Price of Dolley Madison First Spouse Coin ... Geesh!

[astrostu]

$529.95 for proof and $509.95 uncirculated. Maybe I won't be buying this coin. I don't think it's worth it for that price, especially considering that on eBay the other three are going for around $450-$500 unless they're PF/MS-70. ... Too bad, too, because it's a great design.

[BillJones]

Be patient. I predict that you will be able to buy these golden spouse coins for near melt before all is said and done. This series does not have a real collector following.

 

There are only too problems with this strategy. First for some issues there might not be many who will be willing to lose money by buying these coins from the mint. Even an insufficiently_thoughtful_person learns that it hurts to put you hand on a hot stove after he’s done it a couple of times.

 

Second who knows where the price of gold bullion will be. If the promoters have it right it could go to $2,000 an ounce. Of course a gallon of gasoline might cost you $50, which would tend of offset those gains.

[jtryka]

How are the designs different from the first two?

[ich-migration]

Where do you see those prices published?

[carson city]

If this coin, because of the higher prices, is not a sell-out it may become the Key spouse coin !

[astrostu]

How are the designs different from the first two?

 

Do you mean first three? It would take too long to explain, you should just go to the Mint's site and look. Or use Wikipedia, Google, or anything else.

 

 

Where do you see those prices published?

 

The press release from Nov. 15: http://www.usmint.gov/pressroom/index.cfm?action=press_release&ID=847

[jtryka]

How are the designs different from the first two?

 

Do you mean first three? It would take too long to explain, you should just go to the Mint's site and look. Or use Wikipedia, Google, or anything else.

 

No, I meant the first two as those ones depicted actual first ladies, the thrid depicted Liberty which is why it was the only one I bought.

 

Found the link on the mint website: http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/firstSpouse/index.cfm?flash=yes&action=madison

 

The reverse is somewhat interesting, but I still won't buy it.

[ich-migration]

Nice of the mint to put these prices on their product page, ...oh wait, they're not there! Why would the mint leave them off I wonder?

 

edit: One hour 'til sale time and they're still not posted. More mint efficiency...

[carson city]

Coins didn't go on sale until 12 noon. Modern gold and platinum coin collecting, from thr Mint, isn't for everyone.

[123cents]

I like the look of the Dolly Madison coin but am not going to pay the $500+ cost.

[BillJones]

If this coin, because of the higher prices, is not a sell-out it may become the Key spouse coin !

 

No the key coin will be Jame Pierce. By the time she gets her turn for glory, there will be two or three collectors in the country who will be waiting get one on bated breath. The rest will calculating the melt value and acting accordingly.

[astrostu]

Nine hours later and it looks like they're still on sale at the Mint (as in I don't see anything saying, "waiting list" like with the Jefferson). Looks like the rest of the community is thinking the same thing.

[gmarguli]

Why buy them at the Mint when you can buy the graded on eBay for less money?

 

I suspect they will sell out in a couple of days. If they actually make it past the purchase limit phase, I suspect a TV wholesaler will buy them out.

[BillJones]

I like the look of the Dolly Madison coin but am not going to pay the $500+ cost.

 

Yes, I agree. The reverse, which celebrates that fact that Dolly saved Gilbert Stuart’s full length portrait of Washington, is neat. It sure beats the grave marker that is on the reverse of the Jefferson piece.

 

Still the price of each piece is this series too high for a great many collectors to keep up with it. My view, which seems to be old fashioned these days, is that a series in which there are a few expensive coins adds spice the challenge of building a set. It’s fun to be able to fill some to a lot of the holes in a set with inexpensive coins. BUT when every coin costs a bundle, it gets to be a drag.

 

I know that there are some of us who view $500 as “pocket change.” But for most of us it’s still nice sum of money. And when you multiply that by 40, (500 bucks here, 500 bucks there) it starts to amount to real money.

 

[Architecht]

I think the doom and gloom predictions on this series are kind of a shame. I mean, I have no idea what the real future of the series is. I wouldn't even take a shot at it as I'm not as in tune with these things as all of you. But I will say that I find the idea of the series to be pretty cool. It gives you a sense of the history of the country from a unique perspective.

 

It also offers a series of coins with a different design on every coin. It may be heresy, but personally I just can't quite tune into the appeal of collecting a date series. I know that the rarity of each issue and the granular understanding of the strike quality by year and mint, as well as the survival rate and mintages offer alot of opportunity to get in depth with a series. But in the end, to me (and I fully admit I could be characterized as a coin-philistine) they're all the same coin with different numbers on it.

 

As a coin-philistine, this series is actually more appealing than many of the other recent releases I've seen, and I think gold is a really nice medium for it as it adds some gravity to the history involved by dint of association. Personally, I think the series could get even cooler if it was supplemented by a more general "important historical American government figures of power and influence".

 

If you could get, in the same format, coins with General Grant, Robert E. Lee, Alexander Hamilton, etc.. Anyone with a real hand in shaping the nation... how about really pivotal Supreme Court Justices? John Marshall?

 

It would be really cool if it was a two-metal series. The most pivotal of figures in gold, and the "supporting actors" (sort of) in silver. Of course, if that was the theme you'd probably want to put the first spouses in silver and the presidents in gold .

 

Then, to be able to survey that whole collection as a real timeline and representation of important american people... all in the same format... that would be cool.

[BillJones]

I think this series would have better if the coins had been $5 gold pieces. That would have kept the price down and yet would have been large enough to accommodate a decent design.

 

BUT on the down side a new series of $5 commemoratives would have “obligated” me to buy them all to keep my commemorative coin set complete. So I guess in that sense it’s all for the best that these coins are sort like commemorative – bullion pieces.

 

Still the bottom line is First Ladies were for the most part minor figures in history. And like some presidents some of them didn’t really do anything that rated a commemorative coin. There are many people in the arts and sciences and even business who were a MUCH more important.

 

[Architecht]

Still the bottom line is First Ladies were for the most part minor figures in history. And like some presidents some of them didn’t really do anything that rated a commemorative coin. There are many people in the arts and sciences and even business who were a MUCH more important.

 

I agree, but there's a certain appeal to the continuity. In a sense, a series of all greats starts to become a blur. You don't get the baseline by which to judge them. When you see the complete list of presidents, for example, and some stand out - that's interesting. More interesting, I think, than just a list of the greats.

 

Interesting enough to spend $500 per coin for the so-so's? I don't know. If I were to do it, it wouldn't be for the value of those particular first spouses, it would be for the continuity and for the sense of the whole tapestry from which the high points rise.

 

It's kind of like a symphony, you need the crescendos and the decrescendos, forte and pianissimo, or the music starts to lose its sense of drama.

 

[Conder101]

I think this series would have better if the coins had been $5 gold pieces. That would have kept the price down and yet would have been large enough to accommodate a decent design.

The problem was they wanted them to be close to the same size as the dollars.

[astrostu]

I think Architect makes some great points ... but I don't think we'll see a Robert E. Lee coin ... ever. I especially like his analogy to a symphony.

 

Unfortunately, the bottom-line really is the bottom-line: Money. I simply can't afford 40x$500=$20,000 on these coins. As I've stated in my previous posts, I think the Dolley Madison coin is an amazingly important piece of history and I would love to own it. But not for $530 at this point in my financial life. And the bronze is just an extremely poor imitation. I think my Jefferson's Liberty would laugh at it.

[EZ_E]

A proof and mint state collection would be 80 coins.

 

I predict that when the series is said and done that there will be no more than 50 complete sets out of the 20,000 maximum mintage.