|
Don't Worry About Rising Metal Prices
 | By Mark Benvenuto, Coins Magazine
April 23, 2008 |
Generations of collectors have started in the hobby by pulling Lincoln cents from pocket change. Even today, older collectors can recall times when wheat cents were plentiful. And these same collectors remember the scramble for them in the 1960s when they became scarce, at least in circulation.
Much more recently, a generation of collectors have come of age by pulling state quarters out of their change. Some new collectors settle on one quarter per design. Others opt for the Philadelphia and Denver version of each.
From those pocket change beginnings, new collectors often look in detail at one series or another to see what they fancy. Unfortunately, with the volatile prices of gold and silver today, many people journeying into some serious collecting might think this has become too expensive a hobby or too costly a pastime for them.
If you know someone like this - or fall into this category yourself - read on. There are a few great, fun series of U.S. coins out there that can be collected, and collected on the cheap, despite the rising costs of precious metals.
Franklin Half Dollars
Surprise! I didn't start with Lincoln cents, Jefferson nickels, or any of the other current U.S. coins. The Franklin half dollar, rather, is the first series I'll take a look at in terms of an easy collection to assemble. Even though it is a closed series that hasn't been minted for decades, and even though all the coins are silver, it's still rather affordable.
Franklin halves were minted from 1948-1963, which means there are 16 years that cover the entire span of these half dollars. If you choose to assemble a group based solely on date, 16 coins will do the trick. A piece in the lower mint-state grades will cost anywhere from $15 for one of the very common dates to $65 for one of the less common.
If you choose to look at Franklin halves in terms of every date and mintmark combination possible, you will up your collecting goal to 35 pieces. There are a few years in which these coins came from the Philadelphia Mint as well as the branch mints in Denver and San Francisco.
After 1954 the S-mint coins went the way of the dodo birds, with Philadelphia and Denver doing all the half dollar coining. But even now, when San Francisco coins often command a premium, most of the San Francisco Franklins are still affordable.
For example, the 1951-S, the most common of the S-mint Franklins, with a 13.6 million mintage, costs about $30 in Mint State-60. That's not too bad considering the coin you're getting and the cost of silver today.
Overall, Franklin half dollars make an attractive and non-budget-busting set of U.S. silver.
Eisenhower Dollars
If there is a coin that could qualify for America's least collected, the Eisenhower dollar may be it. Of course, these dollars may also qualify as the least used coins the U.S. Mint ever made for circulation. Silver dollar collectors are almost always drawn to the Morgan or Peace dollar series and end up giving scant attention to the Eisenhower dollar series.
The Eisenhower series was minted from 1971-1978, although there are none dated 1975. That year the Mint jumped the gun for the U.S. Bicentennial a bit and began the production of the dual-dated 1776-1976 coins, which also sport a Bicentennial reverse.
That may make the series a bit more interesting, but the Mint policy of producing collector versions at San Francisco in a 40 percent silver alloy tends to make the series confusing. You see, each year from 1971 up to and including the Bicentennial coins, the San Francisco pieces were produced as 40 percent silver coins, exclusively for sale to collectors. So, while it's quite easy to find Eisenhower dollars, the silver versions are always going to cost a bit more.
Speaking of the cost of Eisenhower dollars, you'll be hard pressed to find any price guide that even lists them in grades lower than MS-60. The coins were simply not ever used enough.
Today, specimens of the copper-nickel pieces might cost $20 in MS-65, but they're not usually more than $2 if you purchase them from some dealer bargain bin.
Recently, a few collecting aficionados have found "high relief earth" and "low relief earth" varieties in the 1972 Eisenhower series, because there were dies in those years in which certain design elements were strengthened. Some references now even list both as separate varieties. But for those of us on a budget, a single date or date and mintmark will do for building a set.
If you do opt for different varieties, beware of any big price mark up. In all cases, these are pretty common coins.
Anthony Dollars
Well, I did just say that the Eisenhowers may be the least collected U.S. coins, but if there is a contender for that title, the Anthony dollar may very well be it. Issued only from 1979 to 1981, then again in 1999, the Anthony dollar has been derided as an ugly design, as a coin too alike in size to the quarter and as a coin with no place in a change till.
In an odd coincidence, I received an Anthony dollar in change at a fast food restaurant not too long before writing this article, which pretty much bolsters the argument that it's easy to confuse with a quarter. As to the argument that the coin is ugly, well, Susan B. Anthony was probably no beauty queen when compared to the many young women who were models for the various representations of Liberty on previous coins, but that doesn't make the coin inherently unattractive.
As for having no place to put such coins in a change till? Well, good! With no place to put them, that means there's more of them to collect.
Seriously, if you want to build a small collection of Anthony dollars, you can definitely do so on a budget. If you want to purchase each date and mintmark from a dealer, you'll find that in MS-65 most of them cost about $15.
Even the proofs, which came from the San Francisco Mint in 1979, 1980, and 1981, were minted in the millions. They might cost a bit more. But it's hard to justify a price in the hundreds of dollars for a coin that is so common and so modern.
There are a couple of varieties within this short series of small dollars. The 1979 has "near date" and "far date" varieties. In 1979, and again in 1981, there are S-mint coins with what is called a "blob S" and a "clear S." In both cases, the clear "S" variety must be much less common, as the price is up in the $100 to $200 range. Again, for a person just starting out, who wants to go for a set without draining his or her wallet, these hard-to-find varieties are probably worth passing by.
Buffalo Nickels
These five-cent pieces were workhorse coins for most of three decades. And they might be an odd choice for a series to start collecting right now. After all, they haven't been minted for decades, and one constantly hears of auction buys in which some Proof-67 Buffalo nickel goes for a king's ransom. But I'm not going to be looking for that king's ransom piece. Rather, I'll go for the coins of the common man.
The Buffalo nickel remains a true collector coin. There are definitely some celebrated rarities within the series. Most collectors know about the fabulous three-legged 1937-D nickels, which command thousands of dollars every time they are up for sale, or the 1916 doubled-die Buffalo nickel. But what makes these coins fun to collect is the common-date pieces.
Look in any dealer's stock of attractive Buffalo nickels that don't quite qualify as mint state and you will find some handsome pieces coupled to attractive prices. Many of the dates in the 1930s can be had for less than $15 per coin in grades such as Extremely Fine. Go back a decade and the price rises perhaps another $5 to $20 per coin. But even the earliest Buffalo nickels can be had for about $25 in EF, if you stick with the issues from Philadelphia.
When it comes to mintmarked Buffalo nickels, you will either have to pay more or settle for less, as far as a grade is concerned, simply because the mintages were almost always lower, especially in the earliest years of the series. That being said, $40 to $75 will get several of those early S and D mintmarks in a circulated grade such as Very Good or Fine.
As the series progresses, there were larger and larger issues of nickels from the Denver and San Francisco mints, which translates into lower prices for collectors. That same $40 can land you nickels with a mintmark that are in the Very Fine to EF range.
Whether you focus on mintmarks or just start with a straight date run, the Buffalo nickel remains a great collector coin. That means it remains a great place to start a collection.
Indian Head Cents
I'll qualify this one a bit: Indian Head cents from 1878 until the end of the series.
The Indian Head cent may come in behind only the Lincoln cent and now the state quarters when it comes to starter coins for collectors. Older collectors still swap stories about beginning a collection by looking through containers of old cents, hoping to find the occasional Indian Head.
Millions were made, right from the first year, 1859. And Longacre's design was probably the most widely known coin in the United States as the 19th century turned into the 20th century. But the series has something of a dividing point in it - the year 1877. After that point, the prices drop, even though there were some pretty high mintages prior to 1877.
One easy facet of Indian Head cent collecting is that you don't have too much to remember when it comes to mintmarks. The 1908-S and the 1909-S are the only two years that saw any branch-mint activity for Indian Head cents. Everything else came spewing out of the Philadelphia Mint.
If you want to spend nothing more than a few dollars per coin, Indian Head cents can still be your collection. Those two S mintmarks are off the list, but almost every other date from 1878 onward can be had for about $5. Sure, some of them will be in grades like G-4 or VG-8. But several of them will be F-12 or VF-20 pieces. That's not bad for a coin that has more than a century of history attached to it.
Of course, you can spend more on your Indian Head cents, if you want to. At $20 a plug, many of the common pieces are available in EF. Go up to $40 per coin and you can get your hands on quite a few MS-60s. How much you spend is entirely up to you.
Others?
Are there other starter sets and series you can choose within the field of U.S. coins? Of course there are. There's a slew of them I haven't mentioned, including some with silver in them. Even in a volatile metals market, there are bargains to be found. You just have to be patient and look for them.
By the way, have you noticed that I didn't hit the usual suspects? I haven't mentioned the state quarters, the ever-popular Lincoln cents, Jefferson nickels, Kennedy halves, or even Roosevelt dimes. All of these are series where a person can glean a lot from change, get a bit of help from their local bank or credit union, or ask for aid from a friendly dealer.
Finding out for yourself which coins are available is as easy as keeping track of your change for a month, possibly coupled with a weekly trip to the bank. The price of gold and silver may be on a jumpy ride right now.
The headlines may be a constant refrain about one huge auction or another. But despite all that, this can still be an affordable hobby. Enjoy yourself!
Add to: del.icio.us digg
With this article: Email to friend Print
Something to add? Notice an error? Comment on this article. | |