No love for modern US commemoratives, why?

Boy, have I missed the boat on coin collecting. I was 62 when I got my father's coin collection. It wasn't the greatest collection, but it took a lot of time to go over each piece and go to some reference books I found to just find out what I had. That took over 2 years. Anyway, I bought some coin magazines to see if they were worth anything. Most of them weren't, but I found out I should put them all in a 2X2 to protect them. There were no gold pieces and few silver pieces, but my interest grew. I went to an LCS (I found out what that meant, finally.) I bought a 1895 $10 Liberty Gold Coin and a 1904 $20 Liberty Gold Coin. The owner told me he was going to a coin show and do I want to have my new Gold Coins graded. Huh? Graded? What was that? He explained it to me. He had them graded. The $10 Liberty came back an MS61, but my shock was that the the 1904 came back Details, OBV Scratched. The store owner offered to buy it back, but I decided to keep them. My next two purchases was a RAW 2010W American One Ounce Gold RAW coin and a 2009 MMIX Ultra High Relief Gold Coin. I think I paid $1,000 for the 2010 and $1,300 for the 2009 coin. The 2009 Ultra High Relief Gold Coin was graded MS68. I thought that was pretty good until I told someone about it and I was told it wasn't worth much unless it was MS70. At that point, I decided to do my own research and the hell with everyone else's ideas about coins value. I still make mistakes, but I don't brood over it anymore.

 

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The reason there is little love for modern commemoratives is because of the designs and numbers struck. There are a few very nicely designed coins, but most aren't. The other problem is they commemorate almost anything. Then on top of that they are pumping out too many designs per year. So, most end up being sold in the aftermarket as bullion. I have at least 100 that I bought at spot or less.

 

Two designs per year. Not to relive the excesses of the thirtys. They're collector coins and should be perceived as such.......not for investment or capital gain. I like 'em.

 

1.1x melt

 

Yeah, and I once found an 1895-O Morgan in with the commons at a pawnshop. The occasional rip or cherry-pick doesn't really disprove the thesis, does it?

 

It was in the display case market at 1.1 melt, they had more of them too.

I’ve found probably about 10 50 Cent Columbian Expo Commemoratives at all of the three coin store I use for the same price as any other 90% half’s.

 

…and what is the thesis?

 

That is a $2.50 Sesquicentennial gold, right? With gold a bit under $2000, that puts 1.1 melt around $275.

If they're selling multiples of this piece at that price, buy them all, then flip them. APMEX is selling them raw at $629. Raw ones are getting $400 or more on eBay.

The thesis, as I understood it, is that most classic commemoratives still trade well above melt. Columbian Expo and Booker T. Washington halves are exceptions.

Seriously, if you've found a place selling Sesqui quarter-eagles at that price, buy them out. You'll be glad you did.

 

I haven’t bought any gold or silver in 5 plus years nor do I follow numismatic prices.

 

So the coin you posted was for sale at 1.1x melt recently, but you didn't buy it? Or it's one you bought 5+ years ago? (Not trying to be hostile, just trying to understand what you're saying...)

 

I bought it years ago.

I’ve done pretty good buying silver and gold for around melt that has value over melt, especially with gold Chinese Pandas and Libertards…I also got a nice collection of Barber Heads and Seated Liberty silver coins I got for the same as any other 90% coin.

 

Okay, then my comments about current pricing on them obviously aren't relevant. I don't know whether the premium on these was lower years ago. If you ever decide to sell it, though, don't settle for 1.1x spot!

I used the same strategy, trying to get better coins as part of melt-value lots. Sometimes I succeeded, but it's been a while. The last lucky strike was a pawnshop that was selling silver dimes for $1.50 when melt was around $1.20; someone had turned in a dozen or so Barber dimes, including several semi-key dates. I'd love it if I could do that more regularly.

 

Here's one of mine, I only own two!

 

All,

Thank you for your replies. I didn't mean to abandon this thread, just got busy for a bit. I'll take some time to look back over the replies with more attention.

So far it seems the consensus is that there are so many commemoratives that are for the most part uninteresting (and in some cases botched). That makes sense, and from a coin collecting perspective I'm right there. There are very few that I would like to have as a piece to admire. The 1987 $5 Constitution piece was mentioned - I like that one, too, but don't currently have one.

I still find it interesting that the unpopularity of these as coins would relegate them to a status lower than "junk silver" when they are, as far as silver goes, the same. So unpopular that the "get the most silver for my buck" crowd doesn't even seem to show interest in scooping up silver dollars at melt, a price nearly unheard of for any silver these days. But $3+ over for some slick, dateless Quarters? No Problem! I suppose people will be strange.

 

Agreed.

 

That's one of the gold coins I like. I also like the Washington gold 5 dollar. I have both yours and the Washington.

 

I was keeping up with the modern commemoratives for a while, but it just got to be too much. I broke the string with the 1964 Civil Rights Act commemorative silver dollar. Having too often been on the wrong side of the quotas that act created, I had no interest in the coin.

 

Information on comemoratives is tough to come by for the non-serious coin collector....it's a tough series to follow.....prices have been going down for YEARS up to 2020 following a few bubbles.....so many people burned in the 1980's and 1990's and 2000's.

 

I would be very careful when buying the 1926 Sesquicentennial $2.50 raw. There have been counterfeits of that coin for years. If the counterfeit is made of gold, you would get something back, but if it's not, you are stuck. The coin was struck in low relief, and for the newbe, it might be hard to spot a bad one.



I collected the modern gold commemorative coins were quite a while, especially the double sets which were in wooden boxes. I bought most of them in the secondary market, which means I got most of them for less than issue.

Today they have turned out to be a good bullion investment. I now own all but a few for less than melt, and that was BEFORE the current run up.

 

Can you show us this coin?