- 02/04/2025
- Warren Mills
- F.U.N. 2025
F.U.N. 2025
Welcome to The Enthusiast, sorry for the delay. I have to make a concerted effort to get information out sooner and I will do that. We came back from the show with a registry Morgan Dollar set to work on purchasing and a complete certified Walker set. After separating coins out and sending coins to CAC to try and get the most value for the collector, we have put these collections behind us and are aggressively satisfying want lists. It’s nice when collectors appreciate the extra effort to get them more money when selling their coins.
The F.U.N. Show actually started a bit slowly and built momentum. We arrived on Monday with set up on Wednesday. The first day for the public was Thursday and that’s the day many serious collectors try to get to the show as early as possible. We were surprised that Thursday was only a so-so day. Friday however was fantastic! Usually, it’s the exact opposite. We were at our usual table which is close to the entrance allowing for a nice flow of attendees. Saturday was much better than normal too. We were packing up to get to the airport and selling coins while we were trying to leave. Over-all, this was our second best F.U.N. show only behind last year, which would be tough to beat. 2025 should be a good year.
Show Observations
I was impressed once again with a large group of knowledgeable young dealers entering the market. Their grading abilities are impressive. You don’t have to extol the value of rotating a coin to examine it. They are not just sharp graders either. Their ability to access data for pricing and research as well as the hustle and work they put in is admirable. The next generation is sharp.
Continue to observe the old saying of buy the coin not the holder. Many of the buyers working on registry sets have obtained incredible knowledge in their series of interest. We had a Walking Liberty Half specialist spend considerable time looking at a few key dates in our case that were tied for the finest known early dates. We were happy to allow him to spend as much time as he wanted with his research. On the other hand, they are anxious to fill a hole. Some buyers don’t understand the difference between high end, low end and altered surfaces. We now mix our retail and wholesale quality coins so that we are able to fill our display cases. We occasionally display the same date and grade CAC and non-CAC coins side by side. We are happy to explain to collectors who ask what the difference is besides the price. Still, the allure of a lower price often wins out.
CAC coins continue to bring stronger prices than non-CAC coins. For consistency of strictness for grade and eye appeal, the CAC coin continues to shine. However, while registry buyers continue to buy PCGS with CAC stickers, don’t ignore a superb CACG coin. You may even be able to buy it for less too! Also, buy the coin and not the sticker.
The general attitude of collectors and dealers was upbeat. Many are expecting good things for the year ahead. One area that was really hurt at the end of 2024 was generic $5 and $10 Liberty coins and both types of $20 coins. So many people took profits last year from the appreciation of gold that an over-supply overhangs the market now. Many of these issues are trading at below melt to slightly above melt. The premiums are gone. This makes it a great time to be selective and pick up low uncirculated to choice coins for not much of a premium. I know gold prices are high but look at the world and tell me you don’t think that gold will have continuing interest. Saints in all uncirculated grades even up to MS-65 seem like great buys. Many dealers aren’t even bothering to send graded Saints up to MS-64 into CAC because the premiums are so low. At some point, the premiums should return. Focus on original for the grade coins and don’t shy away from nice CAC pieces that are close to non-CAC prices.
We have noticed many dealers that walk-thru coins at the show for grading trying to figure out which graders are at the show. Their purpose is by figuring out which graders are at the show they can maximize their results by sending in the kinds of coins they could do better on grade wise.
Scott Travers Symposium
Prolific numismatic author, Scott Travers, was conducting a symposium at the F.U.N. Show in conjunction with Maurice Rosen. Maurice was ill so Scott scrambled to find numismatists to fill in for Maurice and do a general numismatic educational program. He came by our table and asked Joe Presti and I if we would speak. We gladly accepted his generous invitation. He lined up a cast of well-known respected coin enthusiasts all with multiple decades of experience. Besides ourselves, they included David Hall, founder of PCGS, Ron Drzewacki, President of CACG, Tom Uram, President of the A.N.A. Barry Sunshine, legal genius and Bust coinage collector. Joe Presti spoke about the legal risks associated with private depositories and I got to speak with John Albanese, founder of CAC in an interview format for the audience.
I was looking forward to ask John about how long he would continue to sticker coins since CACG was now grading. John signed a ten-year contract with CACG. For now, there are no plans to close the stickering service. That’s great news. Many people want to maintain their original holder coins just as they are and stickering allows both CAC approval and maintenance of the holder. He will continue to raise the fees for utilizing the sticker service in the future. That’s his prerogative. My guess is that he’d prefer people utilize CACG but there comes a time in everyone’s career that they’d like to slow down. Right now, the sticker service is as busy as ever. I also asked him about PCGS dominance of the registry set collectors and what his thoughts were about that. He said that CACG also has a registry set service and they accept coins that are graded by PCGS, NGC and CACG though CACG coins are more heavily weighted. To him, the registry set buyers should be more focused on just buying nice coins and not all caught up in the holders they are housed in. If the coin is nice, knowledgeable collectors and dealers will want them. I commented to the audience that many registry set buyers are ego driven to strive for grades and lose sight of the importance of the coin itself. CAC and CACG give the rare coin enthusiast the chance to buy solid coins for the grade. These coins tend to be graded more technically with less acceptance of commercialized grading standards. A commercially graded coin may have eye-appeal but that look should not bump a grade by one or more points. I was afforded the opportunity to buy into the original CACG offering but declined as I felt it was a conflict of interest.
Consignment Coins
I put a note in a prior Enthusiast about anyone that wanted to consign coins with us for the F.U.N. Show. We are known for being strict graders so we attract many collectors and dealers to our table to view what we have. Our table location is so close to the entrance that show traffic flows right past us. We had success with larger size coins that were consigned to us as opposed to smaller size series. Halves, dollars and gold were strong for the consignors. Beautiful small size issues such as three cent pieces did not attract much interest. Per usual for us, we tell anyone that consigns a coin to us that the coin will benefit from CAC or upgrade potential. Our goal is to always maximize the payout to the consignor.
Questions form our mail bag
Q: I watch a number of videos online where dealers send coins to a grading service and get the coins back “questionable surfaces” or some other problem. The dealer then says he is considering cracking it out and submitting to another service. If the coin comes back graded, does that dealer have an obligation to explain the history to a potential buyer? H.G.
A: Thank you H.G. This is a much different question from the norm.
If a coin has the slightest hint of a problem, it should be disclosed. However, if the dealer is really accomplished and looks at a CACG coin or any other grading service details grade and feels that the service made a mistake, he has every right to send it to another service. Many grading service graders are like general practitioner doctors. They may have familiarity with many series of coins but the specialists knows that a certain date or variety comes a certain way and the coin should have been graded. In this case, the specialist will also have a specialist client and they may not care that one service detailed it. There are also times when a dealer may look at a details coin and think it’s ridiculous and send it back to the original service and get it graded. Graders are human. Why do you think so many dealers made lots of money when the services first began and lived off of their “crack outs.” The crack out game is a lot smaller now but many dealers look for details graded coins to resubmit for straight grades.
If a dealer feels that a details grade was a mistake and resubmits it and that coin is now graded, then he may not feel an obligation to tell a buyer it was once detail graded. It many not be relevant because the dealer originally felt it should grade. I have even seen and heard of dealers getting details grades, submitting them to another service, getting the coin graded and then getting a CAC sticker. Now how much obligation is there to muddy the water? Bottom line is buy the coin not the holder!
Thanks for the interesting question. Warren