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Tuesday, October 05, 2010

10/5 Numismatic Collecting News » Featured

   
Some Recent Observations From A Coin Show Perspective
October 4, 2010 at 7:10 AM
 
By Doug Winter – RareGoldCoins.com
Having just come from the Philadelphia Whitman Coin Expo show and, the week before this, the Long Beach show, I feel pretty qualified to make some market observations. Without further ado, I'd like to share them with you.

1. There Are Too Many Coin Shows Right Now. I'm sure I'm not going to make any friends with coin show promoters for saying this but with Long Beach occuring last week, Philly this week and the St. Louis show next week, this is too many coin shows in a short period of time. I saw few fresh coins in Philadelphia because I looked at many dealer's coins in Long Beach and the thought of turning around next week and going to St. Louis…uh, no thanks. The market just can't support this many shows and this is why you are seeing many formerly good regional three and four day events beginning to die rapid deaths.

2. Buying Nice Coins Is Tough, Tough, Tough. If you thought it was hard two or three years ago to buy nice coins at shows, it is as tough now as its ever been; maybe tougher. I've heard dealers all of all sizes and shapes complain how hard it is to find interesting fresh material at recent shows. I was lucky and I had an amazing ANA show with lots and lots of great new coins to offer DWN clients. But it is a real grind to find coins now and, clearly, the good stuff is going off the market and staying there.

3. Everyone Wants to Buy Type One Double Eagles. There are many firms and individual dealers (myself included) who are very active buyers right now of Type One double eagles. At the Philadelphia show I saw almost nothing for sale other than the usual motley assortment of Uncirculated S.S. Central America 1857-S , a few lower grade common dates and the odd overpriced rarity here and there. This is clearly an extremely popular area of the market and coins in the $2,000-15,000+ price range are exceptionally popular right now.

4. And CC Double Eagles Too. You can add $2,000-10,000+ Carson City double eagles to this list as well. They are most definitely in strong demand and if the coins are properly priced (or even just a hair too expensive) they are easy sellers. Even big money coins like 1870-CC double eagles are beginnig to sell again and I am aware of at least two EF examples changing hands since ANA. If you have any nice CC double eagles for sale, please contact me as I'd like to buy them from you!

5. Nice New Orleans Gold Has Disappeared. Where has all the nice New Orleans gold gone? Good question. The last few months have seen very, very few interesting New Orleans gold coins available and the few choice or rare pieces that I have had in stock have sold quickly. Clearly, this is an area of the market that is very active.

6. And Dahlonega Gold Also. I think you can safely add choice, original Dahlonega gold in all denominations to the "where the heck are the coins?" list. I can generally only find two or three decent D mint coins at a major show and they seem to sell very quickly when I list them on my website.

7. Coin Pricing Is a Total Disaster. I've mentioned this a number of times but I am finding it more and more of a hassle that coin pricing is such out of touch with reality. What typically happens is that one very low quality rare coin trades cheaply at auction and Trends whacks the price for the issue down. This has recently happened with rare, desirable coins like the 1796 No Stars and 1808 quarter eagles and the 1795 eagle. I look at this as, in its own way, as big a concern in the coin market as the doctoring issue. One reason why good coins aren't being sold is that pricing doesn't reflect the real value of choice, high end pieces. Fix this problem and you will fix the lack of supply that is hurting the market right now. Don't fix it and new buyers will be more interested in purchasing MS64 Saints than "real" coins.

8. I'm Not Seeing Many PCGS "Secure" or "Plus" Coins. Either the new PCGS Secure and Plus program isn't working or its working so incredibly well that the coins in these holders never make it to the market, But I am not seeing many of these coins and I continue to feel that CAC has really set the pace in the high end segment of the market. It remains hard to price PCGS PLus and Secure coins when so few trade at auctions or at shows.

9. The Birth of the "Lucky Charms" Grade. I wish I was clever enough to have invented this term but, alas, I'm not. But I recently have seen coins graded "AU58+*CAC" and these pieces with all the attached symbols and stickers are now known as "Lucky Charms" coins because they seem to have imported their verbiage from the shapes found in this cereal. Magically delicious, no?

 

Related posts:

  1. Some Observations About the 2010 Boston ANA Coin Show
  2. Some Random Observations About the 2010 FUN Show
  3. Pre-FUN Observations

 

 
   
   
     
   
Sedwick Auction To Feature Shipwreck Treasure, Gold Cobs and World Coins
October 2, 2010 at 7:22 AM
 
Daniel Frank Sedwick, LLC announces the release of their Treasure and World Coin Auction #8, scheduled for October 21-23, 2010, comprising 2789 lots, by far their largest sale to date. For the first time Sedwick has incorporated "World Coins" into the title, as the auction features almost 1000 lots of general world coins.
As usual the auction will start with Gold Cobs, more than 50 of them this time (mostly from shipwrecks), including several of the finest known 1715-Fleet specimens: a full-date and exceptionally struck Mexican 8 escudos 1714 and 4 escudos 1715; a near-perfect Lima 2 escudos and probably the finest known Lima cob 1 escudo, both dated 1710 and encapsulated PCGS, the latter MS-64. Also there are no less than nine Fleet "bogeys" (Bogotá 2 escudos) in this sale.

The next section, World Gold Coins, contains over 300 lots, most of them Spanish Colonial "busts," including: the finest known Mexican 1 escudo 1733/2, recovered by Marty Meylach from the 1733 Fleet and the inspiration for his book Diving to a Flash of Gold; a unique Santiago, Chile, 1 escudo, 1755/4, from the famous Eliasberg collection; and well over 100 Spanish colonial bust 8 escudos by date, most of them starting below melt value.

The Ingots section features a collection of large, natural gold nuggets, as well as several important 16th-century ingots (including "tumbaga") and a unique silver "piña" ingot from the Atocha (1622).

"This is not just a treasure auction–it is also a world coin auction, our first big offering of gold and silver coins from countries all over the world.
Daniel Frank Sedwick

In Shipwreck Silver Coins bidders will find hundreds of Atocha (1622) silver coins, both rarities and wholesale lots, in addition to coins from dozens of shipwrecks around the world assembled by two different collectors.

The Silver Cobs sections for Mexico, Lima and Potosí contain no less than four Royals (round presentation specimens) in various denominations. The Lima listings are dominated by the collection of Robert Mastalir, including a nearly complete date-run of 1R that contains several unlisted overdates. Featured in Other Cobs is a Santo Domingo 4 reales of Charles-Joanna (one of very few ever offered at auction), as well as a large collection of dated cobs from mainland Spanish mints.

Following a short but varied Ancient Coins offering (the first for Sedwick), the expanded World Silver Coins section comprises over 600 lots, with particular emphasis on Colombia (featuring Part II of the Herman Blanton collection) and the British Isles (Great Britain, Ireland and Scotland). There is also a large collection of British Admiral Vernon medals.

"Our most important items are in shipwreck artifacts, however," says Sedwick's assistant Agustin "Augi" Garcia, whose new book The "Tumbaga" Saga about some conquest-period silver bars is being released at the same time. "Of particular significance is a unique Tarascan (Mexican) silver rodela (plate) from the "Tumbaga wreck" (ca. 1528), featured in my new book and the important link for figuring out what the silver ingots of that time were made of."

The Shipwreck Artifacts section also features a large gold-and-emerald pendant and a gold religious medallion and chain from the 1715 Fleet, followed by many lots of small artifacts from the 1733 Fleet, the collection of Marty Meylach himself. Non-shipwreck Artifacts include a large selection of colonial-era weapons, mainly flintlocks and swords, as well as several natural history items like fossils and scrimshaw.

The auction is rounded out by Documents and Media (books and catalogs), ending with a special, full-color, hardbound, limited edition #1 of 50 copy of Augi's much-anticipated book The "Tumbaga" Saga, which the author will personally inscribe to the winning bidder.

Prospective bidders must first register, which can be done directly on iCollector by going to www.icollector.com/sedwick. Also, this time Sedwick's company has integrated the iCollector bidding platform directly on their site so that bidders can bid directly (still with the same service and anonymity as on iCollector) while browsing the lots at www.auction.sedwickcoins.com. Bids will also be accepted by FAX, mail and email and phone, and limited live phone bidding will also be available by prior appointment only.

 

Related posts:

  1. Daniel Frank Sedwick Treasure and World Coin Auction #7
  2. Genuine Shipwreck Treasure to be Auctioned by Sedwick
  3. Daniel Frank Sedwick, LLC announces the release of their Treasure Auction #6, October 15-16, 2009

 

 
   
   

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