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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;krispy, post: 1037005, member: 19065&quot;]<b>Mike: </b>You make many good and valid points however, this discussion is quite&nbsp;&nbsp; common and one I happen to consider far from being just a &#039;latest craze&#039;&nbsp;&nbsp; but rather one with opposing long term vs. short term perspectives&nbsp;&nbsp; about bullion <i>coins</i>. It currently seems to persist amongst other things&nbsp; debatable for the, <i>to slab or not to slab</i> topic perhaps due to&nbsp; the limited parameters currently placed on bullion <i>coins</i>.&nbsp; Valuation cannot be rationally explained between unique collectors so I&nbsp; don&#039;t even delve far into that aspect apart from citing the informed vs&nbsp; un-informed buyer. Government&nbsp; issued bullion are: coins, bullion and <i>can be</i> collectible and indeed <i>are</i> collected. Bullion coins from private mints are just that and carry with them their own collector bases, investors, and so on.</p><p><br /></p><p>Counterpoint:</p><p><br /></p><p>As I&#039;ve stated on CT in the past, particularly in bullion threads, one&nbsp;&nbsp; day the minting of any particular bullion coin presently available and&nbsp;&nbsp; perhaps abundant will cease being minted. I know I am in a minority on&nbsp; what I am about to state and don&#039;t need a lecture about the futility of&nbsp; potential that&nbsp; lies beyond my lifetime. I understand the near term&nbsp; thinking but also see the long term potential several generations out. </p><p><br /></p><p>Why do I&nbsp; offer a counterpoint? For instance, I believe that the Eagle&nbsp; program WILL one day end&nbsp; or a notable change will occur demarcating the&nbsp; past program from the&nbsp; future-present program. The design or some other&nbsp; factor about what we&nbsp; currently now know Eagle coins to be will cease&nbsp; or change and that is when&nbsp; numismatic minds will begin to shift to&nbsp; collecting that group of bullion coins, amongst them&nbsp; those which have&nbsp; been certified/graded. </p><p><br /></p><p>I am not talking about current values, nor the&nbsp; rationality of grading&nbsp; anything let alone something not currently&nbsp; widely collected or what a&nbsp; dealer NOW will pay you for a certified&nbsp; bullion coin. It is my belief,&nbsp; that many, many years down the road,&nbsp; bullion coins that have been&nbsp; graded have the same potential numismatic&nbsp; value and a market for&nbsp; collectibility as do any other coins. I know compared to classic silver&nbsp; and gold coins, Eagles have not (technically) circulated as money. There&nbsp; is plenty of room to expand on the uses of these coins as money but not&nbsp; here. </p><p><br /></p><p>The entire market for certified bullion is to be&nbsp; determined later,&nbsp; probably not by us, unless such bullion coins cease&nbsp; production sooner&nbsp; rather than later, at any rate when it occurs a limited supply becomes&nbsp; evident. Yes, technically, even&nbsp; 30 Million plus bullion coins minted&nbsp; from of a single year is a limited supply. Not all will&nbsp; survive and&nbsp; while many may be available in upper grades there&nbsp; will continue to be&nbsp; collectors and a market for them. It may not be for the everyman&nbsp; collector alive today, but for generations ahead for their own likes and&nbsp; reasons. There were after all hordes of Morgans and others that have&nbsp; shared the same past and slow slow future potential. I am aware of this&nbsp; side of the debate.</p><p><br /></p><p>Certainly populations of lower grades amongst certified bullion are low&nbsp;&nbsp; at this point. Lower graded bullion coins than you pointed out do&nbsp; already exist. Bullion&nbsp; coins currently deemed by many to be too low to&nbsp; grade haven&#039;t yet been&nbsp; graded. Low populations of certain grades may&nbsp; fetch greater prices.&nbsp; There are many aspects for the potential&nbsp; numismatic category of&nbsp; collectible bullion and collecting certified&nbsp; bullion coins, although&nbsp; that potential is long term. Grading may&nbsp; entirely pass into the history books in 25 or 50+ years from now.&nbsp; Certified coins may be removed from holders for any number of reasons,&nbsp; let alone a future loss to the TPG foothold in numismatics or any one&nbsp; TPGs authority in the market should it be compromised our outmoded by&nbsp; another. The hobby changes as do perspectives within the hobby, so does&nbsp; change the target of each collectors enthusiasm.</p><p><br /></p><p>In the near term one can readily find bullion being degraded from&nbsp; mishandling,&nbsp; melting, physically reworked into other forms,&nbsp; artificially toned and thus&nbsp; damaged... all things to deplete the&nbsp; current supply levels that have been minted and remove them from&nbsp; numismatic consideration. </p><p><br /></p><p>Presently, bullion coins can be collected, bought and sold at a premium,&nbsp; for&nbsp; their beautiful natural toning. The willingness to pay more is one&nbsp; of personal&nbsp; preference or ignorance. The desire of what and why to&nbsp; collect is unique for each collector. They have varied reasons: in&nbsp; completing an album or creating a certified collection or for passing&nbsp; something on to a future generation.</p><p><br /></p><p>Invest not in coins. Invest in bullion but not as a collectible. </p><p><br /></p><p>Collect&nbsp; bullion not as an investment but because you like to or that it&nbsp; helps define something about you and your reasoning for collecting. </p><p><br /></p><p>Due diligence&nbsp; will reward the most informed as to what to pay and not&nbsp; to pay for or&nbsp; what to seek and not to seek in resale if and when&nbsp; parting with a piece.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>It is up to the informed collector to understand how the pieces they&nbsp;&nbsp; collect are perceived by the wider market but it is not reasonable for&nbsp;&nbsp; the community of collectors to insist those in the minority amongst them&nbsp; collecting against the trend should heed all advice for what to/not to&nbsp; collect. </p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s only&nbsp; fair that those not willing to understand these things but&nbsp; who insist on (over?) paying do so because they lack the patience and&nbsp; skill to not over&nbsp; pay and may become upset if they feel low-balled&nbsp; selling. The informed collector will see through the current market that&nbsp; <i>exploits</i> prices of certified bullion which the uninformed may be&nbsp; blissfully ignorant of, that is, perhaps until a real life example&nbsp; awakens their folly when they attempt to sell something bought at higher&nbsp; levels.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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