Coins We Love: 🎶Good Morning Baltimore!🎶

This week finds us in Baltimore for the Summer Whitman Expo. I did spend a day before the show sleuthing for coins but was absent during the big trading day on Wednesday due to a 5th-grade graduation back home. However, we’re all back together now for the show on Thursday and we’re ready to hit the bourse running tomorrow. Overall, the summer effects are definitely hitting the coin market, so things are a smidge slower, but there are some neat new coins coming up…of course, the really cool ones are getting snapped up quickly. I suspect we’ll see a little bit of a lighter June and July, but when the time for the ANA comes up in August, the activity and energy will return quickly. While there are a pair of Summer shows (Long Beach and Summer FUN), they kind of get thrown into the calendar to even things out over the year, but they are never as active as their counterparts in the Spring, Fall, and Winter. This is okay because we really do need a break this summer to catch our breaths; so that is what we’ll do. Don’t worry though, the new selections won’t stop at DLRC. We will keep adding new pieces and we’ll also work even harder for your consignments. So if we can be of assistance, don’t hesitate to reach out to us!

This week Jason put together a new concept for collecting that I thought was worth throwing in here for your eyes…please feel free to comment back to us with a reply and we hope that you find this to be interesting or helpful!

Sincerely,

John Brush

Another Collection Concept - Equally Weighted Collecting

Questions A Collector Considers:

Collectors ask a number of questions not only about what to collect but how to collect. Many old coin collecting adages come to mind when hearing this  – “Collect the coin, not the holder” and “Buy the best grade you can afford” are two that immediately pop into my head. In other words, they know what type of coin or series they want to collect, but are often unsure of how to go about it. Some particulars that they are unsure about include which grading service to stick with, what grade level to buy, whether they should only buy CAC-approved coins, if they should create a registry, and what a reasonable budget is for their desired collection. These are just some common questions and of course, there are many, many more things a new collector considers. Over the years I have honed in my answers to these questions and have come up with my personal collecting concept that I share over and over again with collectors.

What Grade Should I Collect?

Many collectors have the idea in their heads that a set must have a uniform grade across all issues. I explain that when the time comes to sell the set (collection) each individual piece will be valued and sold on its own - The pieces around each example do not have any bearing on the individual values of the other pieces. This is because most sets are rarely sold as a complete set, and are almost always broken up and sold as individual pieces. Some collectors still prefer collecting the same grade across the board for uniformity and it helps them concentrate on one specific grade level. This however becomes difficult when it comes to key dates in the set. Usually, the collector will have to sacrifice the grade standard in order to fill in these issues. The problem occurs if, for example, you bought only MS64 grade Morgan Dollars for your set. There are a couple of dates that would account for 90% of the collection’s value and you would have an unbalanced set or even an incomplete one if you left those dates out. To eliminate many of the questions above and help narrow down a collecting plan you can follow, the correct question is not what grade should I collect, but what cost value I feel most comfortable spending on each coin in the overall collection.

Equally Weighted Collecting Concept:

For using this strategy, come up with an overall budget, what you’d like to spend on the entire collection. Divide this by the number of coins in the complete set you have designed. This cost value (within 10%) should be the most you should spend on any one coin. This eliminates the question of what grade to collect or whether or not it should be CAC-approved. This will give you the ability to find the best coin in the highest grade with the ceiling of an average weighted cost. This ensures that all coins will have the same basic cost no matter what the grade of the coin. This equally weighted strategy also keeps collectors disciplined into working within a monthly collecting budget. You can also concentrate on any issue in the set and not have to wait to purchase the key dates. Having a collection with different grade levels also makes for a more well-rounded numismatist and increases the appreciation for the details of your higher-level coins in the collection.

- Jason Smith

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