I've been collecting coins since 1992, which is enough time to have learned more than a few things about the hobby I love. I was still a kid when I first ventured into coin collecting, which means I was at that prime age for touching the hot stove… a
For the third time, a bill to end the U.S. Mint's Presidential $1 coin program, has been introduced in the Senate. The last two times the bill has been brought to the floor, it died from inaction. Will the third version, called S. 95 and introduced on January 7, bring the dollar program to its knees?
Larry King recently recorded a 25-minute interview with Ian Russell, who is the founder and president of GreatCollections Coin Auctions. The interview was taped at King’s Los Angeles studio for his television program, Larry King Now.
It’s a new year, and with the start of a fresh calendar, the U.S. Mint bullion coin program is gearing up for what could be an exciting 2015. Going into January, bullion prices continue to stay soft, with silver in the $16 range and gold hanging out around $1,225.00 an ounce -- just about where bullion prices have remained since early last autumn.
You don’t hear much about the market for cull American silver eagles. This could be because many coin collectors and investors are focused on obtaining the whitest, highest-grading silver eagles they can find – and afford. But, if you think about, many bullion investors should also be looking at cull silver eagles with interest. That’s because these lower-end coins represent an affordable means of purchasing silver bullion that’s guaranteed by the U.S. government.
We have the latest sales figures for the Top 25 Morgan silver dollars that were sold on eBay in December 2014, and the data show some especially huge prices were paid during the month. Perhaps Santa Claus was filling the stockings of some very good coin collectors, because this list of the top-selling Morgan silver dollar coins from December is mainly comprised of high-value key dates. In fact, the top Morgan dollar on eBay in December sold for nearly $20,000 – that’s an impressive figure for eBay coin sales.
I think a lot of people believe all the valuable and rare coins have been removed from circulation and that there are few, if any, really good pocket change finds left to be made. While the old days of regularly spotting Barber coinage, Mercury dimes, Walking Liberty half dollars, Standing Liberty quarters, and Buffalo nickels may be over, that doesn't mean valuable and rare coins are absent from circulation.
Will 2015 be a hot year for U.S. coins? It’s a similar question that we ask at the beginning of each and every year. Surely, some years are better than others for the U.S. coin market. In the last five years especially, we’ve seen U.S. coins endure some ups and downs, but through it all, I’ve noticed some areas of stability and even growth. Rare U.S. gold coins have enjoyed heightened popularity thanks to the sale of the 1,400+ Saddle Ridge Hoard gold coins that were found buried in tin cans in Northern California. Meanwhile, Morgan silver dollars have been perennially popular and continue to enjoy strong marketplace demand.
American silver and gold eagle coins were flying high in 2014, and as the crystal ball dropped in New York City’s Times Square, we wrapped up what was a very busy year for the precious metal market. As far as the silver and gold bullion scene is concerned, we can easily divide the first and second halves of the year by the metals prices. Gold prices bounced between roughly $1,250 and $1,400 from January through early July, and then started showing weakness after that point. Right around the end of October and into November, the bottom fell out, and gold briefly dipped into the $1,120s.
The Top 25 most expensive Walking Liberty half dollars from November 2014 show a surprising mixture of dates for the month, including several early dates, multiple key coins, and even numerous high-end proof and uncirculated specimens. The top coin for the month sold for more than $9,000, while the least expensive of the Walking Liberty half dollars sold in November 2014 traded hands for $835 – so, there’s quite a spread in price among the coins we’ll look at here.
The U.S. Mint has just announced its 2015 coins and products release schedule, giving coin collectors and bullion investors a heads up as to when they can start making their 2015 coin orders. It looks like the U.S. Mint will be kicking off its first 2015 coin releases very early in the month of January, with a slew of 2015 coin sets and other merchandise to follow.
It was Christmas week, and while the stockings were hung by the chimney with care, the promise of a few more 2014-dated American silver and gold eagle coins was satisfied here. Yes, unlike last week, when I had anemic production figures to report from the U.S. Mint, it looks like several thousand gold eagle coins and slightly more than a half million 2014 American silver eagles were distributed for sale.
Morgan silver dollars are always a top seller on eBay, the most popular online auction site around. In November 2014, some very rare and expensive coins crossed the virtual auction block. In this post, we’ll check out which ones were the most expensive Morgan silver dollars to sell on the site that month.
It’s been a slow news week for the U.S. American silver and gold eagle coin programs. With nothing new distributed on the gold eagle side and only a lean number of new silver eagle coins to speak of, this report reflects the smallest amount of bullion coin sales activity from the U.S. Mint since CoinValues began disseminating American eagle coin sales data earlier this year.
You'd be surprised how often I see or hear of people doing things to their coins that will absolutely damage them. I mean flat-out knock 30% or more of the value off the coin. I'm not talking about drilling holes into the coins, colorizing them, or something else crazy like that. No -- I'm referring to things that to a non-numismatist seem benign but to seasoned collectors are downright damaging and possibly even catastrophic to coins and their value.
Gold and silver prices have climbed back to mid-October levels, but how long will bullion values sustain at this level? American silver and gold eagle coins seem to be languishing at the moment, as nobody can really tell where the bullion market will be tomorrow, next week, or next month. It seems this market uncertainty is persuading many investors to hold their wallets and purses tight, because as this U.S. Mint report for American silver and gold eagle bullion sales shows, there was relatively little activity this past week. Of course, some of that may have to do with the coming transition over to year 2015 American eagle coin production.
It was another busy week in silver and gold trading. Over last weekend, both metals stumbled in price, with silver at one point in the low $15 range and gold trading in the $1,140s. By Monday and Tuesday, a recovery brought prices of those metals respectively back into the $16 and $1,200 range. Meanwhile, the United States Mint is transitioning into 2015 American eagle coin issues, and release dates for those coins have been announced; the U.S. Mint will begin accepting orders for 2015 American silver eagles on January 12, 2015 while allocations for American eagle gold coins bearing the new date will begin on January 20.
American eagle silver and gold coin sales figures for November 2014 appear strong, though overall the numbers weren’t quite as high in November as they were in October 2014. A very small part of this may be due to the fact that the U.S. Mint was closed for the Thanksgiving holiday.
December 1 marks Cyber Monday in 2014, and perhaps you're wondering if you should buy silver and gold bullion coins while you're shopping for your family and friends. While silver and gold decorations may be on every Christmas tree, silver and gold bullion coins are stacking up in coin dealers' and bullion brokers' cases as they stock up on inventory to meet increasing demands over the holidays.
While Americans recovered from tryptophan lows and Black Friday shopping highs, the bullion market quietly slid back just a tad for the week ending November 28, 2014. Silver now rests at $15.56 while gold settled to $1,167 – just a bit off last week’s bullion prices of $15.75 and $1,175, respectively. As bullion prices reclined a tad in the easy chair (and who didn’t last Thursday or Friday?), the U.S. Mint closed out the month of November 2014 with some respectable numbers in terms of American silver and gold coin sales.
