Whether you invest in coins for yourself or as a heirloom to be passed down, getting value for the dollars spent is an important concern. This is why you should scrutinize advertisements and the products they offer.
Coins can be found in newspaper, television, magazine and radio ads, but you should analyze what the ad is offering before you buy the product.
One advertiser offers 40 new gold-colored presidential dollars. This company charges only $40 for the 40 coins, but nearly $100 for their vault release fee. What are you really getting? Forty coins that could be bought at a local bank for $40, only without the fancy golden box.
If a person wishes to return the coins, they will be happily reimbursed for the $40 cost of the coins, but the vault release fee (packaging, shipping and handling) cannot be refunded.
Early in 2009, the Sacagawea Native American dollar was released. These coins are designed for circulation and are valued at $1 each. A television company was offering a pair of these dollars, one each from the Denver and Philadelphia mints, for $49. The coins were certified by a third party grading service as MS67.
What was the value of what they were offering? If you paid $15 each to grade two nice coins you bought for $1 each, your cost would be close to the $49 price tag. But, grading services offer price breaks to bulk submitting dealers and their total cost is about $12 for this $49 package.
On the resale, the coins are worth only their face value, $2. Will they be worth more in the future? Maybe, but not highly likely within the next 50 years.
A host of companies offer sets of coins for rather modest prices. These sets are priced $9.99 to $99.99 and are very nicely packaged, but usually contain only a fraction of that value in coins.
Wheat pennies, Indian Head pennies, Buffalo nickels, Mercury dimes or other inexpensive coins are paired with a neat story printed on a nice cardboard background and sold for multiples of the coins value.
These sets are great for gifts or beginners and offer an educational side to get a person collecting, but are not a great way to buy for value. The same coins could be bought at a coin shop for much less without the gift quality packaging.
If you are buying coins, it is important to add up the value of the coins before you buy the packaging.
Gifts are often worth the extra you have to pay for the fancy packaging, but value is always based on the value of the coins.
It is more work, but check with a local coin shop before you spend lots of money on rare coins.
You might just be surprised at the money you could save by buying locally, and as the old saying goes, a penny saved is a penny earned.
• Allen Rowe is the owner of Northern Nevada Coin in Carson City.