Coins as an investment?

[declanwmagee]

this is an interesting thread.

I tend to see our coins as a reserve, rather than as an investment. In other words, we buy when we're flush, sell when we're skint. Try to always buy better than we've got, and try to sell the worst first.

Car failed the MoT? Sell a load of coins - it's easier than trying to find more work. And we know that in a month or two, when we've bought another car, we can start buying coins again.

[The Rev]

I'm firmly in the 'buy what you like and enjoy having it' camp. If someone's buying for an investment, they may as well stick to bullion issues. I'd much rather try to predict what silver and gold are going to do rather than what the next hot trend among collectors is going to be.

Personally, I like having a couple low-grade common dates around just to actually feel the weight of the coin without worrying about degrading it or carry one as a good luck piece. Heck, I've been known to use a well-circulated Scottish shilling to mark my ball on the green--over on this side of the Atlantic it's a conversation starter, and besides, they invented the blasted game, so I'm hoping it curries desperately-needed favor with the golf gods.

[1949threepence]

I'm firmly in the 'buy what you like and enjoy having it' camp. If someone's buying for an investment, they may as well stick to bullion issues. I'd much rather try to predict what silver and gold are going to do rather than what the next hot trend among collectors is going to be.

Personally, I like having a couple low-grade common dates around just to actually feel the weight of the coin without worrying about degrading it or carry one as a good luck piece. Heck, I've been known to use a well-circulated Scottish shilling to mark my ball on the green--over on this side of the Atlantic it's a conversation starter, and besides, they invented the blasted game, so I'm hoping it curries desperately-needed favor with the golf gods.

Although I do like high grade pieces, there's a lot in what you say

[The Rev]

I'm firmly in the 'buy what you like and enjoy having it' camp. If someone's buying for an investment, they may as well stick to bullion issues. I'd much rather try to predict what silver and gold are going to do rather than what the next hot trend among collectors is going to be.

Personally, I like having a couple low-grade common dates around just to actually feel the weight of the coin without worrying about degrading it or carry one as a good luck piece. Heck, I've been known to use a well-circulated Scottish shilling to mark my ball on the green--over on this side of the Atlantic it's a conversation starter, and besides, they invented the blasted game, so I'm hoping it curries desperately-needed favor with the golf gods.

Although I do like high grade pieces, there's a lot in what you say

If it ain't fun too, why bother doing it?

Sure, I like the higher grades when I can get them, but a beat-up penny has lived. I've got a 1900 in hand right now, I'd honestly put it no higher than G-VG. And I can't help but wonder, whose pockets did it pass through? Did it come to America with a tourist, an emigrant, a doughboy coming home, a war bride like my great-aunt? How did it get to Ohio of all places?

In comparison, a BU piece has a bright lustre, but a dull history. It got locked away and looked at. It never bought a piece of candy, or got tossed for heads or tails.

Sure, I'd love to get my hands on some XF/AU/BU Victorias some day, but I'll always be a collector for the fun of it first.

[1949threepence]

I'm firmly in the 'buy what you like and enjoy having it' camp. If someone's buying for an investment, they may as well stick to bullion issues. I'd much rather try to predict what silver and gold are going to do rather than what the next hot trend among collectors is going to be.

Personally, I like having a couple low-grade common dates around just to actually feel the weight of the coin without worrying about degrading it or carry one as a good luck piece. Heck, I've been known to use a well-circulated Scottish shilling to mark my ball on the green--over on this side of the Atlantic it's a conversation starter, and besides, they invented the blasted game, so I'm hoping it curries desperately-needed favor with the golf gods.

Although I do like high grade pieces, there's a lot in what you say

If it ain't fun too, why bother doing it?

Sure, I like the higher grades when I can get them, but a beat-up penny has lived. I've got a 1900 in hand right now, I'd honestly put it no higher than G-VG. And I can't help but wonder, whose pockets did it pass through? Did it come to America with a tourist, an emigrant, a doughboy coming home, a war bride like my great-aunt? How did it get to Ohio of all places?

In comparison, a BU piece has a bright lustre, but a dull history. It got locked away and looked at. It never bought a piece of candy, or got tossed for heads or tails.

Sure, I'd love to get my hands on some XF/AU/BU Victorias some day, but I'll always be a collector for the fun of it first.

I can see where you are coming from with the worn but historied coins, but I like to look at a BU coin from say 100 years ago, and wonder where the heck it has been hiding all these years. Possibly stuck in a drawer somewhere, abandoned and forgotten, while all that history was going on around it.

[The Rev]

I can see where you are coming from with the worn but historied coins, but I like to look at a BU coin from say 100 years ago, and wonder where the heck it has been hiding all these years. Possibly stuck in a drawer somewhere, abandoned and forgotten, while all that history was going on around it.

Sure, and that's a good point, too. And I don't want to anthropomorphize things--I mean, it's just a disk of metal with a design pressed into it.

The ones I find a little harder to understand are the high-grade circulated coins, the ones that hit the street and then something happened to them. You can't really attribute their survival to either luck or design easily. Either someone set it aside deliberately (whether planning to spend it later or actually conserve it) or it was a stored coin spent well after it's minting date that someone noticed and promptly took right back out of circulation, probably.

Or something.

I mean, just going through my pocket change right now, by pure chance I have both 1963 and 1963-D cents. I wouldn't feel guilty calling either one of them Fine to F/VF. Heck, I was made the same year, and half the time I don't feel better than VG.

Of course, it's a lot easier when you haven't had an obvious size/design/content change. I still pull wheat-back pennies from change every now and then, and it's not that uncommon to see a nickel dated in the 1940s or 1950s, and once in a great while you get a real stunner, like the Indian head cent I pulled from change once in the mid-1970s, nearly 70 years after they'd stopped being minted altogether. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes for the Memorial back cents to disappear once the new permanent reverse design is released next year (last I saw, the one they were leaning toward is *not* impressive, though... *sigh*).

[1949threepence]

I can see where you are coming from with the worn but historied coins, but I like to look at a BU coin from say 100 years ago, and wonder where the heck it has been hiding all these years. Possibly stuck in a drawer somewhere, abandoned and forgotten, while all that history was going on around it.

Sure, and that's a good point, too. And I don't want to anthropomorphize things--I mean, it's just a disk of metal with a design pressed into it.

The ones I find a little harder to understand are the high-grade circulated coins, the ones that hit the street and then something happened to them. You can't really attribute their survival to either luck or design easily. Either someone set it aside deliberately (whether planning to spend it later or actually conserve it) or it was a stored coin spent well after it's minting date that someone noticed and promptly took right back out of circulation, probably.

Or something.

I mean, just going through my pocket change right now, by pure chance I have both 1963 and 1963-D cents. I wouldn't feel guilty calling either one of them Fine to F/VF. Heck, I was made the same year, and half the time I don't feel better than VG.

Of course, it's a lot easier when you haven't had an obvious size/design/content change. I still pull wheat-back pennies from change every now and then, and it's not that uncommon to see a nickel dated in the 1940s or 1950s, and once in a great while you get a real stunner, like the Indian head cent I pulled from change once in the mid-1970s, nearly 70 years after they'd stopped being minted altogether. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes for the Memorial back cents to disappear once the new permanent reverse design is released next year (last I saw, the one they were leaning toward is *not* impressive, though... *sigh*).

It would be very interesting to know just how many were set aside deliberately, maybe even as part of a forming collection of then new coins, year by year. Or alternatively how many were simply lost to the system for many years, in some drawer, pocket or long discarded wallet/purse. The owner probably dead, and the item held Lord knows where for many decades. Maybe some were found whilst the type was still in circulation, spent again, circulated again for a while, then captured by the first coin enthusiast who noticed what good state they were still in, to be put aside again, this time permanently.

Of course, we'll never ever know the history of any coin, but it still intrigues the hell out of me, as I sit and ponder individual pieces

Edited November 9, 2009 by 1949threepence

[Peckris]

It would be very interesting to know just how many were set aside deliberately, maybe even as part of a forming collection of then new coins, year by year. Or alternatively how many were simply lost to the system for many years, in some drawer, pocket or long discarded wallet/purse. The owner probably dead, and the item held Lord knows where for many decades. Maybe some were found whilst the type was still in circulation, spent again, circulated again for a while, then captured by the first coin enthusiast who noticed what good state they were still in, to be put aside again, this time permanently.

Of course, we'll never ever know the history of any coin, but it still intrigues the hell out of me, as I sit and ponder individual pieces

I used to wonder if the 30-year-old coin in BU or 60-year-old coin in GVF, had perhaps been stolen and then spent. But as a schoolboy, the joy of finding such gems beat down any scruples I may have had.