Silver and gold prices are creating quite the challenge

Indeed, it is a rare day when I can sit down with my coins in the middle of the week. Silver and gold prices continue to climb and we are most definitely in the middle of a feeding frenzy for precious metals. In fact, it seems that many coin collectors have moved from collecting coins to amassing metals. Well, I don?t have the resources or the inclination to do anything other than collect coins. The problem arises when trying to fill those pesky holes in my albums for older coins most notably Barber, Winged Liberty and Roosevelt Dimes and Walking Liberty and Franklin Half Dollars. As silver hovers around $46 an ounce, the melt value of the average common silver dime is over $3.30 and for an average common silver half dollar over $16.50. This is hardly conducive to filling holes in raw sets with lower grades. I was struck by something Gary H. said about the value of higher end silver coins in one of his journals. I became curious just how much price compression over the various grades of silver coins there really was. I was surprised! In trying to fill a raw set unless you are buying an XF40 or better Roosevelt Silver Dime or an MS60 Franklin Half or better you are essentially going to pay melt value for the coin regardless of FMV, on average. (I based my calculations on NumisMedia FMV.) The disparity becomes even more extreme if you want to submit coins for grading. Assuming a $15.00 NGC grading fee, unless you can guarantee you are submitting a coin in the top two or three pops the cost is really prohibitive. Personally, I am not that good at identifying coins at the high end of the grade scale. So what does all of this rambling mean to me? I have become much more particular when buying raw coins and I need to save my money to populate my registry sets with only the very best quality coins. I don't think I'l be submitting any coins any time soon. Fortunately, the escalation in silver prices has only had a minimal impact on the top end graded coins.

On the brighter side, with the feeding frenzy for precious metals, the non-precious metal coins like pennies, nickels and modern clad coins seem to be relatively unaffected by the price inflation. At least I can still affordably collect those coins and of course there are always those unexpected surprises I find in rolls of coins from the bank and grocery store. I do have to admit though that the rising prices of metals is definitely making me feel pretty good about selling a number of silver and gold proof sets I got from my mother. I can easily redirect the gains from those coins into our summer budget or more specifically into my collecting goals. Most of the proof sets my mother left me really do not fit into my collecting goals but I?ll admit they are nice to have. I am still sitting on the fence about selling my low grade Walking Liberty Halves but as silver keeps going up, the justification for keeping them is diminishing greatly.

Now to change gears completely, I have been pondering the idea of just exactly what constitutes a complete set of modern coins. From 2005 through 2010 the mint issued Proof coins, SMS coins, and Business Strike coins. Does a complete raw set, let?s say of Lincoln Cents, include all three types of coins for those years? My thinking on the subject is yes which seems to be in line with the Registry Sets that have spaces for the SMS and Business Strike coins. Of course this means I need to buy a few extra pages for my albums. I?m inclined to add these coins to my pennies, nickels, dimes, and half dollars but I?m not so sure about the State quarters and definitely not for the ATB quarters which I do not collect. I really don?t feel in any great rush to get the SMS and Business Strike pairs into the sets. I guess the idea just needs more time to develop in my mind.

Well, I could sit here all day immersed in my coins but there are other things to get done so for now I will leave with a picture of the variety of Euro coins brought to me by one of my kids at school last week. Yes, they are circulated but it?s a great feeling knowing that my kids at school are looking out for me.

Dennis