New Orleans Gold Coinage

Since I reopened Douglas Winter Numismatics (DWN) in February 2006, a primary focus of mine has been New Orleans gold coinage. I have focused on this area for a number of reasons. The most obvious is, of course, the fact that my new book on New Orleans gold coinage is expected to be released this summer and it seemed like a natural to drum up interest for the book by selling the appropriate coins. But there are other reasons I have focused on these coins. After twenty years of intense focus on Charlotte and Dahlonega gold, I am a bit bored with these coins. Now don’t get me wrong. I love C&D gold and these will always be a “bread and butter” item in my inventory. But there are many issues that I have seen over and over and, unless a specific coin is very nice, very rare or very interesting, it doesn’t get me all that excited.

But New Orleans coinage is fresher to me at this point in time. I have always handled nice O mint gold but it seems that in the past, I might have handled three Dahlonega half eagles to every New Orleans half eagle.

New Orleans gold also seems like the best value in the 19th century gold coin market. In most cases, New Orleans pieces are quite a bit scarcer than their Charlotte and Dahlonega counterparts and are often priced at twenty or thirty or even fifty percent less.

Another thing I like about New Orleans gold is the great variety. You’ve got coins from the 1840’s and you’ve got coins from the 1900’s. You’ve got tiny gold dollars and you’ve got massive double eagles. You’ve got No Motto and you’ve got With Motto coinage. This level of variation simply doesn’t exist with the other Southern branch mints.

So what’s happened with the New Orleans market in the past three or four months? There are clearly some aggressive new collectors who have entered the market, including a small number who are buying all of the really rare and very high grade pieces they can find. I have had the good fortune of handling at least a dozen Finest Known or Condition Census New Orleans gold coins in the past ninety days and every one of them has sold quickly to long-term collectors.

Prices have started to show some long-overdue appreciation. In the recent Heritage Central States auction, a dealer paid $86,250 for a PCGS MS61 1854-O Three Dollar gold piece which is, by a huge margin, a record price for this date. In the Heritage April Atlanta auction, an NGC MS64 1839-O quarter eagle sold for $34,500 which is also a record price for this date. I have also noted some very strong prices being paid at auction for coins such as high grade (MS63 and better) New Orleans eagles from the 1888-O to 1906-O era.

My overall take on the New Orleans market is that higher grade, affordable pieces are currently in great demand and will show good price appreciation in the coming months. The very high end material is also in strong demand as I wouldn’t be surprised to see Trends and CDN Quarterly being adjusted upwards to reflect these new prices. The areas that I see the greatest potential growth are the “in between” coins: pieces in the $2,500-7,500 range that are not necessarily very rare or super high grade but which are well above average for the date and which are cosmetically appealing. It also appears to me that the medium sized coins (half eagles and eagles) are attracting the most interest with the new generation of New Orleans collectors.

It will be interesting to see if my New Orleans book has the same affect on this market as my Three Dollar gold pieces book had on that market (prices for Threes have doubled in the past two years). If this is the case, I would suggest that people who are buying New Orleans gold coins now are clearly ahead of the curve and might have some nice returns down the road.

Characteristics of An Ideal Coin Collector

After attending the recent Heritage sale of Dr. Steve Duckor’s Indian Head eagles, I was invited to have dinner with Steve and a group of elite-level collectors. The sale was a smashing success with the final prices realized at least thirty to forty percent higher than I imagined they would be. As we sat at dinner and celebrated Dr. Duckor’s success, one of the individuals at the table made a great comment: “Steve Duckor is the poster child for coin collectors.” I thought long and hard about this comment and suddenly realized that it was, in fact, completely true. Steve Duckor, in addition to being a great guy, is a great collector. There are, in my opinion, five factors that make him a truly special numismatist.

He specializes in one or two areas and doesn’t wander outside his comfort zone. Steve Duckor specializes in Barber coinage (dimes and halves) and 20th century gold (Indian Head eagles and Saints). By keeping his focus on these areas, he has been able to build great sets and become far more knowledgeable than most dealers. Collectors with a clearly defined focus are unquestionably more successful (and probably happier) than those with a scattered approach.

He found a “look” and built his collection(s) around it. I had the chance to view Steve’s collections last year and was stunned at how standardized the appearance of many of his coins was. As an example, many of his Barber coins had dazzling peripheral coloration framing frosty centers. His Saint Gaudens double eagle set contains many of the most attractively toned gold coins I have ever seen. When these sets hit the market they will bring record prices because the coins have fantastic overall eye appeal that improves as you see all the coins together.

He established a strong relationship with a great dealer. Steve was lucky to find David Akers early in his career and this enabled him to not only have access to some great coins but to have access to a great mind. Dave Akers loves Barber halves, Indian Head eagles and St. Gaudens double eagles and his enthusiasm for these series rubbed off on Steve Duckor.

He was patient and held his coins for the long-term. Many of today’s collectors sell their collections literally as soon as they are finished. This mindset has been fueled by two forces: a strong market (which allows many collectors to realize big profits in a short period) and aggressive marketing by auction firms (which pushes many collectors to sell even if they aren’t necessarily ready to do so). Steve Duckor owned many of his Indian Head eagles for two decades and he realized enormous profits on many of these long-term purchases.

He is a nice guy and he slowly built a cult following among other collectors and dealers. Steve Duckor is not only one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met, he’s one of the canniest. His coins have a mystique surrounding them not only because they are superb but because they are owned by Steve Duckor. This is a case where a pedigree adds a considerable amount of value.

Will you be the next Steve Duckor? Perhaps not, but I would suggest that by following these five rules (and buying great coins) you have a chance to be.

2006 Central States Show Report

The Central States show is traditionally one of the better shows of the year. In fact, I usually place it in the second tier, immediately after the FUN and Summer ANA shows. This year’s CSNS convention was held in Columbus which does not have a great reputation as a coin town. I would give this show a mixed overall review. The show started out very slowly. It was introduced by the invitation-only PNG day which is usually a dealer dominated affair. This year’s PNG day was exceptionally slow without absolutely no buzz generated. It didn’t help that only a small section of the large convention center was used and it felt like playing a football game in one small corner of a mostly-empty arena.

Things picked up quite a bit the next day. Of course the huge upward spike in gold didn’t hurt. The theme of the show became generic gold as any dealer who had a large number of generic issues was kept very busy. It is really remarkable to see what generics are now selling for. As an example, MS63 Indian Head eagles are now trading at over $1600 per coin on a wholesale basis and this is more than double what they were worth last year.

I expected this show to be very poor for buying but I was pleasantly surprised to find a few very interesting coins. I purchased some interesting early gold, a few important Condition Census branch mint rarities and a nice group of better date St. Gaudens double eagles. I was also able to sell a number of coins including some pieces that I had owned for a while and was getting a little sick of.

Two areas that were extremely strong at the show were Classic Head gold coins and early gold. I bought an interesting collection of branch mint quarter eagles and half eagles and sold every single coin before I could even finish putting them out in my display case. Nice early gold coins were extremely easy to sell and the first person who stopped at my table bought my 1799 $10 in NGC MS63 which I had just raised in price a few thousand dollars after the newest Coin World Trends had increased the levels in this series.

The Heritage auction was mixed. I was able to buy some very interesting coins in the $1,000-5,000 for what I felt were fair levels. In the past few Heritage sales I haven’t been able to buy many “bread and butter” coins and it was nice to be able to purchase some pieces. On Friday night, some exceptional Indian Head eagles belonging to Dr. Steve Duckor were auctioned. The prices were, in my opinion, extremely strong. Two common dates, the 1912 and 1913, both graded MS67 by PCGS, brought $138,000 and $126,500 respectively. These are record prices for these two dates by a factor of at least three times—if not more.

The show finished rather slowly but the root of this problem was that most dealers left early on Friday and PCGS stopped accepting submissions early on Friday due to being hit with far more than they could grade.

May should be a very interesting month. There are no major shows until the very end of the month but the demand for coins remains insatiable. This suggests to me that Long Beach should be exceptionally strong.

Gold Coin Market's Strength

Part of me wants to think that the gold coin market’s currently high values represent a peak and that a correction is due. But the more I look at the market, the more I think that it truly has legs and that prices are not going to go down any time soon. Here are a few reasons why I think the gold coin market is not going to drop any time soon:

There are a lot more people looking to buy coins than there are people selling. As long as demand outstrips supply, prices are not going to go down. In some areas, like early gold, prices have doubled or even tripled in the past three to five years, yet the current supply of early gold is the smallest I can ever remember. When you see auction sales with a large number of interesting early gold coins for sale, this might be a sign that this area is correcting. But as long as people are more interested in buying than selling, look for prices to continue to rise.

With gold (and silver) at twenty-five year highs, coin prices aren’t going down any time soon. If both of these markets show a major short-term correction, it is likely that certain areas of the market will weaken. But I don’t think that gold dropping from $600 to $500 is going to affect the value of a rare date St. Gaudens double eagle or a rare Liberty Head eagle.

There is a lot of money in the world right now. I recently went shopping for a new house in Portland, Oregon and was pretty shocked to see how little $1 million bought you in this once-sleepy market. Not that long ago, one million dollars was a staggering amount of money to pay for a house. Today, it’s what many people pay for their second—or even third—residence. Gone on vacation lately? Taken the wife or significant other out for a fancy meal? Filled up the car? It’s an expensive world we live in these days, and the gold coin market merely reflects this fact.

The most interesting thing about this market is that it is still mostly self-generated. People really want gold coins; unlike in 1979-80 and 1989-90 when they were told they really wanted them. If you remember those two markets, you can remember insane price manipulations and wacky hype that, viewed today, seems like…well, insane hype.

One has to wonder, what will happen to gold coin prices if the Chinese decide they want to play. Or if someone really clever decides to corner the market in MS65 Indian Head gold (it’s SO easy to do!) and then expertly market the coins. Then today’s seemingly “insane” gold coin prices could actually look cheap.

Coin Consignment Questions

As a dealer there are few things I like more than getting coins on consignment. To my way of thinking, you’ve got to love receiving nice coins for inventory without having to write a check for them. In a market like this, where it is very hard for me to buy nice, fresh coins, I am enthusiastic about receiving consigned coins from gold collectors. But I have noticed that many potential consignors do not fully understand the process. Here are my answers to some consignment related questions. What consignment rate do most dealers charge?

The usual rate ranges from a low of 5% to a high of 10%. The rate depends, of course, on the size of the consignment, the relationship of the consignor to the dealer and what sort of coins are involved. If one of my very best clients was consigning a nice group of fresh $5,000-10,000+ coins, I would be likely to charge a lower rate than for someone I barely knew offering me a group of slightly better date Type Three double eagles. Consignment rates are generally lower when the money generated by sales is applied towards new purchases from the firm chosen to handle the consignment.

What should consignors expect from dealers?

The consignor should expect full paperwork from the dealer explaining the consignment rate and the expected length of the consignment process as well as payment and return terms. The consignor should also expect that the coins will be imaged and described in a fairly prompt period of time. The image(s) and description(s) should be of a similar quality to the dealer’s regular inventory.

What consignor requests are considered unrealistic by dealers?

Some consigned coins sell quickly and some take a long period of time to sell. Don’t expect the dealer to sell all of the coins in a week. Price your coins fairly. If the consignor paid too much for a coin from another dealer do not expect the dealer who is now trying to sell the coin to be a miracle worker. The dealer should not be expected to write unrealistic descriptions or to make an ugly coin look nice through the miracles of digital photography.

Are consignment sales better than putting coins in auctions?

This really depends on the coins and the firm(s) in question. Without blowing my own horn too loudly, I would say that in most situations my firm is a far better choice to sell certain coins than a major auction company. The main reason for this is personal service. At an auction, you’ll be one of 100+ consignors at any given time while at my firm, you may be one of only two or three consignors. I tend to know the coins I specialize in far better than an auction company and, in my opinion, can do a better job pricing and marketing them. But my ability to outperform an auction company is probably best exhibited in my ability to sell United States gold coinage. I do not think I would be a great choice to sell a collection of Peace Dollars. I think the same can be said for most specialist-dealers when they operating outside their realm(s) of expertise.

In most cases, consignment sales can be a true win-win situation for dealers and collectors. It is a scenario in which both parties are working for the same goal and one that, as long as everyone understands what is expected of each other, should turn out well.

Advantages of Using Auction Representation

If you bid sight unseen on coins at auction there is a better than average chance that you will buy an overgraded, low end item. I recently spoke with a collector who was new to the rare gold coin market. He purchased a few books from me and we chatted about various branch mint issues for around thirty minutes.

The next thing I knew, he called me and told me that he had entered bids on around fifty lots in a major firm’s auction. I didn’t know this person well enough to yell at him (plus he was way too nice a person for me to raise my voice at) but, after talking for a few minutes, I found out that he had literally looked through a Heritage catalog like it was the latest offering from a clothing retailer and ordered one of this and one of that; like it was pants, shirts and ties.

Here’s the problem with blindly bidding at a coin auction. Despite what you might think, it is IMPOSSIBLE to accurately grade or determine the appearance of any coin based solely on an image. To see the fine nuances of a coin, such as luster and the quality of the surfaces, you absolutely must see it in person and view it in three dimensions.

When I mentioned this to the collector, he stated that the descriptions in the catalog told him most of what he needed to know. I, in turn, mentioned that these descriptions are written by employees of the auction company and while interesting to read, they tend to dwell on the positives of a coin rather than the negatives.

It is a huge disadvantage to a bidder to not see a coin. He is bidding against experts such as myself who are not only more knowledgeable about gold coins than he is but have had a chance to see the coins in person, view them in good lighting and use a magnifying glass if necessary. With these advantages, there is just no way that a sight-unseen bidder stands a chance against me.

Unless there is something wrong with the coin. Here’s a good rule of thumb for coin auctions: the worst lots in the sale—the ones that dealers pass between themselves during pre-sale viewing and giggle about—are the ones that ALWAYS wind up selling to “smart” collectors who bid sight unseen.

The collector has a few options in his arsenal. He can hire an agent to view the coins for him. He can establish a relationship with the auction company and have lots sent to him for pre-inspection. Or if he’s really lucky, he can find someone he trusts at the auction company to look at the coins for him and give him judgments.

Auction companies have dome a masterful marketing job convincing the new collector that the auction experience is totally without pitfalls and the fact that there is an underbidder for every coin means that no purchase has more than 5 to 10% downside. Wrong! What if the other bidder(s) on a certain lots is also uninformed and the smart bidders (i.e., those who had actually seen the coin) dropped out at 30 or 40% lower?

Bidding at auction is a great way to add rare coins to your collection but just remember that if you are bidding based solely on images, flowery descriptions and price histories from other auctions you are setting yourself up for a potential disaster.

Rare Coin Market Liquidity

One of the clear indicators that a market has graduated from an early stage to a later stage in its development is that liquidity spreads to all areas in the market; even those that were left behind in the early stages of the market. This was clearly the case in a market such as tech stocks in the late 1990’s. Is this case in the rare coin market? I do not think that there is a clear answer. I recently read a numismatic newsletter that stated that because of the fact that nearly all 18th and 20th century non-gold coinage had increased in value in the past five years, it was inevitable that weak areas like Seated and Barber coins would rise. I do not agree with this.

Gold coinage is a different market because of the huge rise of bullion prices in the past year. With gold having doubled in value from less than $300 an ounce to over $600, gold coins have seen a level of demand that is unparalleled since the late 1970’s/early 1980’s. At this point there are really no weak areas in the gold coin market because just about any coins that are round and gold have a strong intrinsic demand right now.

In the past few years, there have been some areas in the gold coin market that have been underperformers. These would include $5.00 and $10.00 Indians, Classic Head quarter eagles and half eagles, No Motto gold from Philadelphia and San Francisco gold coinage. For the most part these former weak sisters have seen stronger demand than I can recall in the past year. But how much of this is actual demand for these specific series and how much is gold-based demand?

In this day and age, many formerly weak series become stronger because of cunning promotions. Until recently, a nice AU55 No Motto half eagle or eagle from the Philadelphia mint was a very hard coin to sell because there was minimal demand. Today, the demand for such a coin is twofold: it is gold and, perhaps just as importantly, it is a coin that suddenly has a promotional apparatus supporting its market. I would contend that it is actually more significant that it is being promoted than anything else. Most of the new buyers of No Motto gold are not collecting this series because gold has doubled in value in the past year. They are collecting it because one or two major coin marketers have made a compelling case for the collectability of these coins.

The major reason why certain series continue to be slow performers in this strong coin market is because they are not being effectively promoted (I do not, by the way, consider promotion of coins to be a negative thing as it increases demand for many series that deserve to have more collector support). Seated and Barber coinage appear to be cheap and undervalued because no one is doing even basic promotion of these series. The same holds true with Peace Dollars and Silver Commemorative half dollars. The easiest way to make Peace Dollar prices increase is for new collectors to come into the market and for dealers to start actively buying and selling these coins. If a book on this series was to be published and collectors learned the ins and outs of each issue, you’d see prices rise almost immediately.

How Often Should You Sell Your Coins?

As a coin collector, how often should you be selling your coins? One of the great things about being a collector in a strong market such as this is the possibility of selling coins after a fairly short holding period and either making money or, at the very least, breaking even. In my opinion, understanding the selling process is every bit as important—if not even more important—then figuring out how to properly buy coins. Back in the Bad Old Days of the 1990’s, if you tried to sell a coin you bought within a year or two of its purchase, the chances were excellent that it would cost you dearly. Assuming you paid the then-typical 20-30% dealer markup, your decision to sell quickly was likely to cost you as much as 35-40%. Ouch!

In 2006, coins are more liquid than I can ever remember. Unless you grossly overpay for something that you probably had no business buying in the first place, you are likely to be able to sell your albatross-in-the-making for a number that doesn’t make you want to cry.

This is both good and bad. It has enabled collectors to look at certain pieces as rent-a-coins that they know they are only going to have around for a short period of time; not unlike a baseball team trading for a potential free agent knowing that this player will help them during a pennant run but will probably be gone the next year. In my opinion, I think it’s great that collectors buy certain coins knowing that they will not be putting them away forever. As I stated above, it familiarizes them with the selling process and it helps to recycle coins that might otherwise not sell.

But there can be a downside to this process as well. Collectors who are new to the market have been spoiled by the seeming boundless strength of the past two or three years. They have a mentality that says “if I buy this coin at auction I really can’t overpay. And even if I do, someone else will come along in the next auction and pay even more than I did.” For the last few years they have been right. But when the market slows down, collectors with this attitude are likely to be left holding coins that will radically decline in value.

I think the perfect compromise is to have two segments to your collection. Have a core collection which amounts to, say, 75% of the dollar value of your holdings. These are the coins that are your specialty and the ones you are likely to keep through the next few market cycles; both up and down. In addition, have a non-core holding of coins that you think are interesting and appealing but which you know are not going to remain in your collection for more than a year or two.

Liberty Head Double Eagles

In the past few years, Liberty Head double eagles have become more popular than ever with collectors. I attribute this to a number of reasons:

My books on all three types of Liberty Head double eagles alerted collectors to the rarity of these coins. Each of the three types have been expertly promoted and marketed by large retailing firms, greatly adding to the number of advanced collectors seeking these coins.

The price of rare St. Gaudens double eagles rose to the point that most collectors of average means could never hope to assemble a date set. The Liberty Head coinage offered greater “bang for your buck” for the collector of average means.

The soaring price of gold in the past three years has focused a considerable amount of attention on all large-size gold coins.

Until a few years ago, the prices for the classic rarities in the Liberty Head double eagle series (dates such as the 1854-O, 1856-O, 1861-S Paquet, 1870-CC and the Proof only issues from the 1880’s) were very reasonable in comparison to other important gold coins of comparable rarity. Today, prices for many of these rarities have shot out of sight. Are there still good values in the Liberty Head double eagle series?

I think the answer to this is an unqualified yes. Here are some issues in each of the three major design types that I feel are undervalued:

Type One: In my opinion, the Philadelphia issues struck from 1853 through 1858 are greatly undervalued in higher grade (AU55 and above). Despite high original mintage figures, these have comparably low survival rates and are typically seen in low grades when available. Another date I like is the 1859. This date is far rarer in high grades than most people realize.

Type Two: Virtually every Type Two struck before 1872 is very scarce in Uncirculated. In my opinion, many of these dates are undervalued, especially in MS62 or above. Very high quality Type Two double eagles of any date (even common issues like the 1873, 1875, 1875-S and 1876) are very rare in properly graded MS63 and above and are not fully appreciated as type coins.

Type Three: Although they have risen in price in the past few years, the rare Philadelphia issues from the 1880’s are still undervalued. I almost never see business strikes from 1881, 1882 and 1886 and when I do, the coins tend to be awful. Pleasing, original examples of these dates in AU50 are even rarer than their low mintages suggest. A slightly less “sexy” date that I think is very scarce and undervalued is the 1880, especially in MS61 or better.