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Last week we attended the FUN coin show in Orlando, FL. The FUN coin show was generally busy, with a lot of public traffic, and most dealers reporting they had “ok” or “excellent” coin shows. It was an “ok” show for us, with a decent amount of buying and selling for a summer coin show (summer leading up to the ANA in August is traditionally a slow time of year in the coin market.) The Baltimore coin show, which we attended last month, was slower than the FUN show was, although both were typical coin shows for the time of year.

With mint errors, how busy a coin show is all depends on how many local error collectors make it to the show, and also how many dealers have mint errors to sell to us. It’s a speciality area of numismatics, with fewer collectors than “regular” U.S. coins. This makes some coin shows really busy, while other shows can be slow.

In about 3 weeks, we will be attending the ANA World’s Fair of Money, held in Rosemont (Chicago), IL. It is our 2nd best show of the year (winter FUN being the best), with over 500 tables and 5 days of buying and selling coins. As always, it promises to be an excellent show, and is consistently one of the best coin shows in the the country for mint error coins. This is because there are a relatively large number of mint error collectors in attendance, and also with so many coin dealers in attendance, inevitably a lot of mint errors are offered to us for sale.

Overall, the market is strong. We are seeing mint errors bringing strong prices in different sales venues, and within our own offerings. Although really almost all mint errors are popular and the market is strong, some of the most popular mint error types right now include double-strikes, double-denominations (particularly under $1,500), off-metals of most types and combinations, clips, and also expensive errors are selling well (coins in the $3,000+ price level.) All the popular coin series are generally the most popular with mint errors as well, such as Lincoln cents, Washington quarters, Morgan dollars, and so on. Anything special, or particularly rare and interesting tends to be selling well.

Proof mint errors have recovered from a downturn a few years ago, and are generally selling well. Some of the once rare types are not as strong as they once were because of the increase in population, but the increase in the availability of proof errors seems to have also increased interest in them, and correspondingly, also the prices to a fairly strong price level—perhaps because they are more affordable than they used to be, and also because there is enough quantity existing to actually build a collection. In the past, there were so few on the market, that most collectors might have one or two minor proof errors, or perhaps one major one. Now, collectors are able to own several major ones ,and although fairly expensive, much more affordably than they used to be.

The market is especially strong for certified mint errors (PCGS, NGC, CACG, ANACS.) Certification makes a significant difference in the price that a coin will bring, because it gives beginning and advanced collectors a good, expert opinion, in addition to a guarantee of authenticity. Even more common mint errors such as small clips, common date off-centers, broadstrikes and the like, sell for much more in a 3rd party holder. One other advantage, and one that most buyers likely realize, is that when the time comes to sell their collection, it will be much easier to sell and to get top dollar for certified error coins since the 3rd party holder makes it easier for coin dealers or other collectors to purchase them.

We have a good amount of new inventory in stock right now, which we will be listing as time permits in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for our email alerts.