Which way will stable market jump?

Individuals who invest in coins first, collecting them being secondary, have been switching to secondary market coins, according to the World Gold Council, rather than buying brand new from mints or distributors.

While the WGC monitors just gold consumption, the same conclusion can be drawn for virtually all bullion and collector-oriented coins no matter what they might be made of.

The U.S. Mint reported the weakest sales of new gold coins in April since 2007. Coin dealers are reporting significant liquidation of coin holdings, some in order to raise needed capital, while in other cases coin-owning investors see greater opportunities in stocks and bonds.

Collectors, be they concerned with coin values or not, need to step back and understand this isn’t the end of the coin-collecting universe. As an example, while the PCGS3000 Index recently recorded being 3.56 percent off its 12-month high, the same index is 0.54 percent off its 12-month low. This is rather stable.

The Key and Rare Date Index was down just 0.04 percent. This suggests the value of the coins being tracked may be leveling off. This, of course, is a generalization. Most collectible coins that can’t be classified as scarce to rare continue to trade within a tight range while there are some serious buyers actively seeking coins that are truly rare.

Should the investor return to the numismatic marketplace and thereby drive up demand, the value of many less-than-scarce coins will likely be the beneficiary. Investors are often advised to dollar cost average – buying a set amount regularly. Unfortunately, too many just chase trends.