Premium on common double eagles

Things are getting strange. Check out the category listings and pricing this afternoon from Money Metals:



Why are "AU" raw Saints priced the same as slabbed MS62 Saints, and higher than raw "BU" examples?

Also note the very small price increments from 62 to 63 to 64. Only at 65 do the significant increases start, and the premium there is still less than 10% over raw examples.

 

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The difference between ( I dont want a 62 ) and I will have more ( 64,s please )
is just crazy stupid !! but again if were just talking about bullion here, from a buying perspective I guess it just doesn't matter.

 

AU raws could be cleaned (Details) or even lower than AU so you really don't know what you are getting. But a true AU Saint could be NICER LOOKING than a low-60's beaten up Saint.

Yup, that's the way it was in the past except the very small price increments were at MS-60 thru 63.

MS-65 common premiums were normally around 25%, normalized for a steady gold price.

 

Jeff, we are in totally unchartered territory with a big rise in gold that we have seen before in % terms...but NOT in absolute terms. When gold was bottoming in the late-1990's and early-2000's the premiums were highest (see charts before).

I can see it with my flagship Saint, an MS-66 1923-D. I bought it at FUN 2020 when gold was just under $1,700 and paid about $3,500 (might have paid a bit more for a nice-looking coin). Gold is now $4,000 and the same coin is $5,500 or a bit less.

So gold up 135% and the coin is only up maybe 55%. At least that same phenomenon of premium erosion might help me with a purchase in 2 months.

 

Well, they do have a separate entry for cleaned/ex-jewelry coins.

Absolutely could, but isn't guaranteed to - and when considering ordering sight-unseen from categories like this, I always assume that the coins I would receive would be the absolute worst capable of achieving the grade.

 

If it hasn't been to a TPG, then there's no way to tell if it's DETAILS or even a Jewelry piece, right ? Though I suspect a jewlry piece could be identified by visible damage.

MS vs. AU vs. EF could just be more wear on the high points.

Agreed !

 

I think if they frequently sold details coins as AU at $(xxxx) instead of as cleaned/ex-jewelry at $(xxxx - 100), they'd quickly have so many loudly unhappy customers that they'd cut it out.

I'm not someone who believes only TPGs can determine a coin's condition.