GoldFinger1969

Make sure the file format is OK; size shouldn't be a problem unless they are super-large.

Yup, brain-lock....I saw the Weinman obverse and the dated look and forgot about regular ASEs. Thanks, CB !

It doesn't matter to me, JKK, but what if anybody here has several dozen different coins they want to ask about in a few days or weeks ? Gonna be alot of new threads clogging the top of the active thread rankings.

Jessica, listen to Coinbuf and some of the veterans.....don't WORRY about the grades existing coins you have are or what they are worth....read about them....learn about different grade levels (mostly Mint State vs. About Uncirculated)...decide which coins you want to focus on....ask others here who might be collectors of that particular type and if it is possible to get a complete or nearly-complete collection (and how much it might cost in various grades)....etc...etc. You should probably start off with the 2022 or 2023 RED BOOK and maybe a primer on a particular coin you want to focus on. The Red book is an annual review of all U.S. coin denominations going back over 150 years....short information paragraphs....price information (dated, but better than nothing)....and you can read little facts about particular coins, years, or mint marks.

Jessica....if you have more of these coins, I would suggest just 1 "Inquiring" thread and keep adding any coins you have to it. You can call it "Inquiring About My Longtime but Small Collection" or "Inquiring About A Few Coins" or just even "Inquiring." No need to create more threads if you are just asking about a bunch of different coins. Unless a coin has been preserved from the time it was struck at the mint, it's most likely circulated and/or cleaned. The cleaning may have been with liquids...it may have been just wiped with a cloth or tissue...it may have even just rubbed inside someone's pants pocket. They are all going to show up as "cleaning" or "rub" or "wear" to some extent.

I've come across some interesting stuff on Eagles and Half/Quarter Eagles while doing more reading on Saints. Not sure I have posted it here. If we don't have a dedicated thread on the sub-$20 Eagles, we should.

Are you saying that there are very few survivors from the 9,443 Proofs today ? Or that there are many survivors, but they are in super-duper strong hands not willing to sell ? At least in this country, proof strikings 100+ years ago were made exclusively for collectors and unless sold for a nominal premium to face value would have been preserved. Maybe that wasn't the case overseas...maybe small-denomination proofs were regularly used in commerce ? I would think that the Proofs would be preserved and business strikes used for commerce but maybe not.

Are you going to be sending in regularly ? Are you into coin collecting ? I'm not sure it pays to have your coins graded unless you have a large amount of VALUABLE coins. The time, effort, and $$$ might not be worth it especially if you only have a few coins. Probably best then to take them to an LCS.

It's some kind of commemorative or something....Walking Liberty pieces weren't struck in 1996....not even sure they were made in $1....this may or may not have 1 ounce of silver. Unless it's a restrike I am unaware of.

There are lots of reasons to buy gold. Since I'm a coin buyer, if the price doesn't go up, I still get to enjoy my coins. In the 1970's, gold was THE ONLY game in town to protect yourself. Today, we have so many different financial instruments to protect and hedge against inflation, calamaties, recession, interest rates, commodity prices, falling stock prices, etc....that gold isn't the only thing out there. I note that in 1980 both the gold marke and the foreign exchange market traded about $1 billion daily. Today, gold trades about $50 billion daily....and the Forex market trades about $7 trillion daily !

I never said you can PREDICT the price of gold. I think we look at the supply and demand fundamentals and the exogenous shock potentials and determine if the next big move is likely UP or DOWN. I think it's up. Would I bet the farm on it ? Absolutely not...but I'd rather buy gold at $1,800 and see it drop to $1,600 rather than not buy and see it scoot up to $2,500 and more and hope for a dip to let me get in hundreds higher than the original $1,800 I passed on. Since the price was freed, gold has made big moves about every 20 years or so.

Or realize that any premiums you pay -- numismatic or holder/grade -- are a sunk cost for the enjoyment of the coin by the buyer. Like a piece of art, just assume it'll lose value over time and you won't be disappointed.

I believe when Switt sold the coins for the first time to dealers/collectors they went for $500. I believe that the Farouk Saint was sold by Max Mehl for about $1,500 in 1944 (OTTOMH). Prices asked and prices realized in the 1930's and 1940's were all over the place because nobody knew the actual mintages for many of the coins AND how many had survived. Other coins in the 1930's were believed to be more rare than the 1933 Saint, including the 1926-D, 1926-S, and 1924-S It was assumed that a bunch of the 445,000 DEs were out there and would eventually surface. Same thing with the 1927-D (which did have a limited number out there).

They get alot right. Look at the inflation predictions, which have certainly come true. If you get the Fed unable to get inflation back down to 2% and willing to tolerate 3-4% (because of the labor participation rate and other structural imbalances)...that's a game-changer.

I also believe that Numismatic News had advertisements for the 1933 DE as early as 1937. I am unaware of any FOR SALE notices before then, which I have to admit does lend some credence to those who say they "escaped" in 1937. I still think they should have been "legal" even if they got out in 1937, but a 1933 or 1934 escape strengthens the buyers claims. Regardless, Mary O'Reilly and others surely knew of the ads (they were in periodicals tracked by the Mint) and nobody objected before Howard in 1944. Wikipedia notes that "she was not interviewed when the Mint in 1944 investigated how several 1933 Double Eagles, never officially released, had come onto the market, an omission Burdette finds unusual."

This was the auction/sale that started it all. Ernest Kehr, the mid-20's stamp and coin commentator at The NY Herald Tribune (probably 3rd largest NYC paper at that time), reached out to the U.S. Mint to find out how many 1933 DEs were out there. He reached Leland Howard, a high-ranking Mint official, who told him NONE were supposed to be out there. The Feds got involved....Stacks pulled the coin....and while most of the U.S. government was involved for the next 8-10 years defeating or containing Hitler, Mao, and Stalin....the U.S. Mint focused on the Real Evil in the world....folks who had a 1933 Double Eagle.

Makes sense. Commemoratives had a GREAT decade in the 1980's....I think the only sector to do really well -- and they were a major contributing factor in the Coin Bubble of 1989. I think many commemoratives lost 80-85% over the decades.

Beautiful coins....now THESE are proofs I can have grow on me, as opposed to the ones decades earlier. Not the modern mirror-like proofs I am used to but you can see the artistic beauty come through with the clean fields.

Having read through Roger's Saints Double Eagles book with 650 pages and LOTS of footnotes....I am WELL aware of his attention to detail. I find that you can learn alot about things he just touches on -- like small denomination gold coin circulation here and overseas -- just by focusing on the FN's. And I have to re-read the book again, like you, because there is SO MUCH information I couldn't absorb it all the first time. How many pages is the Proof Book ?

Nice !! Yes, I miss Louis Rukeyser and WSW, too. Never forgot Marty Zweig before and right after the 1987 Market Crash. Worked for some people who appeared on the show; with a little luck I may have gotten on, too. Oh well.... I attended a roast for Rukeyser back in 1989 down in Ft. Lauderdale at an investment conference. All the newsletter writers were there -- they were the ones who moved the market, plus FNN -- and it was great to schmooze with many of them Some are no longer with us, others left the business or winded their business down. One of the attendees was James Dines, a gold bug, who is also a Saint-Gaudens collector whose named coins appear from time-to-time.

I've gotten archived articles and pieces from friends who were dealers back then. My friend was buying Saints for < $1,000 right after the 1987 Stock Market Crash. He said 2 years later he was selling them for about $3,000 on average without any real big jump in gold (I'll have to check the gold price pre-Crash, post-Crash, and mid-1989). Figures we weren't in touch back then (no internet, email, cell phones, etc.) and I missed out on a good thing !

FlyingAl, why don't you tell us a few things you learned from the book that maybe you didn't know ? Any "shockers" or things that you found REALLY interesting ? Let's jumpstart this thread. I may have to check out the book, sounds interesting !

I'm going to guess it's worth about $30-$35 ? Would that be around right, guys ?

Market prognosticators would disagree. It is certainly not a 1-to-1 relationship but I do think -- within certain ranges -- that gold and oil would move together especially to the upside. If oil doubled or tripled in price...and the Fed and ECB both said they are going to live with higher inflation for a few more years because of the oil shock.....bond yields and gold are both likely to be substantially higher.

What you have is most likely a common Morgan Silver Dollar worth the value of the silver. We'd need to know the condition of the coin to determine if it's worth a multiple of silver value because it is in pristine, Mint State condition. PCGS and NGC both have price guides online for a 1921 Morgan Silver Dollar. Yours is most likely worn, probably in the AU condition or lower. Pics ?