No love for modern US commemoratives, why?

Here's an afternoon thought/rambling that popped in my head.

One very friendly LCS that I frequent sometimes has melt trays out, something I don't often see - gold and silver coins with zero premium. This is usually Canadian and other foreign "junk" silver as would be expected. What I find interesting, and frankly odd, is that most modern US commemoratives end up in these trays.

Right now I see a >$3/OzT premium attached to common circulated junk 90% and generic rounds, and a premium near $100/OzT on your typical ounce gold bars. Even cull silver dollars are priced at $30 each and people still buy them.

Yet when it comes to commemoratives, I see 90% dollars, $5 and $10 gold pieces without premium, weight and purity identical to their original counterparts. It's not like these are some unknown, un-marked pieces that should raise suspicion - they're standard US gold and silver coins. And BU/Proof to boot.

So, any thoughts as to why in this climate of stiff premiums on absolutely everything else, would any US Mint issue gold and silver coins be so undesirable that they are treated as scrap? What am I missing?

I enjoy looking at pictures of peoples' monster "stacks" and yet I never see tubes of modern silver dollars. I would think people interested in getting the most weight at the lowest premium would be all over them. People are showing off their war nickels and 40% for gosh sakes.

Disclosure: I was quite happy to grab a 1984-D $10 piece at melt. Dammit it's still a proper $10 gold piece and I really like the reverse on it.

 

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I'm guessing it's mostly because they're really, really common.

I agree that there are some designs I really like. The $5 Constitution gold, with the feather pen, is one of my all-time favorites. I also like the Columbus silver dollar with the sailing ship juxtaposed with the Shuttle.

 

Because no one cares about things like the First Ladies or famous land marks. If there’s demand there will be a premium over melt.

I own things like the Baseball Glove, Jackie Robison, Three piece 100th anniversary set….they all have premiums.

 

I've got a few because i liked the specific coin, otherwise I stuck to those with lower mintages (like the 50th anniversary 2014 p silver kennedy high relief proof) but as others have said, i mostly stick to those that hold some premium already..

 

There are so many commemoratives out there now that they have lost their purpose with me. I mean if someone at the mint likes Hubcaps on a car they'll do a coin on it. That's my say on the subject. I bought a Commemorative CURVED baseball half dollar2014. That was the last type coin like that I bought. I'll pass on them from now on.

 

I have a 2-3 dozen of them, including an 1984-D and the proof 1995-1996 Olympic set. I don't think it's just that the coins are common. After all, many of the $10 First Spouse coins have tiny mintages and they aren't popular either.

Two of the reasons are fatigue and pricing. If I'm reading my history correctly, buyer fatigue was also an issue in the 1930's for classic commemoratives, as the mint just kept pumping out the things. And with, what 200 or so issues? It's just too daunting a task to be a completist. Another possible reason is the aging of the hobby.

But the main reason I see is design, and that comes in several flavors. A few coins are simply unattractive (Jackie Robinson $5). Others are impossibly busy (2015 Marshalls Service). Still others rely on contrast between polished and matte areas to make up for the lack of relief (1995-1996 Olympic Set). In some cases, the 3-coin sets lacked design coherency (Mt. Rushmore comes to mind). Others are simply strange to my eye. Some have two, three, or even four sets of detracting initials on them.

Take the 2011-S $1 US Army coin as an example. On the obverse, due to the lack of perspective and relief, you have what appear to be soldiers sharing their body from the shoulders down. Plus you have a globe in the background that's somehow missing any land masses. The helmets are of two different designs for no apparent reason. On the reverse, you have two concentric circles, 20 words, and an eagle that looks squashed horizontally to make room for another design component. Counting the mint mark, there are 3 or 4 fonts used, and the obligatory 2 sets of initials. And once again design coherency across the set is missing.

But my main beef is that with the exception of those derived from classic coins, almost all of them look like they were designed by committee. That's only partially correct -- they were vetted by at least two committees, and as far as I can tell the committees only got to look at drawings rather than minted patterns. The WWI Centennial $1 coin chose a great theme, but apparently the committee felt that the barbed wire had to be reduced to an afterthought, and the pose of the doughboy is anatomically bizarre if not outright impossible. (Not to mention the 4 sets of initials).

If you disagree with my opinion of the coins, I'm cool with that. But perhaps it's telling that "reruns" like the "Buffalo Dollar" or the 2021 Silver Dollars sold out quickly while so many other issues didn't come close to their limits.

 

Several of the posts in this thread are missing @Blasty 's actual question.

Why are uncirculated/proof comms 'cheaper' than ASEs or AGEs and even vintage Morgans and Peaces?

I think reason is simply presumed market recognizability.

Common AGEs and ASEs are easily recognizable and uniform. Modern comms are probably not.

I've been taken advantage of this as one of my preferred LCSs has a small bin of uncirculated modern silver dollar comms for $28 each (as of one month ago), while the bin of common circulated Morgans and Peaces were $35 each. Since I'm working on a world crown size coin type set, these US comms fit perfectly for me.

Much more interesting than another common Morgan or Peace.

 

Are we talking about classic commemoratives, or modern? I'd love to find classics at face value, or slightly above.
Even with commemoratives being marked as US coinage, I think the designs that aren't commonly seen might be passed up as just bullion. Maybe?

 

As far as why theyre unpopular its a combination of things, mintages are too high/poor designs/many unpopular subjects.

Because they're harder to sell.

 

The US Mint’s commemorative coins being found at melt trays is no different as to why Franklin Mint coins are sold for melt. Nobody really collects these types of “coins,” non-circulating legal tender (NCLT).

Despite having “limited mintages”, NCLT aren’t scarce in any sense of the word. Almost all modern NCLT will grade 69 or 70. An ultra-modern coin with a mintage of 10,000 isn’t rare if it has a 100% survival rate and nearly all examples grading perfect 70. Since there’s no challenge in acquiring NCLT in the highest grades, there’s a lack of competition amongst collectors drive up prices from demand.

I don’t consider modern NCLT to be actual “coins.” NCLT are merely products sold by the mints to generate revenue. You see the Perth Mint producing hundreds of different coin series depicting Marvel superheroes, Star Wars, Transformers etc. There are so many different souvenir coin series being released that the ultra-modern coin market is oversaturated.

A common Morgan dollar sells for a premium over a commemorative dollar because of the historical interest. Coin collectors will pay more for junk Morgans because they’re actual coins that circulated as money in America’s distant past, not some souvenir trinkets housed in a fancy box.

As some have noted earlier, commemorative coins lack the recognizability of bullion coins and junk silver.

 

I have a couple of commemoratives but like most collectors modern isn't my thing at all. My guess is people don't like looking generic and commemoratives look generic!

 

And this doesn't apply to ASEs or Morgans or Peaces?

 

They are boring.

 

Then again, most people would say that about coins in general.

 

They’re the ones that are missing out and don’t even know it.

 

It’s simple over saturation. I used to get excited at the occasional “new and exciting” mint release. That was a looong time ago…… And yes, I too can find commemorative silver deals in my dealers melt bucket. And I’ll opt for the cull Morgan/Peace dollars every time.

 

I was a big fan of collecting all the commemorative coins. I love my collection but quit adding to it a few years back. It became too large and the cost of keeping it up to date became too much.

 

I remember when silver was in the 40’s ten years ago and I was buying the 1982 Washington commemoratives for $8 each because they were selling them as numismatic coins and didn’t adjust the price according to metal value….I have good condition commemoratives that are 100 years old that aren’t to far removed from the spot price.

 

What 100 year old commemoratives are selling near spot price? I don’t see any 1925 Lexington-Concord or 1921 Alabama halves in junk bins. However, I can understand finding heavily worn Columbian or Booker T halves being sold as junk silver.

 

Comemoratives had the biggest drop price-wise once the coin bubbles of the past ended. I believe a commemorative index dropped 85% from peak-to-trough to a recent base so while now MIGHT be the time to buy 'em....everybody else simply has been burned, not unlike stocks in 1933 or 1934.