Rare Coins: An English Language Mistake?
When I talk to someone I have never talked to before, and they say that rare coins are a bad investment, I get visibly upset. Where does this come from, and how can these people keep saying this? I guess it is no different from the person that has never invested in stocks; they say that the stock market will take your money. Or the person that says that all real estate deals are doomed from the start. It is my opinion that these people are ignorant. Not stupid. Simply ignorant. Webster’s Dictionary defines ignorant as follows: “lacking knowledge or comprehension of the thing specified”.
These people are ignorant because of the industry’s gross misuse of proper English language. Specifically the word RARE. (Please- English PhD’s… don’t tear apart my poor grammar here!)
In Webster’s, RARE is defined as: superlative or extreme of its kind.
So what is a RARE coin? By most accounts, almost all firms hold themselves out as a seller of rare coins. However, their definition of “RARE” happens to be the real problem in this industry. Going back to Webster’s, RARE is defined as: “superlative or extreme of its kind”. I don’t know about you, but my definition of rare goes beyond how I want my steak cooked.
Rare is the individual that has superlative or extreme performance. Such as in ice hockey, Wayne Gretzky, also known as “The Great One” is the rarest of athletes with superlative performance over many years. (Who has been an avid collector of rare coins, by the way.) Beethoven had superlative composing skills, and his work has stood the test of time as one of the world’s best composers. The Hope Diamond is an extreme example of one of the finest diamonds in the world, and would be considered extremely rare. I could go on and on, but it isn’t necessary. You get the point.
Any coin can be graded by the two major coin grading services. There is not a requirement that the coin that is being graded must be rare. They are even grading current coins that come right from the mint. Just because a coin is in a plastic holder and is graded, does NOT mean it is rare.
We don’t want to be the “Commodity Coin” dealer like all the rest of the rare coin businesses. We really want to offer a coin that matches the definition of “Rare”. So it stands to reason that any old Saint Gaudens $20.00 gold piece graded as MS (Mint State) is deemed as “rare” by most coin dealers. These dealers want to represent that an old coin is a rare coin. However, when there are over 792,000 of these coins that have been graded MS and above, it really isn’t rare. It is a commodity. And these “Commodity Coins” are sold every day as rare coins. Why? Because the greater number of these “Rare” coins available, the more dealers can sell and that means more profits for them. A bit greedy? No, just American capitalism, and marketing. Don’t get me wrong, the right date, type, grade, and most importantly population of the Saint Gauden can qualify as a true rare coin. It can be a tremendous investment.
At The Truman Company, we don’t want to be the “Commodity Coin” dealer like all the rest of the rare coin businesses. We really want to offer a coin that matches the definition of “Rare”. This is why, in the coming months you will see our section on our website that highlights truly rare and unique coins. It will be a section called “Coins of Distinction”. It will detail the coin, its interesting history and its potential for great profits over the long haul.
As an example, the 1877 half union $50.00 Gold Piece (Type 1) returned over 11.6% annual average compounded rate of return over the last 48 years! That is an impressive annual rate of return for that long! Of course this is a very good example, and all rare coins can appreciate or depreciate at varying rates. But the best coins are the truly RARE coins.
If you want to put my 35 years of expertise to work on how to add truly RARE coins to your portfolio, call The Truman Company, and ask for me personally, Roger Westerling, President and CEO at 1-877-334-4990
All the best,
