Great deal or a trap?

It is that time of year again when collectors of U.S. commemorative coins decide whether the sales levels of current programs are so low that they must jump in and buy some additional examples.

Complicating this end of the season ritual is the fact that the premium over gold value for many of the modern commemorative coins has sunk to zero. They have become just interchangeable chunks of precious metal as far as the commercial market is concerned.
Will this current market reality squash any impulse to buy from the U.S. Mint the U.S. Army $5 or the Medal of Honor $5 in the next two weeks? It certainly could.

Any collector worth his salt has to consider the commercial market unless he has just absolutely fallen in love with the theme and can’t imagine not owning one.

With this in mind, is the current 7,227 sales figure for the Army uncirculated $5 tempting? How about the 7,597 number for the uncirculated Medal of Honor $5?
Once you have made your decision relating to these two coins, another angle presents itself.

If gold commemoratives are trading for gold value, now is the time to sort through them to pick up whatever coins of the last quarter century you do not have in your collection. Why pay a numismatic premium if you do not have to – unless, of course, you think gold bullion is going to fall drastically.

That’s the trouble with being a thinking collector. There’s always a catch.