Hi. I just signed up here and I'm new to coin collecting. I don't know much about it. I want to have gold and silver in my possession to hedge against what I think will be a massive inflation boom in the near future. I had a question about the plain edge error on the washington dollar. I have been offered these coins for $150. I have heard these are not very rare, but in the discussions I have read no one ever mentions the Mint State number. These are 65. My first question is: Are these overpriced? and How do you know they are not rare when you don't know the MS number? Thanks in advance for all the help.
A little overpriced. They can be had for less than $100 each. They're uncommon to be sure, but not ultra rare. There's a seller on ebay who has hundreds of them and is selling them in tubes of 50 at a time. MS refers to the grade of the coin, not its rarity. MS means Mint State, or uncirculated, and the numbers go from 60 for a pretty well banged-up uncirculated example to 70 for an absolutely perfect and unmarked example. If you are looking to collect gold and silver coins, you should be aware that the presidential dollar coins are neither - they're an alloy of copper, zinc, manganese and nickel.
Thanks so much!! I appreciate your reply. I don't want to buy stuff that is not pure gold or silver and definitely don't want stuff that's overpriced. Thank you again.
If you're looking to buy gold or silver coins, you have three choices - the US Mint http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wc...tegoriesDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001 , a dealer (check Google or your local phonebook) or ebay. If you buy from the mint or a dealer, you're going to pay a price from a few to several percent over the current spot price of the metal. If you buy on ebay you can sometimes get a bargain, but you really have to know what you're doing, as there are many crooks doing the selling. You need to decide whether you want collectable coins, or bullion coins. Collectable coins should be obtained only in the highest possible grade that you can come up with. Anything less would be considered bullion (worth it's metalic weight only) except for the really rare coins. High grade collectable or rare coins will appreciate in price; bullion coins will only be worth somewhere around the spot price of the metal. If your goal is to have a collection then that's all there is to it. If you are planning to sell at a profit some time in the future, dealers will pay you from a few to several percent less than the spot price. You can get spot price, or a little more on ebay. The wise thing is to read up on what's available, who has what you're looking for and the general pricing structure for the market. Remember, there's no guarantee that the price of gold or silver are going to go up. Gold has been bouncing up and down in the $800's lately with silver in the $11-12 range. In the recent past gold was as high as $1000 briefly and silver was $18, but I don't think those numbers will be reached again soon.
