector, not an investor.

 

Why are people so obsessed with this question? lol Most dealers have to sell at a profit to keep the lights on. You're paying for those lights in your purchase so if you want to turn around and sell, the next collector probably doesn't want to pay to keep your lights on.
One of my nicer, highly desirable coins is a 1932 gold Indian NGC MS64+. It cost me $1400 to get it. I thought about selling it one time and a dealer offered me $1k for it. (So they could turn around and sell it for $1400.) I said no thanks. Could get more for it on ebay but then you're losing 12% off the top there. That's picking a highly liquid coin IMO as an example. The percentages probably go down from there.
I look at my US type set as something to pass on to the kids once I'm gone. Of all the things there are to inherit, most people won't turn down a coin collection. On the contrary, they are often fought over.

Or they fall in the hands of some idiot family member and get auctioned off for pennies on the dollar because people gotta get that money right now.

There's no doubt they are a store of wealth but it comes at a cost of doing business unless depending on what you're into. Sometimes there's deals at auctions, sometimes not. The only way to really win the game is buy a loose coin from anywhere and submit to a TPG and have it be a much higher grade than you paid for it loose. I've won that game a couple times and lost many more times. Or, as someone else said, cherry pick desirable varieties which isn't easy either. Over a lifetime the average collector should see a few wins here and there. They probably won't offset the losses so you just gotta enjoy collecting.

 

Sure it's an investment...I figure that the relaxation and accompanied stress release have netted me at least 800K dollars over the years due to not having suffered a heart attack or stroke.

I could probably even net a small profit if I sold my collection off--of course, I've been putting it together since 1963 and any profit would not even come close to covering inflation over those years.

 

Well that seems quite emphatic. Care to elaborate?

 

And this is the heart of why some people have trouble calling it an investment. To me, the "profit" doesn't even start until inflation is accounted for (the spreadsheet I use to catalogue my collection automatically adjusts my cost basis for inflation, so I have a more realistic idea of my progress). I just can't compare a coin purchased with 2018 dollars to one purchased with 1963 dollars - they are not the same unit of commodity.

 

I collect memories, classic intelligent statements, words from the wise. Not just the coins themselves.....money is a mere tool.

 

Amen Brother. I spend the money on these disks of silver, gold, and copper.......the value of which may never prosper. And though that may be, I do it all for me.

And the bloody things will always be worth something. It's not like wolfing down a chocolate bar and having nothing to show for it.

 

Frank's a man of few words........

And he's grumpy, like me.

 

That's my main motivation!

 

A friend of mine had a very large accumulation of Franklin Mint and other such nonsense from those TV shows. His dad had been buying them for many years. He inherited them. Now he wanted to unload his dads investment. Boy was he disappointed when he found out what they were really worth. But, but, Dad said....

 

Uncle collected Bing and Goram Christmas Danish plates. He was a proud Dane and very much in love with his heritage. He gave me examples from the late sixties, swearing that they would increase in value. I recently came upon an 1917 plate at a thrift shop........two birds reposing upon a branch, looking on above things........5 bucks. But I love it. Uncle is dearly departed, and his advice also.........

 

Unfortunately, this is a prime example of when coin "collecting" is absolutely *NOT* an investment. Buying overpriced, common, low value coins will never garner a profit.

The difference with dedicated hobbyists, however, is that some people spend considerable time learning to identify original, attractive, truly scarce specimens. These people are often able to negotiate a good price because they know exactly what they are buying. When it comes time to sell, because they have purchased wisely, they will make a profit. These are the people who can treat their collections as investments.

 

Yes. The person I was talking about had a large number of silver coins from one of the mints that actually made high grade tokens that were sold as implied to be coins of the US mint. Couple that with what you said and there is a lot of money spent just to say '...I have all of them..."

 

I surely understand. A friend of my wife was desperate for money and sold her about 50 such collector plates in the original boxes for $50. Not a bad deal. Years later we tried to sell them on eBay one at a time. Can't get rid of them for postage.