Coin Shows 2010
For those of you interested in the 2010 show dates, we have TENTATIVE dates. They are almost etched in stone (a contract) but not quite.
Here are the tentative Sunday dates:
Gold is a Cash Sale
Are you interested in buying gold? Have you heard dealers say “cash only” for gold sales? What does “cash only” mean?
Some people think a “cash sale” means a dealer is not set up to take credit cards, but they will take a check.
Not in this case. A “cash sale” means the green stuff printed on a cotton and linen blend paper and with presidential or other important historical figures’ picture on the front.
Gold can be expensive especially with the rise in prices. Why won’t dealers take credit cards or checks?
Think about it. Dealers have lost their product too many times with credit card and check scams by unscrupulous people (read criminals).
You’ve heard the saying, “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” Well, the dealers have been fooled several times with different scams. Therefore, they just refuse to take a check or a credit card for gold purchases.
You may be the most honest, most trustworthy person in the world, but due to the criminals in the world, you still need to provide cash – the green stuff – to buy gold. Please don’t be offended. The dealers do not know you. Yes, you tell them that your check or credit card is good, but don’t you think the criminals said the same thing?
Yes, it’s a hassle to get the cash, plus it can be kind of scary to have a lot of cash with you. But, be careful and alert to your surroundings – both when you have the cash and afterwards when you have made your purchase.
It’s unfortunate, but a few bad people do force honest people to change their way of doing business.
When is a new, pocket change nickel worth more than $.05?
Interestingly, in today’s economic times, people are collecting their loose change and turning it into cash. You know, that loose change that gets thrown on the counter, in a drawer or maybe a change jar.
That causes the banks to be flush with change – pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters. When banks have plenty of certain coins, the US Mint quits minting those coins for circulation.
In turn, that means any 2009 minted coins of those types can be more valuable as a collectible than their face value.
Currently, people are looking for nickels, dimes and quarters minted in 2009 and will pay more than 5, 10 and 25 cents for them.
As for the 2009 pennies, those already have a rarity and increased value due to the commemoration of Lincoln this year.
Take a look in your pocket change for 2009 mint marks. If you find one or two or three, set them aside. Be careful to minimize any scratches and any fingerprints on the coins. Yes, they are circulated, but prevent any further scratches or finger grime from damaging the coins.
They are already worth more than face value. Could their worth increase? Who knows….it’s dependent on the actual number minted, the condition of the coins and their availability in the marketplace.
But, isn’t it fun that pocket change can still be a treasure hunt!
Pencil and Pen
You’ve been searching for early mint sets, let’s say 1963. You’ve found a nice one. All of the coins still look great. The sealed packaging stayed sealed over these 45+ years.
But, wait. Someone has written on the envelope. Maybe they just wrote “1963 Mint Set” or maybe they wrote their name or “Denver” or something else.
Regardless, the set no longer looks as interesting to you.
Ballpoint ink bonds with paper and becomes difficult to remove without damaging the paper. On the other hand, pencil can be erased, but the imprint of the writing remains on 1963 envelopes.
Yes, some antiques gain value from the writing on them, but that is rare. Generally, antiques with the least damage are the more valuable pieces.
As for mint sets and proof sets, the packaging indicates the type and year of the collectible sets. You really don’t need to re-write the information on the packages.
You will be glad you didn’t when you want to sell those pieces for the most value.
Please don’t write on proof and mint sets with either pen or pencil, and really don’t write on them with felt tips – that’s even worse.
Gold Jewelry, Value of…
In today’s economic environment, many gold and silver buyers are popping up all over.
There’s the mail-us-your-jewelry-and-we’ll-mail-you-cash groups. That just doesn’t seem like a good idea. The pieces could be “lost” in the mail. Plus, their profit margin is quite high. Their high profit margins mean less payment – much less – to you.
There’s the gold-party-groups. If you host the party or if you attend a friend’s party, the experience appears to be better. But, what are the buyers paying per ounce? Is their profit margin high?
Then there’s the rent a hotel for a weekend to buy gold and silver. Think about it, how much does it cost to rent a large portion of a hotel? That cost plus their desired profit margins mean less money to you.
Of course, jewelry dealers buy jewelry, and so do coin dealers provided there’s value in the metal – gold, silver or platinum. Some jewelers and coin dealers also pay for semi-precious stones (diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, etc.).
But, let’s step back and look at the metal value of jewelry. For this commentary, let’s focus on gold.
First, what is the karat of your gold jewelry – 10k, 14k, 18k, 24k? In the US, 14k is common. In India, 18k is common. Pure gold at 24k is not as common since pure gold is too soft for most jewelry.
When you hear the gold price per ounce, the ounce is a troy ounce which is 20 pennyweights or 31.1 grams. A troy ounce is heavier than the ounce (avoirdupois ounce) found on your kitchen scale.
Also important, the market price of gold represents pure 24k gold.
Jewelry gold of 18k, 14k or 10k contains 75%, 58.3% and 41.7% of gold respectively. Therefore, if you have an ounce of 14k jewelry gold, the price per ounce will be proportionately discounted.
Now, jewelry and coin dealers do not have the ability to melt and refine the jewelry gold into usable pure gold. They, in turn, have to ship the jewelry scrap metal to a gold refiner. This obviously costs the coin and jewelry dealers time and money.
Plus, the gold refiner has to have a profit margin to cover his costs of melting the scrap jewelry and extracting the gold. Generally, the larger the amount the refiner buys from a dealer, the more he pays per ounce.
For grins, let’s look at the math for determining the value of gold jewelry - the rates and profit margins are just examples to illustrate the math.
You collected your unwanted jewelry including any stones and non-metal attachments. On your kitchen scale, they weighed 2 ounces.
Let’s say the current market price of gold is $1000 (a round number for ease of the example) per troy ounce. You’re thinking, wow, between $1000 and $2000 dollars of value.
You take your jewelry to the dealer. After you agree, he cuts and removes all non-jewelry gold items from your jewelry. He weights the jewelry gold, and you have .5 troy ounce of 18k gold.
You’re disappointed, but that’s still $500.
Not so fast.
Let’s do the easy math first.
At 18k, the jewelry gold is 75% pure gold. So, $1000 multiplied by 75% is $750. Your .5 troy ounce equals, at best, $375.
But the gold refiner charges for the refining, for ease of math, let’s say 10%. Now, we’re down to $338. Let’s not forget the dealer to whom you are selling, they need to cover their costs. Again, let’s say 10%, we’re now at $304.
Well, $304 is $304 more than you had for jewelry you didn’t care about anymore.
(Some news media sent samples to mail-in buyers, the mail-in buyers’ comparable purchase for this example would be less than $100.)
Hopefully, that simplistic example helps you understand that selling your gold jewelry is not as simple as weighing it on a kitchen scale for the ounces, looking up the Kitco price per ounce, multiplying the two and asking for that value. Also, this example alerts you to the wide disparity between buyers.
In summary, be careful, and do your homework.
Oh, and just as a caution, there’s some good fake gold being paraded into dealers’ shops. To protect themselves, dealers will ask you if they can perform cutting tests and acid tests to verify that your jewelry does contain gold. If you are not sure you want to sell, you can refuse and take your jewelry away intact.
Coin Greenhorns – Arghhh
Do you watch the Glenn Beck show?
Whether you agree with him or not, he does have an interesting way of looking at economic issues. He uses props and visual examples to get his point across.
But as recently as last week, he just grated on the nerves of all the numismatists watching his show – not because of his viewpoints but because of his novice treatment of coins.
He discussed the value of the dollar and how the US used gold at one time to back our currency. For his props, Mr. Beck used dollars and gold coins to help explain the gold standard.
Now perhaps these coins were fake – we hope so, regardless he should have treated the coins with much more respect! And, if they were not fake and came from his or someone’s collection, he just reduced their value
He handled the gold coins as if they were much circulated quarters you would find in your pocket change.
Consider this, he is a spokesperson for a gold company out of California and claims to be a customer of theirs. One would think he would have better knowledge of how to treat coins – especially investment and/or collector grade coins.
One hopes he has since learned that you protect valuable coins in holders and that you never, never, never, ever put your thumbprints and fingerprints on the obverse and reverse of valuable coins.
As any dealer or experienced numismatist will tell you, if the coin is not in a holder, hold the coin gently but firmly by the rim between your thumb and forefinger. Clean hands are important here. If it is a very valuable coin (it should be in a holder already), only hold it with special cotton gloves that have no chemical content.
Similarly, some dealers and numismatists cringe if you grasp a coin in a protective holder by other than the edges of the holder. They don’t want any fingerprints or scratches on the holder either!
So, for you folks new to collecting – either as a hobby, an investment or both – please be careful how you hold coins. You should be careful with those you own just as much as those you want to view for potential purchase.
It’s important to protect the coins to protect their value.
Next Coin Show – Sunday, October 11
Hey everyone, the next Greater Atlanta Coin Show is this Sunday, October 11. This should be a fun show. We have a full complement of dealers scheduled, and with the gold and silver prices climbing, we expect a lot of guests too.
Have you been watching the gold and silver prices? They’re climbing at a rapid rate.
Almost daily, new record highs for gold prices occur. Some highs occur during the day, but record high market close prices frequently happen as well.
Looking at weather.com, their current weekend forecast shows a chance of showers. In the past, a little rain just means more people will give up their outdoor activities to attend and enjoy the show.
We hope to see you this Sunday.
Counterfeit Collectibles
Among the dealer community, frequent comments occur about how the counterfeiters, usually in China, are improving their techniques making it imperative that dealers be always on guard for the counterfeit coins.
The good news is the dealers educate each other and can still identify the counterfeit coins. The bad news is if you are a collector, and perhaps are not as familiar with the issues, you could easily be scammed on ebay or other sources.
In one counterfeit scenario, the counterfeiters started making AU (Almost Uncirculated) coins. They probably thought an AU coin would not raise as much suspicion and be easier to proliferate among the collector community. But, though they could make the obverse and reverse in AU condition, the rim wear did not match – too perfect for the other fake wear on the coin.
In another situation, the counterfeit coin in a PCGS holder appeared real, however the obverse and reverse did not match. Yes, they were from the same type of coin, but when reviewed closely, the unique details on the obverse did not match the unique details on the reverse. Now, did someone cut two “bad” coins and meld them together to make the one good one? Or, did someone use two different coins to counterfeit the front and back dies for the fake? If the second scenario, there could be other coins with this same problem. Oh, as for the PCGS holder, it was fake as well, but it could certainly fool the unsuspecting.
These examples are not meant to scare anyone. In any situation, you need to be alert to scams and scam artists. It’s amazing how much effort and time the scam artists apply to defrauding people when they could make an honest living with less effort and risk. But, our biggest threat still comes from China. They do not view counterfeiting collectible coins as a crime.
If you are an experienced and passionate collector, you know your coins. With the counterfeiters improving their techniques, you need to be more alert to potential problems. Even the experienced can be taken by the con artist if you are not always careful. That also means you need to be alert when buying from trusted sources. They are fallible and could be victims as well.
If you are a new collector, do your homework and ask questions of experienced people. Numismatics continues to be rewarding in many ways.
