But past history shows they bring the "higher dollars". And facts are a good thing to deal in when it comes to our coins. Check out a couple facts in the journal here. I hope you will find it interesting.

Greetings Collectors,

It's really refreshing in this current age of scams and rip offs to continually have awesome transactions with those that just several weeks ago, I had no clue even existed. I met a guy on eBay who lives in L.A. and he was interested in procuring some of my silver bars. I mentioned in my last post a deal he and I struck for 100 "blue Ike 40% silver dollars. Christopher bought these a long time ago and had $3 in each one of them. He made an offer of which I accepted and gave details of in my last journal post. Well, there were two other small bars he wanted of mine and he proposed another offer. This time it was for 20 more Blue Ikes in the OGP along with five 2010 PCGS Proof 70 Silver Eagle 1st Strike coins. He sent them to me 1st & they arrived a few minutes ago. For this I gave him one 10 ounce bar and one 5 ounce bar of 999 fine silver. I was hesitant to trade for the silver eagles because of my disinterest in any modern coinage that wasn't dated 2008 and was not made of gold or platinum and any that did not carry the West Point mint mark. I have since changed my mind on this and thus he and I are both very pleased with our latest trade.

I have used the precious metals company Apmex as a benchmark as to what to sell for, and what to consider as a purchase price for modern precious metals coins, along with bullion coins and bars. This company usually has a "buy price" and a "sell price" undated by the minute for items such as these just mentioned. For instance, lately when they have had the 2010 proof 70 1st strike silver eagles in stock, their sell price has been $168 and they would buy the same 1st strike date for $100 each. Other proof SE of this date and mint without the 1st strike designation go for just about $100. I have read and studied many hours on the pros & cons concerning 1st strike and early release (NGC version) coinage. Personally I would never pay a premium for either so called early issue coin. But... there are those that do. And I may have softened my stubborn stand on this. In fact there are "rabid" buyers of 1st strike coins, especially the Silver Eagles. Upon investigating, there are a few dates that less than 100 coins that have this 1st strike designation coupled with reaching the lofty grade of "proof-70". And the kicker is, there will never be any more of these in a slab with a designation such as this. This goes right to the heart of the issue when it comes to the mentality I have personally when it comes to just how scarce/rare a certain coin is.

The Franklin half series has a few dates that have never seen an MS-67 coin. (currently there never has been a Franklin that has graded MS-68) Throw in "full bell lines" and I know of one date that has never seen an MS-66 (the 1960-D has not seen a MS-66 with full bell lines yet) If one is wanting true rarity, it has always been about, number one, the total mintage. Number two, how many survive today? Number three what is the condition and number of coins considered "top pop" for that particular date & mint. Now I'm not about to start seeking out PCGS proof-70 1st Strike Silver Eagles, but if one is considering a buy or a trade, for coins labeled such as these, it would be foolish to ignore the facts and the history.

On most coins, the total population of known pieces can change overnight. Case in point. The 1924 Saint Gaudens double eagle minted in CA, was for years thought to have had the entire 2,927,500 mintage melted, with the exception of just a couple of coins. In the mid 1940's when there was a rise in the number of collectors that were starting to collect by date AND mint, it was stated by no less a name in numismatics, than B. Max Mehl, who stated there were only three examples of the 1924-S Double Eagle in existence. At that time, no one took anything B. Max Mehl said lightly. After all Mehl knew more, and handled more rare coins than anyone. What made the 24-s so rare and where did all of the almost 3 million coins that were minted go? Well after they were minted 99% or better stayed locked inside mint and Fed bank vaults and when the gold recall came in 1933, all of these were melted.

Now back in the day, anyone could stroll up to any U.S. mint in 1924, in San Francisco, Denver or Philadelphia and get a 1924 Saint Double Eagle for face value. But this was long before collectors had to have, or even wanted to have, one of each date and mint. In 1924 our country was still a young country and what few collectors that collected coins, and even reduced further by saying, "whoever collected gold coins" were probably for the most part, residents of the eastern U.S. Big cities like New York, Chicago, Philadelphia Boston were the big centers of commerce and business in the east and for those privileged few that could afford to set aside a $20 gold coin, would have more than likely set aside an example from the "Philly mint" and not one from the other side of the country. And only coins with very low mintage's were put back and saved by collectors anyway. As for the 1924-S, with almost three million coins minted, for a double eagle this was far from a low mintage, so even a wealthy collector would have never dreamed of setting even one example aside. So the 1924-S was not a low mintage. Actually it was one of the highest, so no one wanted an example for their collection period. Plus we're talking $20 here. This was a massive set aside "dollar wise" and 99.99% of the public didn't have that kind of money to just put back, and especially not for a coin that there were 3 million coins minted. This date, even in the mind of collectors would never be worth more than $20. And what few coins that may have left the mint, once the gold recall was announced, legally the mindset was that only rare gold coins could be legally owned and the few that may have grabbed a 24-S sure did not have this particular coin at the top of their "to keep" list. So those few were probably turned in as well because most people really feared the law and went out of their way to obey it, whether they agreed with the law of not. It was just the way it was back in the 1920's & 30's. This date and mint like several other dates had so much going against it, when the collecting community in 20-25 years started looking for examples of this date, there were none to be found. Thus another rarity was born.

Well, starting around the end of world war two, a small number of American dealers began going to Europe to see what they could find in those numerous bank vaults. What they found was a literal "gold mine". Sitting in European bank vaults were millions of U.S. gold coins exported long before the gold recall of 1933.Having cheerfully been out of the country, the coins were just sitting, and included in their numbers were many good dates, and large quantities of mint state coins. Now it's unclear as to how many of this 1924-S date was found, but we do know today that an example of the 1924-S in VF-20 can be had regularly for less than $3000 and a mint state 60 for only a couple to three times that. Only in MS-65 does the coin exceed $150,000. And mind you, this was a coin that "THE AUTHORITY" on rare coins said there was only three examples of. Total, in existence. Pretty wild if you ask me. I love to read about "hoards" found of any coins, more so of gold ones. But just imagine if you were one of the three people that owned a 1924-S Saint when this hoard news broke and examples started to