Bucket of Coins

Well yesterday the US Mint put this year’s 2009 Clad Proof Sets on sale for $29.95. Yes I ordered my sets at noon like most die hard collectors and got confirmation they are in stock!  The website seemed to die for a few hours shortly after I ordered my sets

Ya I ordered 50 sets...hopefully the quality is good!

The biggest addition to these sets besides the District/Territory quarters is it contains all four of the versions  of the 2009 Lincoln penny struck in bronze from the S mint!  This is the same composition that the Lincoln cent began being minted in 1909.  The silver Proof sets will contain the same pennies as the clad Proof set. The uncirculated sets, to be released later this summer, will contain the same four 2009 Lincoln cents with the same composition but they will be struck with a Satin Finish featuring the P and D mints… eight different pennies in all!

So this year there will be eight circulation strike Copper over Zinc 2009 Lincoln pennies, eight Satin Finish Bronze 2009 Lincoln pennies, and four Proof Bronze 2009 Lincoln pennies for a grand total of twenty different varieties of the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth and the Centennial of the Lincoln cent!  Not to mention the medals and silver dollars the Mint has produced this year in honor of our 16th President.  This is almost becoming a collector’s nightmare.  Not only are these 2009 Lincoln pennies aren’t being circulated but it seems the only way someone can obtain them for their collection is through the secondary market or directly from the Mint.  Needless to say it is probably going to be a banner year for profit for the US Mint.

I sure hope the Mint doesn’t follow suit of the baseball card world and start putting “random inserted limited edition coins” in mint rolls!  If you can afford it, have fun buying these unique sets…if not wait a few years and these regular issue 2009 Lincoln’s may make it into circulation, but don’t hold your breath too long!

I read where they are going to limit the rolls to a maximum of 6 rolls per time through the line. Additionally, there will be NO box sales at this event!  Does this make sense to anyone? If the demand is there go on and let people buy as much as they want and get them out of the storage areas!  All this creates is high prices for 50 cent rolls, the Mint should back two tractor trailers up the event and sell boxes to whomever wants them. I think it’s ridiculous for the Mint to not meet the demand of the public after making such a big deal about the release of these new 2009 pennies this year. Rather than hoard them in their own vaults, make them available to the public! This distribution system will continue to make the prices high and more difficult for collectors to obtain them. I guess $8.95 for a two roll Mint set of P and D won’t be so bad after all, since the Mint is obviously not about distributing the new pennies at face value!

Anyone else see the flaw in this?

I received email confirmation that my credit card has been charged and my 5 sets of the Lincoln Birthplace Log cabin roll sets have been shipped late last night. I figure they should be here before the weekend. I see where a lot of people are pre-selling these for $65 to $85 a set! I might put a set or two up for that kind of money!  So, now with those being shipped and the Mint offering subscriptions to the proof sets now, it will be interesting to see how many of copper cents they will have.  I will post photos upon receipt of my sets. Check your mailboxes and front steps!

Well I got my 2009 UHR $20 Gold piece back today from PCGS. It came back in a “First Strike” holder with a grade of MS69.  I am pleased with the results. I had thought that it would go MS69 and it did. The turn around time was quick…I mailed it on 3/10 and got it shipped back on 3/20!  I guess I will now see about purchasing another UHR $20 to keep in the original Mint packaging.  I can truly say this coin is a great example of an American Type coin and one to treasue for years to come.

I have been able to track down and confirm that the release of the “Formative years in Indiana” 2009 Lincoln cent is going to occur on May 14th at the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln City, Indiana. This penny is the one with young Abe with an axe reading a book portrayed on it. It had been speculated that the event may occur in Indianapolis at the Capital, this squelches those rumors as the Indianapolis news was the first source to confirm this locale.

As far as coin collectors go, with all the frenzy of the first release let’s hope the US Mint plans ahead and brings enough for everyone there to get a box or two if they want. Let’s hope after the US Mint has now realized that they can get $13.90 for a P and D roll, that they don’t offer those exclusively and do away with the “penny exchange”. I am sure that however many they bring they will sell them out and hopefully the people working the penny sales don’t get too greedy and buy them all up themselves or cut a deal with some dealers to get the vast majority of what has been brought for the release. People’s greed sometimes amazes me, so I am not going to sugar coat that speculation. At the prices the first release brought I would be willing to take a second mortgage and buy all they have! Ha!

For those of you wanting to travel there for the event, let me warn you…Lincoln City, IN is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. I would expect dealers to be on hand to get their mitts on this second 2009 Lincoln release. But it should be interesting to see what kind of turn out will be there. I plan on being there since it’s about 1.5 hours from where I live, but I can see the vultures starting to circle now.

According to the US Mint, there have been just 96 million Philadelphia Mint 2009 Lincoln pennies minted with the Birthplace Log Cabin background through January. This penny has the potential to be the lowest Philadelphia minted Lincoln cent since 1954!

It is also reported that the Denver Mint has minted 198 million 2009 Lincoln pennies for the same time frame. This could be the lowest mintage of a Denver minted penny since 1949!

It’s beginning to look like the Philadelphia minted pennies may be the ones to get as there are over two times more Denver minted pennies than the Philadelphia’s through January. Maybe all the hype is real? It won’t be long before the second release will be in production but one has to wonder how long will it be before we start seeing those Indiana Formative years Lincoln cents come out.

If anyone knows where the release of these is going to take place please leave a comment. As of now, there doesn’t appear to be anything planned in Lincoln City, Indiana where Lincoln’s boyhood home is located according to their website.

As tradition has it most of us get started in coin collecting by acquiring coins that are in “Raw” state. “Raw” is a coin that has not been sent to a Third Party Grading company and encapsulated in a semi-permanent holder with certificates of authenticity. Some examples of raw coins are:

1. Coins found in pocket change.
2. Coins acquired from the US Mint.
3. Coins from bank rolls.
4. Coins in any other type of preservation or storage such as books, folders, hard plastic holders without certification, 2 x 2 plastic flips, cardboard 2 x 2s, etc.

Raw coins are obtainable usually at a lesser cost since they haven’t been examined, graded, certified, and preserved by a Third Party Grading (TPG) company. The idea behind TPGs is that it takes the guess work out of grading and authenticating of a coin. Since grade and condition has such a huge bearing on value. There are some coins that just one grade point up could be a $10,000 difference! Hence, this is the number one reason to get a “professional grading opinion” by a reputable TPG. They are also trained to identify all the new fake coins being produced in China and other countries. It has also been reported that fake TPG holders with fake coins have made it into the marketplace. Educate yourself!

There are some things to consider before spending the money to have a coin graded.

1. Research the TPG.  Find out which one fits your need and your coin. Some grading companies will simply holder a coin as Genuine, while others will grade the coin for a “net” grade after taking the things that lessen the grade if it didn’t have things to drop it’s grade. For example a coin without distractions could grade out as AU50, but after taking in consideration of something that is questionable the “net” grade could lower the over all grade to XF45. TPGs that practice this type of grading will often comment on the certification about the questionable item. There are also some TPGs that conserve coins, which essentially means professionally cleaning them to bring them back to there former glory and so accurate grading can be determined.
2. Realize some TPGs have a reputation of grading a little easier than other companies. While one company with a good reputation but appear to be a little lax in criteria to make a grade, another company with more stringent guidelines may grade the same coin at a lower grade. If this is consistently the case, the first company’s value in the market place may be of a lesser percentage of value when compared to the second company’s comparable grade. You must remember grading is subjective. I have always tended to lean toward the tougher criteria, therefore devaluing my coins in the past.
3. Listen to what other people say and watch the sales of similar coins in TPG holders. This is very important. If you hear of XYZ TPG coins are always overgraded, the word will spread and your coin will be undervalued no matter what is written on the holder. With the Internet, there are tons of comparables for you to use and make conclusions on which TPG will be right for you.
4. If your raw coin has an unnatural appearance, hairline scratches, corrosion, or damage it may be wise to get a few second opinions on forums or from other collectors before spending the money to get the coin graded. Remember your goal with TPGs are to certify, grade, and perserve, to eliminate disputes of subjective grading between what you see and what someone else sees. It helps to take out the guess work. Like I said earlier, you do not need to take this carte’ blanc, you need to examine each and every coin you plan on acquiring because not all VF, AU, MS, and PR coins are graded equally.

Personally I have loved my raw coins. I have done many type, year, and denomination sets over the years and have cracked out 100’s of coins from TPG holders (some I wish I hadn’t). If you ever decide to crack a coin out of a TPG holder, take a photo of the obverse and reverse and point out distingiushing  features in the phot tha will help to identify the coin in hand is the same coin in the photo. Also keep the certification paper from the holder to for additional support. Truthfully, there is something about holding a coin in your hand and looking at it through your loupe that give you chills feeling it between your fingers, where as TPG coins most of the guess work is out the window. I would suggest do a mixture of both stick with the basics with raw coins unless you find a diamond amongst the lumps of coal with potentially high market value or a coin that you wish to perserve.

Well, as many have come to realize 2009 Lincoln Cent mania has hit! A roll sold for $100 yesterday…makes you wish you had a few boxes of them doesn’t it?

I think that it is being driven by the fact that as of this moment, the only 2009 pennies out there are the ones the US Mint brought to the small town in LaRue County, KY called Hodgenville. Truly the town’s claim to fame is being the birthplace of our 16th President Abraham Lincoln. The engraving of the log cabin he was born in now on the reverse of the new penny. You can actually visit and see this cabin as it is preserved by being placed in at building that looks similar in it’s design to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.

It has reported there were a minimum purchase of 2 rolls and a maximum purchase of 10 rolls per person per time through the line. At the end of all the “2 through 10 roll buyers”, there were 80 sealed boxes of the first Lincoln cent in the series of four, left for the remaining twenty or so dealers and public that had the want and funds to purchase them at the rate of one box per time through the line until sold out. It was observed that even though 80 boxes were announced left for sale for those in line, less than 60 were sold. Conversations revealed that there was some actual bidding in the hallways for boxes starting at $50 a box to $100 a box being transferred in the parking lot of the LaRue County High School. So you’d have to assume that the staff working there heard this and potentially wanted to triple or quadruple their money and bought the boxes themselves. Can’t blame them!

Ironically, there has been sales of full boxes for $700 on a popular auction site at the time of this writing. A friend of mine had called the US Mint and inquired about when the 2009 Lincoln cents would be available for purchase. He was told the 2009 cents were not available and they did not know when they would be, even though they debuted in Kentucky on Lincoln’s Bicentennial Birthday launch sponsored by the US Mint and the Commonwealth of Kentucky a day before!

Speculation is that they may be delayed for release into circulation due to the abundance of pennies in public, private, and bank’s possession. This spurred my curiosity, so I had gone to one of my local banks to inquire about if they had rolls of America’s newest type coin only to be sold a brand new box of 2007 Lincoln cents. My bank claimed they don’t order new cents that often and they get most of their re-rolled from Brinks rather than the US Mint. So does this mean those 80 boxes are going to be in demand? You better believe it!

So essentially that means until the banks lessen their saturation of these copper covered zinc and copper Lincoln cents, they won’t have any. For collectors this presents a dilemma. Here we are, wanting to get our hands on the 4th reverse of the Lincoln cent in it’s 100 year life. The first was the 1909 VDB Wheat penny reverse, next the 1909 no VDB Wheat penny reverse, next the 1959 Lincoln Memorial penny, and now the 2009 Lincoln’s Birthplace or “Log Cabin” reverse of this new cent. All this time the original bust designed by Victor D. Brenner has remained unchanged. It is also the first coin that had a “real” person on it along with being the longest running coin produced by the US Mint.

This delay has to make you question the future releases of the next three 2009 Lincoln cents? They are supposed to be coming out every three months. If there is a surplus right now, adding more may cause even more demand and frenzy for collectors to obtain this four coin one year type run. Actually these four cents are three month type coins! They are definitely a must for a Lincoln cent collector but the question is how long will it take for you to get some of the fiery red cents! The only online store that I have found is HERE, the rest are all on auction sites.

Good luck and have fun!

It’s amazing how your taste changes with time. It’s like most things in life, you are usually very content and satisfied with your initial purchase of new things. But as time goes by you begin to notice similar items and begin comparing your item to nicer, “newer”, and flashy items. This has been my experience with dealing with coins.

As a boy, I started out collecting coins from circulation as most people do. As my interest and knowledge began to increase, so did my desire for better material. When I started dealing with the public, I realized this just didn’t happen to me but almost all coin collectors. The scenario goes something like this: You start out with going through pocket change to fill up albums/folders, then you find yourself looking to upgrade the coins and check your change often. Once the set begins looking pretty decent, there will be a few coins that just don’t fit is as nicely as the rest of the coins, so you find yourself online or a coin shop trying to find nicer examples to replace those coins. Typically the ones you purchase are going to look better than the ones you thought looked great so you start replacing them! It becomes an obsession to upgrade and trade/sell your original coins to improve your sets. This is why most collectors say they are “never done” with a set. Sure they may have all the coins but the want and desire to improve the set is always there.

Needless to say this makes the hobby fun, it is very rewarding to find a coin that enhances the set and improves the overall condition and grade of the set. So get out there and start your set today, you won’t regret it and it will be something you can cherish for generations.