To be perfectly frank, I hate coin show reports. I hate to write them. I hate to read them. I don't care what restaurants a dealer went to and what they ate and I don't really care that Dealer X spent this much money on those coins at the show. That said, I also know that the ANA is the show that everyone who didn't attend wants to know about. So, with these people in mind, I thought I'd share a few random observations about the ANA.
On a scale of 1-10, I'd rate this show as a solid 6; possibly a 7 ...
Full Article: Some Observations About the 2010 Boston ANA Show - RareGoldCoins.com
by The Web on July 21, 2010
in Blogs
I often make buying decisions based on a coin’s popularity. As an example, I will buy a coin like an 1839-O quarter eagle for stock because it is popular and I know it will sell. But I might pass on a rarer coin like an 1862-S quarter eagle because it is not a popular issue and it will be a harder coin to sell. This got me to to thinking: what makes one coin popular and another unpopular?
Certain 20th century series are popular with collectors because of a strong nostalgia factor. I would imagine most of the collectors who focus on Lincoln Cents or...
Full Article: What Makes Certain Coins Popular–and Others Unpopular? - RareGoldCoins.com
The second part of this study on San Francisco double eagles deals with the Type Two issues struck from 1866 to 1876. There are no absolute rarities in this series as with the Type One issues but there are a number condition rarities as well as affordable dates that are easy to locate in Extremely Fine and About Uncirculated grades.
Let's take a look at each date and focus on the higher grade coins as these tend to be the most interesting Type Two double eagles from this mint ...
Full Article: San Francisco Double Eagles: A Date by Date Analysis Part Two - RareGoldCoins.com
by The Web on July 1, 2010
in Blogs
In the first installment of Smart Collecting 101 I discussed the "coin churn" and how to avoid it. One reader made a great suggestion for the second topic and I'm going to discuss it at length here. The topic involves buying the "wrong" coin and if there is ever a right time to buy a coin that you clearly know is not optimal for your collection.
The brief answer is yes. It depends on ...
Full Article: Smart Collecting 101: Is It Ever Right to Buy the Wrong Coin? - RareGoldCoins.com
When talking to collectors, I often find myself giving them advice as to what makes a “good collector.” I thought it would be interesting to share some of my thoughts and observations in a series of blogs entitled “Smart Collecting 101.” These will run, from time to time, over the next few months.
One of the mistakes that many collectors make is allowing themselves to be “churned;” either by their dealer/adviser or by themselves. Churning is an expression that means too much buying and selling from an account (or in this case a collection) by a salesperson in order to generate profits for the company and commissions for the broker. ...
Full Article: Smart Collecting 101: Avoiding the Churn - RareGoldCoins.com
It has been a long time since I’ve written anything about the San Francisco double eagles. As these coins have become increasingly popular over the course of time (they are actually the most popular gold coins from this mint by a considerable margin) I think this would be an excellent time to begin a series of articles. It is only natural to divide these coins into three groups and this would be as follows ...
Full Article: San Francisco Double Eagles: A Date by Date Analysis Part One - RareGoldCoins.com
by The Web on June 9, 2010
in Blogs
For many years, it has been my strong belief that the best DWN client is one who is educated. An educated collector is a confident collector and a confident collector is a more active collector. This is one of the reasons that I have tried to share as much of my knowledge about United States gold coins as possible. I’ve written the standard reference books on Charlotte, Carson City, Dahlonega and New Orleans gold as well as ...
Full Article: The DWN Online Rare Gold Coinapedia - RareGoldCoins.com
A question that I am often asked by new collectors is "which gold coins are popular?" I think this is a great question and one certainly deserving of a blog. I'm going to not only answer this question for each denomination, I'm going to give a few reasons why I think certain coins/types are or are not popular.
People tend to be in one of two camps when it comes to gold dollars: they either love them or they hate them. This is mainly due to these coins small size. I am clearly in the “love ‘em” camp and have, over the years, handled many finest known ...
Full Article: Which Gold Coins Are Popular and Why: Part One - RareGoldCoins.com
About a month ago, I received an auction catalog from Olivier Chaponniere and Hess-Divo, two well-known Swiss firms located in Geneva and Switzerland, respectively. I often toss these catalogs directly into the recycling bin but thought I’d check this one out; if only because Hess-Divo has the reputation of selling some exceptional ancient and European coins.
I went right to the United States gold section and started browsing. A few minutes in, I was startled to see ...
Full Article: The Not-So-Secret Secret 1883-O Eagle - RareGoldCoins.com
