2008 American Legacy Collection

The 14 proof coins in the Legacy Collection are proof versions of the 2008 circulating coins produced by the United States Mint in 2008.  Specifically, the American Legacy Collection includes the,

• Oklahoma State Quarter
• New Mexico State Quarter
• Arizona State Quarter
• Alaska State Quarter
• Hawaii State Quarter
• Monroe Presidential $1 Coin
• Adams Presidential $1 Coin
• Jackson Presidential $1 Coin
• Van Buren  Presidential $1 Coin
• 2008 Bald Eagle Silver Dollar
• 2008 Lincoln Cent
• 2008 Jefferson Nickel
• 2008 Roosevelt Dime
• 2008 Kennedy Half Dollar
• 2008 Sacagawea Dollar

The United States Mint is no longer selling this Proof coin collection, but you can still buy it on the secondary market.  The United States Mint sold this set for $100.

I have searched through ebay’s recent completed sales for the 2008 American Legacy Collection.  It seems like they are selling between $120 and $140.  Some of the Buy It Now sales were as high as $160.

If you are looking to buy a 2008 mint proof coin set, the 2008 United States Mint American Legacy Collection is a great proof set.  I like being able to buy the 2008 Bald Eagle Silver Dollar with the other coins.

Did you buy the 2008 United States Mint American Legacy Collection?  If so, are you happy that you did?

CoinLink has a great recap of the FUN coin show that just took place.  In this article Legend Numismatics discusses the current state of the coin market.  For anyone investing in coins, it is a must read article.

Legend Numismatics states that the coin market is down 10%-20% from its highs in the summer of 2008.  As an investor, looking at declines of only 10%-20% actually doesn’t look too bad to me.  The stock market and bond market experienced huge sell offs during this period.  All and all, the coin market has held its value pretty well.  However, as an investor investing in coins, I would like to see a larger correction.

What did you say Fred?  You heard me right.  I want to see prices really fall on coins.

Bear markets and market corrections can be a great opportunity for investors.  And, this also holds true for collectors investing in coins.

No matter what type of investment you are thinking about making, the most important part of making money investing is the price at which you buy.  If you buy at a low price, you will probably make money investing in coins.  However, it doesn’t matter what coin you buy, if you pay too much for it, you may never experience a gain.  This concept holds true whether you are investing in real estate, investing in stocks or investing in coins.

Let’s take a look at investing in stocks.  Most people are quite smitten with Apple computers rigth now.  On February 25, 2008, AAPL was selling for $125.  Between the week of February 25 and May 12, 2008 the Apple stock price went up $58 or 46%.  That is great!  However, if you bought apple stock on December 24, 2007 instead of February 25, 2008, you would have paid too much for AAPL stock.  In December 24, 2007 AAPL stock traded for $199 a share.  Therefore, you would have lost money investin in Apple Computers.

Investing in coins is the same as investing in stocks.  If you buy at a good price your put yourself in the best position to make money.  However, if you buy at too high a price, you might never make your money back.

Investing in coins in a bull market presents some opportunities to buy coins at low prices.  If a coin has decreased 20% in the last 6 months, let’s hope that when the coin market improves that same coin can will quickly go up in value that same 20%.  This is certainly not a certainty, but if the coin is a high quality coin, investing in coins in a bear market might be a great way for you to make money collecting coins.

As I have been working on putting together a list of key date coins, I thought that the 1950-D Jefferson Nickel fit this bill.  If you look at the mintage numbers for this coin, it only has slightly over 2.6 million coins.  This is the lowest mintage for any Jefferson Nickel.

However, when I read Scott Travers’ Top 88 Coins to Buy and Sell: 44 Winners and 44 Losers, I was surprised to see him state that this coin is over priced.  Scott’s analysis has taught me an important lesson.  You can’t just look at mintage numbers when investing in coins.  You have to look at the history of the coin.  According to Scott Travers, when this coin was being struck, coin collectors realized that the mintage numbers were low.  Therefore, they started to hoard this coin.  So, while the mintage numbers are low for the 1950-D Jefferson nickel, the number of saved coins is higher than other Jefferson nickels.

This is an important lesson for coin collectors.  Don’t just make your buying decision based off of  mintage numbers.  Research more about your coins.  This research will help you to make good buying decisions and build a more valuable coin collection.  Additionally, this research is the fun part of coin collecting.

So is the 1950-D Jefferson Nickel a key date for this US nickel type?  Yes, and no.  I will list it as a key date because of its low mintage number, but you have to make sure that you don’t over pay for it.

If you would like to read my other articles about my U.S. Nickel type set collection, here are the other articles in this series.

• US Nickel Type Set Collection

• U.S. Nickel Type Set

By assigning a grade to a coin, coin buyers and sellers have a better way to determine the quality of their coins and the coins’ worth.  Unless you are an expert at coin grading, when you go to purchase an non-certified coin, you don’t know for sure what is the coin’s value.  There can be a huge difference in value between an MS-65 and an MS-63.  But coin grading services help to increase the confidence of both the buyer and the seller.

Another great function that these coin grading services perform is the preservation of our rare coins.  When someone sends coins to be graded by a coin grading service, the coin grading services seal the coins in a protective plastic holder that is sonically sealed.  These protective holders help to keep our coins from becoming worn.  Hopefully, this will allow our future generations to always experience the beauty of our rare coins.