Over the past year I have changed my collecting style a bit.

[jkrk]

Up until a year ago I was mainly collecting drek $20 gold. I still love drek. The lower the premium the better. However, I have branched out in a small controlled way by swapping a number of common coins for better dates for a relatively small additional premium.

 

In addition, I've caught a bug by buying a few somewhat more expensive coins such as a civil war $20 and an early type I 1852 $20. Now, I have been looking at a few shipwrecked $20's (really a distance from where I started).

 

My question is ... is there a place to go to see how the entire SS Central America $20 collection graded? Also, is there a way to track a coin (based on the label cat #) to an original auction)?

[BillJones]

For the PCGS graded coins, you can enter the serial number on the slab into their certification verification site. If the coin has been sold in a major auction there will be citations there as to when it was sold and which auction house sold it. NGC has something similar, but I'm not sure if they include the auction information of not.

 

PCGS Cert Varification

 

The Cert Varification area is labeled as such in the bottom left of the screen.

 

I am having a lot of trouble doing the link for the NGC site. Here is a link, but I'm not sure if you can access it if you not a member. REVISED to say you can get into the NGC area by clicking on this link.

 

NGC Cert Varification

 

As for doing the research you want to do on the ship wreck coins, good luck. The data is not in one place to my knowledge, and the use of population reports has all the pit falls with crack outs and resubmissions for grading.

 

Let's just put it this way. There are lots 1857-S double eagles in Mint State that came off the SS Central America. There are other dates and other coins as well, but in quantities that are as large.

[Houston Investor]

Your qustion got my curiosity. Although I have PCGS Coin Facts, I wanted an overview so pulled out my latest edition of the Red Book Professional.

 

It shows the combined PCGS / NGC population of 1857-S issue in all grades around 7 k . Contrast this against the common date 1904 showing 374 k pop for all grades.

 

A footnote in the RB Professional says many thousands of the SS Central America 1857-S Double Eagles exist in high grades. Yay, I would like to get some.

 

I see no problem with having any of these assuming the coin is attractive (obviusly they have been conserved) and my cost relative to market value makes the acquisition a good deal. Frankly I would not mind owning a couple of these.

 

I have no problem with buliking up on nice AU50-MS63 Common Date Double Eagles I can acquire close to melt. I have a number of these in my DE Collection I keep in my bank box (along with some MS64-65;s), occasionally pulling out a couple to sell when I set up at shows as I am averse to selling big ticket material online like I do with material $400 and less due to personal risk threshold and business reasons. For me, rare coin investment is not about some minimum dollar value per coin - it all adds up. But quite frankly I really like your strategy and if I could go back to 1990 probably only DE's both common and some better date is all I would have right now.

[World Colonial]

I have in the past considered buying double eagles as a bullion substitute but I haven't paid attention to the premiums over spot much.

 

When the premiums are low, I would prefer buy the coin which looks better, like an AU-58 or an MS-63. I don't usually like MS-61 or MS-62 and the MS-63 might benefit from a future widening of the spreads. I have no data but I doubt the lower AU grades will as much.

[jkrk]

Thanks all for the comments.

 

RE 1857-S I did find the coinfact page online.

 

Looking at the 1857-S takes me a bit from where I am comfortable. In general, I am not a numismatic coin buyer. I am basically a paranoid gold buyer. The paranoia in me says pre 1933 might be a better relative buy to bullion coins? The premium is somewhat larger although this can be controlled by buying 58's-62's.

 

Anyway, I am still trying to gather facts on the Central America trying to understand where the "sweet spot" is and thinking about how the Odyssey find will impact the market for older CEntral America coins in the near future?

 

 

[World Colonial]

If you are not interested in buying DE for collecting, you can also consider various non-US (world) gold. I once owned an 1858 French ANACS AU-58 100 francs. It's similar though I believe not exactly the same size. I presume (but do not actually know) that the premiums are somewhat lower but this might not be true anymore. I paid maybe 20% over spot.

 

Also, if you are considering the risk of a gold "recall" and want pre-1933 coins for this purpose, there isn't any guarantee these will be exempt. I don't see a recall, confiscation or whatever you want to call it as ikely for the foreseeable future but I wouldn't assume history will repeat itself either.

 

If this is what you are worried about, I would consider owning gold outside of your country of residence unless it is in small quantities.

[jkrk]

Thanks all for the info/ideas. (thumbs u