Who's population are they reporting? From the entire treasure hoard? IF thats part of the reason why they are asking so much - hard pass. Even if i had $18k to blow on a $2.5 gold, I wouldnt care how many they found with that date/mm. Especially if there are 100s more in the top 4 census
It's most likely the PCGS population report, of course that would only include the coins the PCGS's are degraded, how many more of these may still be in the coins undergoing conservation that have not been cleaned yet, and how many more are still on the ocean floor to be brought up? Right now the population report is probably very speculative.
There are over a hundred thousand double eagles on the SS Central America from what I’ve heard. They only sell for moon money because the companies that sell them want them to. Once they are all dispersed in the market the price will probably plummet.
If you buy any of those you'll likely have the pleasure of being underwater on them as long as the coins were.
Story on the SS Central America: "The marketing for this group of double eagles (as well as a large number of massive ingots and gold bars) was masterful and hundreds of serious collectors were created. The prevailing thought was that if someone entered the market as an investor and bought a nice 1857-S double eagle from the shipwreck, by providing him with massive amounts of research and history it would be possible to create many new collectors whose interest would extend to other dates from the wreck (1855-S and 1856-S) and then onto various other issues." For me, the SS Central America DID spur me back into coin collecting even though I didn't buy one of the coins. For my cousin who actually DID buy a 1/4 or 1/2 Eagle (can't remember), it didn't. He's bought bullion over the years but no numismatic coins or other SSCA's.
They've come down in price I believe, coins and other gold. I remember the $50 re-strike when it first came out was $5,000 when gold was about $300, like a 700% premium to spot. I picked one up years later for about $4,500 when gold was much higher, like a 10% premium to spot.
Pricing on Liberty DE's -- shipwreck and regular -- is much tougher to come by than for Saints. As a general rule, however, the LOWER end seems to have risen as more people got into collecting the various Types. But high-ends weak last few years, I believe.
