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In the Hunt
for Commemorative Gold
By Mark Benvenuto When the
economy is tough, and precious metals rise, coin
collectors concentrate on inexpensive coins.
Well, that certainly doesn’t seem like the time
to go looking at gold coins to see if there are
any bargains out there. But what happens when we
look with some uncommon eyes at the mintages?
Gold is currently hovering at around $1,100 per
ounce. So, if you are the type who has purchased
gold bullion coins in the past, you’ll know that
the half ounce American Eagle gold coin should
be worth $550, the quarter ounce should come in
at $275, and the tenth ounce should carry a
price tag of $110.
You would also know that there is always some
form of premium on these coins, with the highest
premium usually being on the lowest weight and
denomination. When it comes to commemorative
gold—or at least modern commemoratives in
gold—you might need a calculator for exact gold
values, since the gold $10 pieces and the gold
$5s of the past few decades have gold weights of
0.4837 ounces and 0.2418 ounces, respectively.
At $1,100 per ounce, the gold in a $10
commemorative has a value of $532.07, and in a
$5 it has $265.98.
Although the modern commemorative U.S. coin
program started in 1982, with a commemoration of
the 250th anniversary of the birth of President
Washington, the first gold commemoratives are
dated 1984. That was the first year the United
States had hosted the Summer Olympic Games in
decades. President Reagan was right in the
middle of his two terms in office, and the
Soviets chose to boycott these particular games.
And a renewed commemorative program was in its
infancy.
The gold $10 that commemorated the Summer
Olympic Games in Los Angeles was minted at four
different mints. West Point was now
contributing, as well as the Philadelphia,
Denver, and San Francisco mints. The branch at
West Point produced all the uncirculated pieces,
75,886 of them, and the lion’s share of the
proofs, 381,085 of those.
The Philadelphia and Denver mints each produced
just less than 35,000 of the proofs, and the San
Francisco facility anted up 48,551. All in all,
the West Point mintmark on a proof $10
commemorating these Olympics is a far more
common coin than any of the other four options.
Yet, curiously, the price tags for these coins
are all the same, at least in Mint State-65 and
Proof-65. About $550 will do the trick for you
for any of the four mintmarks and five options.
This set of prices, and the fact that the proofs
of three mints are much rarer than those of the
other, means we have some sleepers among the
very first gold coins of the U.S. modern
commemorative series. But before you rush out
and plunk down a few thousand dollars for three
proofs and one uncirculated piece, exercise two
cautions.
First, be sure you are buying coins that have
been certified by a third-party grading service.
These coins at least come with a guarantee that
a team of experts agrees on the grade of the
coin in the plastic case. Nothing is worse than
paying a premium for a coin you consider an
MS-66, only to find that upon selling, it grades
as an MS-64.
Second, be cautioned that just because four of
the five possibilities for this gold $10 piece
are sleepers is no indicator that they are
poised to wake up and thus go up in price. The
perfect example is the W-mintmarked uncirculated
piece. Sure, it’s far less common than the
proof. But that’s because there was less demand
for uncirculated than for proof coins when the
orders were being placed.
There is no indication now that there is some
new groundswell of collectors wanting
uncirculated coins when they can choose proofs.
Proofs are generally the desired option among
the collecting fraternity. So, these sleepers
may snooze on for years to come.
But, even with these caveats in mind, it’s worth
looking at other gold issues of the modern
commemoratives. In 1986, the U.S. Mint was
ordered to commemorate the centennial of the
Statue of Liberty, and in 1987, the bicentennial
of the Constitution. These were honored with
more than gold coins, but I’ll focus exclusively
on the gold $5s that were produced, since these
two coins have gone down in the books as having
the highest proof and uncirculated mintages, by
far.
The Statue of Liberty $5 is a beautiful piece of
artwork by Elizabeth Jones, and was coined to
the tune of 404,013 proofs and 95,248
uncirculated pieces. The next year, 1987, saw
the Constitution gold $5 produced to a total of
651,659 proofs, and 214,225 uncirculateds. Both
were parts of multi-coin sets, if a purchaser
wanted that option. But sets or alone, the
mintage totals of gold $5s have never again
soared so high.
The key point in our search right now is that
the price for each of these gold $5s, in PR-65
or MS-65, is the same, at about $260. Even
though the mintage for the uncirculated version
of the Statue of Liberty $5 is more than six
times less than the total for the proof
Constitution $5, the prices remain the same. It
appears then that there is at least one sleeper
among these first two $5 commemoratives, at
least if you want the uncirculated piece
preferentially to the proof.
I just mentioned that Mint totals never again
reached the heights of those first two gold $5s,
but that doesn’t mean they immediately dropped
through the floor, either. The next year, 1998,
saw the Seoul Olympics honored, which made some
collectors grumble that the Mint was now being
used to milk collectors for pet causes. After
all, this was the first time the United States
had commemorated Olympic Games that were not on
U.S. soil with coins.
The numbers reflect that grumbling, with a total
of 281,645 proofs and only 62,913 uncirculated
specimens. But the prices for these two coins
are in perfect alignment with those two I just
mentioned. Even though the uncirculated versions
of the Seoul $5 total up to less than one tenth
that of the proof Constitution $5, they are
pegged with the same price. It seems we have
another sleeper.
The continued decrease in $5 numbers went on
into 1989, when Congress decided to honor its
bicentennial with the release of a half dollar,
dollar, and gold $5. The numbers for the gold
piece were now: 164,690 proofs and a
record-breaking low 46,899 for the uncirculated
version. Yes, the uncirculated issue of the
Congressional bicentennial is more than 13 times
as scarce as the Constitution commemorative. And
once again, the prices of the uncirculateds and
the proofs are the same as every other gold $5
commemorative we have seen.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize
that the numbers I keep throwing out can’t go
down forever, at least not without a price
increase.
In 1991, the Mount Rushmore gold $5 mustered six
figures for proofs, but just barely. Perhaps
Mint engraver John Mercanti’s eagle flying over
Mount Rushmore was powerful enough artwork to
keep the sales at least that high. But by 1992,
neither artwork and theme, nor the presence of
the ultimate basketball “Dream Team” could
muster even 100,000 in sales, for either the
uncirculated or proof versions of the gold $5
honoring the 25th Olympic Games. With a puny
total of only 27,732 uncirculated pieces, some
thought at the time that the commemorative
program might be imploding, as it did back in
1936.
Of course, we know now that there were still
many more commemoratives to come (and there are
still some coming out this year), but the
quincentenary of Columbus’s landing in the New
World wasn’t a big enough theme at the time to
bring the sales back to anything near those of
the earliest two years of the modern
commemorative program. No, sales seemed to
bottom out here, and with the Bill of Rights
coins, and the World War II commemoratives dated
1993.
What’s most interesting here though, from a
buyer’s point of view, is that the only price
increases from the $260 I have found to be the
baseline price tag are those of the World War II
pieces, and the uncirculated version of the Bill
of Rights gold $5. Each costs about $50 more
than the others. Even though the World War II
proof is about 10 times less common than the
Constitution $5, it costs just $50 more. Even
though its uncirculated sibling is about eight
times less common than the uncirculated version
of the Constitution $5, it costs only $50 more.
I’ve only examined the earliest decade of the
gold of the modern U.S. commemorative program,
so there’s probably more for the savvy collector
to find when it comes to low mintages and
unexpectedly low prices. After all, we certainly
have not run out of themes that some congressman
or another thinks are worthy of commemoration.
But if you do choose to take a serious look at
the gold $5s of this program, or any other gold
for that matter, keep in mind one of the
cautions I gave right at the outset. That is
that all sleepers do not wake up. Or, perhaps,
it’s more technically correct to say that all
sleepers do not jump up in value just because we
suddenly realized they are undervalued.
Some of the designs we have just looked at are
beautiful and that alone may be the deciding
factor that wakes them up before others of
similar rarity. Those others may continue to
snooze for decades. Enjoy the hunt, but hunt
wisely enough that you don’t sink money you need
now into coins that may remain in their
beautiful slumber for decades yet to come. |