GREYSHEET: GRADING TIGHTENS & MARKET STRENGTHENS

The coin show circuit gets a bit of a rest until the next major show which is the Long Beach Expo in early June. With the first two quarters of the year nearly in the books, we have seen an overall increase in auction results year to date in comparison to 2016 and an overall more positive outlook on the part of coin dealers. One of the possible reasons for this stronger performance is the tightening of grading standards by the third-party certification services. While this may cause angst among dealers that they don’t receive grades that they are looking for, it does mean that fewer overgraded coins go into auction and “fall through the cracks” and sell for below-market numbers. As we have written in the past, when grading standards become too loose, not only do prices realized suffer but population figures also become skewed. Many sellers of coins—whether auction houses or dealers—cite population data to convey the relative scarcity of a given item but these figures can be misunderstood and/or misrepresented. When coins are being graded more strictly it is less likely that coins will be resubmitted multiple times to get upgraded. This provides somewhat of a regulating effect on the population data. Fortunately, many dealers also return the slab tags of coins that have been removed so that the services can remove them from the database. Open and transparent information will only help to sell more coins.

LEGEND XXI AUCTION

Legend Numismatic Auctions will hold their Regency XXI sale in New Orleans this week. The 521 lot sale features nearly 90 pattern pieces, mostly of the 1869-1870 Standard Silver design type in various metals. These is also a very nice run of mint state Capped Bust quarters, along with a PCGS/CAC MS64 1793 Wreath Cent and a blazing PCGS/CAC Matte PR67 1908 $10 Indian.

THIS WEEK’S MARKET

Gold Type:

Premiums over melt remain at historical lows for double eagles and circulated pieces can be bought nearly at melt. At these prices only a modest increase in the gold spot price would put the buyer in a profit position.

Peace Dollars:

We have added coverage of the AU58 grade for this series starting this week. Multiple dates see a significant jump in price from AU50 to Unc grades, and we recognized the need to price AU58s. As always, the Greysheet bids are for accurately graded attractive coins, those that are generally premium for the assigned grade.