COINS FOR FUN AND PROFIT WITH David Hall
David Hall is best known as the reinventor of coin grading and for the founding of coin certifier Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) in 1986. For more than three decades when Hall was associated with PCGS, the company graded and authenticated over 30 million coins with a declared value of over $30 billion. Hall was a driving force in the process of encapsulating coins in tamper-evident holders and he invented the set registry process forcing high-quality coins to recognize higher prices.
Hall has also been a major dealer in rare and high-quality coins handling United States coins that are graded Mint State 65 and better on a scale of 70 starting with a one rating for a coin that’s barely identifiable and ending in a perfect 70 rating.
The July 1999 issue of COINage named David Hall one of the
“Numismatists of the Century.” What’s the future of coin collecting and investing?
The future is very bright. The internet and information explosion is our friend. The more you know, the better you’ll do. A lot of people in the U.S. don’t know about coins. A large percentage of people haven’t seen a gold coin, let alone a beautiful rare coin.
Coins that were once modern are now old. A Franklin half dollar is silver and 60 or more years old. People who deal in modern coins tell me that they are doing well and bringing in new people.
Online bullion companies are adding thousands of new customers every month. There’s a single bullion company adding 15,000 customers per month who are buying gold and silver online.
What are your five top coin picks for 2023?
On the expensive side, I like Liberty head double eagle gold coins [1849 -
1907 $20 gold pieces] which grade Gem Proof-65. They are 25 to 50% higher in value today than a year ago. I try to buy them at auction and continually get outbid. A year ago, a Gem Proof-65 example would have cost $150,000.
Today, the same rare and spectacular coin would cost about $240,000 to $350,000 or more. A Liberty head double eagle minted in 1900 grading Gem Proof-65 Deep Cameo by PCGS would run $245,000.
I like classic rarities, especially the 1907 Saint-Gaudens double eagle [$20 gold coin]. Near-Gem Mint State-64 coins sell for about $35,000, and Gem MS-65 examples would cost you $45,000 to $55,000.
In terms of mid-range coins, Gem Proof Trade dollars are winners. These coins are historic because they were demonetized by the U.S. In other words, even though they have a face value of one dollar, these coins are not accepted as specie or money.
Trade dollars are gorgeous, especially when naturally toned. Don’t buy ugly coins. A pretty Gem Proof-65, toned or brilliant, would cost about $10,000. If you see one that looks unattractive, and it’s priced at $4,500, that should be a warning that this is an ugly coin and discounted because it isn’t attractive. Focus on eye appeal more than price.
On the less expensive side, I like Franklin half dollars, especially the high-grade Gems such as those grading
Proof 68 Cameo. These are priced from $75 to several thousand dollars for early dates. A 1956 Franklin half dollar, Type 2, with that lofty grade of Proof 68 Cameo can be purchased for under $300.
1932 through 1964 Silver Washington quarters grading Mint State-65 or better are also on my special list of picks for
2023. Common dates such as 1946-S and 1942-S are $50 to $200. My suggestion is to complete a set.
What’s the single greatest profit center rare U.S. coin pick for the next decade?
It’s hard for me to decide between early U.S. gold and proof U.S. gold. I would not be surprised to see an increase of 500% or more in both areas. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see Gem Proof $20 Liberties at $1 million each. The ultra-high quality early U.S. gold coins are so rare that all of them might be multi-million-dollar coins.
How big is the U.S. rare coin marketplace by annual dollar volume and number of participants?
Not including bullion and the U.S. Mint’s sales, I would say the annual
A lot of people in the U.S. don’t know about coins. A large percentage of people haven’t seen a gold coin, let alone a beautiful rare coin.”
volume of the rare coin market is $5 billion. There are at least 100,000 serious buyers. If you get into bullion, there are millions of participants.
What can we do to sell more coins, grading service products and publications?
We need to tell the story far and wide on the financial side. Coins are not just collectibles; they can be highly profitable holdings of an asset class that contains precious metals.
An example of one story that makes sense to tell that would motivate more people to collect coins is about the 1933 Saint-Gaudens double eagle that sold for $7.59 million at a 2002 auction and later sold for $18.9 million in a 2021 auction. Stories such as this need to be shared with financial publications to create excitement for coin collecting and investing.
What would $3,000 per ounce gold mean for the rare coin market?
Prices of gold rarities would be on fire. Even though there’s only $100 worth of gold in a gold dollar, when gold goes up, some of those gold dollars could increase in value by thousands of dollars.
PCGS and its parent company, Collectors Universe, transformed the collectibles industry. Can there be another transformation?
Yes, I can see with more public involvement and getting out the word that we can be transformed. The public knows little about our market. With more public participation, the sky would be the limit. The great public participation in the 1950s and 1960s was from the ability to find coins in circulation.
Now, the public participation will be internet based with a price performance element. Coins will never be like stamps or any other collectible because grading services facilitate their trading sight unseen and coins contain precious metal. So the investment and financial elements are solidly attached.
What did you do before you got involved with coins?
I got involved with coins as a teenager. Before coins, I played sports and collected stamps and baseball cards. My childhood interest in other collectibles gave me the knowledge base that allowed me to expand my coin grading enterprise into a diversified collectibles certification company that was later sold for a record price. [Collectors Universe was purchased by Mets owner Steven A. Cohen, venture capitalist Nat Turner and hedge fund billionaire Dan Sondheim for $853 million.]
To this day, I still enjoy collectibles other than coins and maintain an active interest in stamps, sports cards and memorabilia.