Is the 1989 Silver Eagle Underappreciated? 0

[MN1]

With most of my coins falling between 1805-1928 I'm not much of a modern issue coin collector.  However, I'll still watch an infomercial for collectible coins or maybe an HSN airing just because coins interest me.  With the hype this year on the 2020-P Emergency Production Silver Eagles, stats on "key dates", and pushes for collectors to buy the 1986 & 2020 bookends it seems one year is underappreciated.  Rarely is the 1989 Silver Eagle mentioned.  Again, I'm not a modern day collector so maybe I'm missing something but there were only 5,203,317 produced of the bullion coin.  That's lower than the initial 1986 coin and among the lowest in the 35 years of the current design.  Over the past twelve years of the bullion coin alone, production has been in the 20, 30 and 40 million ranges.  So is the 1989 underappreciated?  A sleeper and year for those getting into collecting or interested in Silver Eagles to seek out?   

[World Colonial]

No if by this question you are asking if it should be worth substantially more.

Most of the supply isn't even owned by collectors or at least for collecting purposes.  It's predominantly owned by "silver stackers" in bulk and by collectors as a collectible form of silver at immaterial premiums.  There are nowhere near 5MM+ collectors who will ever want to pay any noticeable premium for it and of those who will, only as exists now as an MS-70.

The ASE is one of the most "popular" series measured by the size of the collector base, but this doesn't mean they like it that much at much higher prices.  It's competitive for the low budget collector because it's relatively cheap and extremely common which means anyone with the money can complete the series if they choose.

For collectors of more substantive means, it's almost certainly mostly a sideline (casual or secondary) collection, unless they are also mostly buying other NCLT.  For everyone else, the series isn't interesting enough as a collectible.

5MM+ isn't a low mintage.  It only appears low relative to circulating change.  It's the same error made by those who think mintages on modern US commemoratives are or seem low.  Given the sentiments I read on coin forums, it's probable that a noticeable proportion of the demand for these "low" mintage coins is by those who expect to sell it for more later, not because they really want it.  

[MN1]

5 minutes ago, World Colonial said:

No if by this question you are asking if it should be worth substantially more.

Most of the supply isn't even owned by collectors or at least for collecting purposes.  It's predominantly owned by "silver stackers" in bulk and by collectors as a collectible form of silver at immaterial premiums.  There are nowhere near 5MM+ collectors who will ever want to pay any noticeable premium for it and of those who will, only as exists now as an MS-70.

The ASE is one of the most "popular" series measured by the size of the collector base, but this doesn't mean they like it that much at much higher prices.  It's competitive for the low budget collector because it's relatively cheap and extremely common which means anyone with the money can complete the series if they choose.

For collectors of more substantive means, it's almost certainly mostly a sideline (casual or secondary) collection, unless they are also mostly buying other NCLT.  For everyone else, the series isn't interesting enough as a collectible.

5MM+ isn't a low mintage.  It only appears low relative to circulating change.  It's the same error made by those who think mintages on modern US commemoratives are or seem low.  Given the sentiments I read on coin forums, it's probable that a noticeable proportion of the demand for these "low" mintage coins is by those who expect to sell it for more later, not because they really want it.  

Right off the bat I agree the series isn't interesting.  I always thought that.  The reverse is nothing special to me with the way the 13 stars were laid out and when I look at the obverse it's nothing more than a new life for the old Walking Liberty design.  

As for the 5MM+, I was referencing just in terms of the the Silver Eagle production over it's years.  If it's coin someone may want to pick up the 1989 just seems like an alternative date to consider.  

And now the current design is being extended into the new year as a dual 2021 design until the new design release in mid 2021.  Additional hype starting on collectability and unknown production numbers. 

 

[World Colonial]

2 minutes ago, MN1 said:

Right off the bat I agree the series isn't interesting.  I always thought that.  The reverse is nothing special to me with the way the 13 stars were laid out and when I look at the obverse it's nothing more than a new life for the old Walking Liberty design.  

 

The reason I don't believe it holds any interest for longer term or "advanced" collectors is because there isn't much actual collecting to it.  Anyone with the money can buy the entire series in one day except for a low number of PCGS 70 if they want that holder which takes somewhat but not much longer.

With more recent US circulating coinage, it's all common as well but collectors have adopted multiple forms of specialization to make it more interesting to them.  It's very limited with the ASE.

[jtryka]

Certainly, if there is no price difference it would seem wise to buy the lower mintage coins, but often that's not the case since older issues might be harder to find.  I just checked Apmex, and they have these dates available, but they are $39.60 for the 1988 or 1989 (the former has a slightly lower mintage) compared to current issue at $30.60.  The 1998 might even be better since it has a mintage under 5 million and is only $38.60.  In any case, these coins seem to command a premium which may or may not be justified.

[olympicsos]

19 hours ago, World Colonial said:

No if by this question you are asking if it should be worth substantially more.

Most of the supply isn't even owned by collectors or at least for collecting purposes.  It's predominantly owned by "silver stackers" in bulk and by collectors as a collectible form of silver at immaterial premiums.  There are nowhere near 5MM+ collectors who will ever want to pay any noticeable premium for it and of those who will, only as exists now as an MS-70.

The ASE is one of the most "popular" series measured by the size of the collector base, but this doesn't mean they like it that much at much higher prices.  It's competitive for the low budget collector because it's relatively cheap and extremely common which means anyone with the money can complete the series if they choose.

For collectors of more substantive means, it's almost certainly mostly a sideline (casual or secondary) collection, unless they are also mostly buying other NCLT.  For everyone else, the series isn't interesting enough as a collectible.

5MM+ isn't a low mintage.  It only appears low relative to circulating change.  It's the same error made by those who think mintages on modern US commemoratives are or seem low.  Given the sentiments I read on coin forums, it's probable that a noticeable proportion of the demand for these "low" mintage coins is by those who expect to sell it for more later, not because they really want it.  

Plus the 1995-W and the 2019 enhanced reverse proof are worth way more than that and have much less made. 

[VKurtB]

I appreciate all ASE's. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I had harmed the "self-esteem" of a [sniff] 1989 ASE. How could I? I'd be an unfeeling creep, wouldn't I? And besides, we don't need to risk further confirming my first wife's charges on that matter, do we? If there is a key(ish) date, I'm sure it is still the 1996.

[Conder101]

On 10/27/2020 at 3:34 PM, olympicsos said:

Plus the 1995-W and the 2019 enhanced reverse proof are worth way more than that and have much less made. 

Those aren't in the bullion coin catagory.

 

The 1989 isn't even special as a low mintage.  There are six other dates with even lower mintages.  The lowest mintage date is 1996 at 3,603,386.  The 96 brings a small premium but not that much.