Scarce silver dollars buck trend

Gold is nearly the same as last time after a nice rise and then another collapse. Silver and platinum are not faring as well with silver down about 3 percent and platinum down over 5 percent. Silver is being affected by the entire commodity sector’s weakness over the economy and especially by copper, which is traded in the same “pit” as silver. Platinum is being affected by oil, which has been weak mostly because of the strong dollar, or perhaps better stated, the weak euro. The metals have had a noticeable effect on generic gold and silver issues, but very little on scarcer issues. In fact most all of the scarcer date Carson City Morgans are up in at least one grade. The 1879-CC has moved up from AU-50 through MS-64 and several other issues have increased as well.

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Peace dollars have very few changes other than generics affected by silver. The ever popular 1921 has had steady activity in gem. Common-date issues in MS-66 are in continued demand. The 1928-S like its typical strike is a little soft in the highest grades.

The story on proof sets remains sad with nearly 25 percent of them down. The picture is not so bleak if you factor out the silver sets from the equation, but they do represent a formidable amount of the associated trading volume, so they remain a big factor.

Mint sets on the other hand are steady with no changes. So in this case, “no news is good news”.

Email harrymkrause@optonline.net.