GoldFinger1969

Now I need to find some good answers as to why the Mets offense stinks all year !

And alot of our more popular books -- and the ones that get new editions -- definitely need to be available on Kindle or in PDF/online format for the millenials and others who want to read those books. NOBODY is going to bring RWB's Saints book -- which costs $100 and is a big, unwieldly book -- to the beach to read. Folks want it on their smartphone.

Really ? What coins, Mark ? I haven't seen that situation with Saints or Morgans, the 2 series I follow pretty closely.

Yet....with the exception of an occasional smaller coin from decades ago....I am unaware of AU-58's being priced HIGHER than their low-60's counterparts. Though there is definitely a bid underneath the price at AU-58 which makes the price dropoff less severe than one wouuld expect.

Seriousley....this is an excellent point. I think for someone like myself, in the absence of winning PowerBall or MegaMillions, simply enjoys following the series: tracking auctions....seeing nice coins up-close....going to shows and seeing how rare the Saints and other Eagles/Double Eagles are...reading books like yours....reading internet postings....etc. Right now, I'm limited to an occasional common in Gem Mint grade. I hope to be able to eventually consider some Super Gems (MS67 or higher) as well as some scarce or rare coins in lower grades.

You wrote a book on Saint-Gaudens Double Eagles ? How come nobody told me ?

Glad you are enjoying it...we have some really good threads on some topics here. I'll use my specialty, Saint-Gaudens Double Eagles, as an example but it also applies really to any coin but especially larger ones with large fields. From an aesthetic viewpoint, a very nice AU-58 can look much better than an MS-61 or MS-62 which has lots of scuff marks, dings, or bag marks. The AU-58 might have a single or dual contact marks on high points as evidence of circulation or rub. The MS-62 might be 100% uncirculated but have lots of distracting bag marks in the (large) fields. Strictly speaking, no matter how much bag wear and how many bag marks and dings a coin got...if it wasn't circulated, it's considered mint state.....wheras an AU coin can have the slightest wear on the high points but have really clean fields and very few bag marks or ding but is considered a lesser coin grade-wise.

To me, the big dichotomy or "kink" in the grading scale is how low-60's Mint State coins are treaated, valued, and priced.....versus AU-58's. We've talked about it before so I won't beat a dead horse. But for many popular American coin types, that split between them and how the coins are valued/graded is noteworthy.

I know Blanchard pushed the Saints, usually in the low-60's for bullion and then trying to get you to pay up for the ones with more numismatic value. I had some clients at the time who purchased but I was oblivious to the specific coins, just focusing on how much they spent on gold.

Learning how to grade is very difficult and subjective, IMO....and can be a bit tedious if not boring. OTOH, I love absorbing good books on coins and reading about the personalities and dealings of decades ago during the Golden Age of Coin Collecting. Reading books by Bowers, reading Akers commentaries on Saint-Gaudens DEs, and now Roger's updated magnus opus....it's easy and fun reading. Looking at a dozen variations of a coin with different markings in different locations and then seeing how they all grade out can be a bit boring to all but the most committed collectors and/or graders.

"The Curve....you heard about it...but you never thought it would happen to you" - Kevin Arnold, from The Wonder Years

Since you are in Alabama, consider attending FUN 2022 since you can probably drive there. Splitting a booth might work. But you'll definitely have lots of traffice there if you have a problem unloading stuff at a local show.

Alot of Saint collectors specifically and coin collectors in general are also gold/bullion collectors. You can kill 2 birds with 1 coin by collecting Saints which trade and track bullion either 1-for-1 or at least a good percentage (i.e., a generic common in MS-65). Anybody knowledgeable about Saints understands that obtaining all the coins -- or even the bulk of them - even in AU condition would probably require an expenditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars. I'm happy to get a dozen of the various dates and mintamarks and then maybe double-up on a few with very high-graded versions as even getting some of the scarce or rare coins would be much more expensive than the commons or semi-scarce ones in Gem or Super Gem condition.

Actually, I was kind of disappointed that there wasn't MORE publicity regarding the high-price sales in 2021 involving coins, since there has been so much for NFT's and cards. Especially an iconic coin like the 1933 Saint nearly hitting $19 million. I may reach out to some of my contacts at CNBC and bop them on the head.

Welcome, Mark. No matter where we stand with regards to the TPG and CAC, it is of course true that you have to like the coin. The fact that a professional grader at a TPG has assigned a grade to a particular coin means that the variance of grading for similar coins is probably lessened...it does NOT mean that each and every coin with that grade is the same. Some are going to be undergraded, some over graded. Ultimately...YOU have to like the coin for the grade and $$$ you purchased. And also like it without regard to either. I love Saint-Gaudens Double Eagles, a very popular (but expensive) coin to collect. There are tens of thousands of coins graded MS65 or higher. They're not all the same. Some might have cleaner obverses or reverses....some might have 1 or 2 big nicks away from the fields or devices...others might not.....others might have a dozen tiny annoying scuff marks. No 2 coins are alike and even at MS65 or any other grade the reaons for the grade vary from coin-to-coin. I'm not an expert on the coins you purchased, but I'm not surprised by the variability in grading. And that variance does seem to increase as you go LOWER away from Mint State into the AU, EF, and VF grades.

Alot of Saints selling for 7-figures YTD including 2 UHR's at the #3and #4 all-time high price for Saints...has to be a record.

Probably because of my training in financial analysis and investing....but I find even DATED books of interest because I then can see how things change over time as I read updated books and information (hence my interest in the HA archives and David Akers comments on Saints). The time frames for the Akers/Ambio books are 1988 and 2008....Bowers came out in 2004...and Roger's book is from 2018. While lots of the stuff is the same...and stuff pre-RWB is outdated (esp. pricing and pop census), I still find the earlier books with lots of outdated information useful. Of course...nothing beats an updated book, esp. as pricing and pop census and new commentary is available. One thing that I don't read that much about: the use of Saint-Gaudens commons as bullion subsitutes beginning in the 1970's and later by telemarketers. Would be interested to know if folks preferred the classic coins over new ones....how the distributors obtained the coins in bulk...any pricing discounts....etc.

I find the back-and-forth nature of the Internet very useful. I'm not saying I don't enjoy book, including GOOD books, but there's something to be said for picking the brains of various people who have been dealing in coins of interest to me for decades.

I can't, but someone skilled in PC's and programs probably can. I'm in no rush and if in a few months I have a few extra $$$ I don't mind paying someone to leisurely typ out the sections. Figure it should take 30-40 hours or so....some nice PT work for a high-school or college kid with a few weeks to kill.

Did you read the Heritage commentary from the site ? Any thoughts ?

Sometimes you have to be willing to find SNIPPETS of useful information surrounded by questionable information or even wrong information. That's one reason why I have created a PDF of past Saints auctions from the HA database alongside comments by David Akers. I am able to read up on my favorite coins on my smartphone (or PC) in a very convenient manner. As you know, I'd love to have the more accurate and up-to-date commentaries and data from your book on my phone/pc....but that isn't available. And running to your book even in the home is inconvenient, let alone carrying it or taking it with me on vacations, visits, and even coin shows. I actually am considering having someone type up certain sections for each year/mint mark in Word so I can have a PDF of the key text sections on my smartphone/PC. Sometimes even wrong information can be overlooked or even prove useful, as with that apparently false story of the 1984 English Hoard of 1929 Saints which is still in the HA archives.

As you all know, I love reading about Saints and have pretty much bought every book out there including books by Roger, Akers, and Bowers. There's not that many more....the price and rarity of the coins relative to MSDs and other coins collected over the decades makes writing an in-depth book a challenge to make it financially worthwhile as Roger has talked about. Bowers never did a 2nd Edition of his Double Eagle Guide book. Akers/Ambio did a 2nd edition of his 1907-33 Gold Coins book 20 years after the first one. But Ambio said no plans for a 3rd Edition.

Would be very interesting to see how many of the Red Whitman GUIDE books they sell with each subsequent edition.

NP, Mark....I kind of use the term bullion value and/or melt value interchangeably. Right now gold is about $1,800 so to me anything above the normal 3-4% you pay for a regular American Eagle bullion coin represents numismatic premium. Any thoughts on that 1921 Specimen sold the other day by HA, Mark ? Since proofs aren't usually considered part of the 53 Saints for registry players, I wonder if a non-Saint trophy hunter just wanted that particular coin and maybe liked the "story" behind it.

That's a nice underlooked Saint. Good choice, Cat. IF -- big IF -- gold moves big, then you probably get a bigger % move from coins that track bullion with less of a numismatic premium. But 1910-D's could see interest from folks who want commons that track gold and have their fills of 1924's, 1927's, 1928's, and 1908 NM's. Akers Comments on the 1910-D: "The 1910-D is a condition rarity, that is, it is an issue that is rare only at or above a certain grade level. This is a very common issue in any grade up to and including gem MS65 condition and even superb MS66 examples can only be classified as scarce and not really rare as more than 100 such specimens exist. However, at the superb MS67 level, the 1910-D is extremely rare with only two or three examples graded so far. From a quality and eye appeal standpoint, this Duckor specimen is spectacular and a strong candidate for finest known."