Copper Coins: The hot ticket in the marketplace in 2009
Did you know that copper coins were the hot ticket in the marketplace in 2009? It was so, per this item by Steve Roach in Coin World, January 25, in the COIN Values section:
“Classic U.S. Rarities Key-Date Investment Index” provided by Coin World to the Wall Street Journal for 2009, decline of 7.9 percent recorded. Despite the decline during the past year, when broken into components, the 2009 index shows some definite bright spots: copper coins did extremely well. Rare silver coins showed a decline of 8.9 percent, while the gold coin portion of the index declined 14.7 percent. The increased interest in and value of precious metals failed to compensate for the general decline in demand at the top end of the market, and fewer high-quality coins have come to market in the past year, sitting longer in dealer inventories and often performing modestly at auction, selling at reduced values.…”
Had he expanded his study, Steve probably could have stated that tokens, medals, and obsolete paper money were market leaders in 2009.
High on the list of the most desirable United States copper coins is the 1794 Starred Reverse cent, the variety known as Sheldon-48. For some unknown reason the engraver added 94 tiny five-pointed stars around the border of the reverse. Today, several dozen are known, the finest of which is Extremely Fine. Illustrated is another coin among the top handful or so in grade, VF-25 (PCGS).
