In it for the money?

I was just looking in my daily email listing quarantined emails. One of those listed was from Teletrade, regarding their 25th anniversary auction. So I had it delivered and checked out some items in the upcoming auction.

For no apparent reason, I was drawn to look at an 1892 Barber dime, NGC graded MS67 with CAC sticker. I suppose I'm thinking of it as a candidate for my type collection, although I have my almost-available dollars targeted on a half dime in the Heritage FUN show auction next month.

Anyway, I checked the Heritage auction archives to get an idea of how much similar coins have been fetching recently. Their most recent result was from just a month ago. I took a closer look, and saw that it is the same coin as in the upcoming Teletrade auction.

It also struck me that it had no CAC sticker in the Heritage photos. So the present consignor bought it, got it CAC-ed, and consigned with Teletrade in the space of a few weeks. I've noticed similar relatively quick turnaround of other coins as I've done my investigations.

As some of you know, I have completed my middle and late date large cent sets, and have moved on to focus on half dimes. As much as I would like to have more money to pursue those tiny coins, I just cannot see myself selling the old coppers. I simply enjoy having them too much to part with them, even to fund another strong interest.

As we all know, there are folks in the coin business just to make money. It seems the current owner of that Barber dime is one of those people. And I certainly would like to see my coins increase in value, so that I would make a profit if I ever sell them. There is nothing wrong with making money on coins, but the quick turnaround is a little alien to my thinking.

An congratulations to the now previous owner of that 1848 MS67BN large cent. The hammer price was $9500 ($10925 with BP). Given that it had not come from Heritage, that person probably has to pay the 5 percent seller fee, leaving him/her $9025 for a coin that cost just $1438 in February, plus grading fee. A killing, as I had suspected.

These details may not be as interesting as the real old-time stories we know for some coins, and the stories we imagine for some of our more humble coins that served their intended purpose. But this is the new reality for many of the better coins out there.