Plucking Silver Dollar Commem Bargains
When it comes to the silver dollars that are part of the broader modern commemorative coin program in the U.S. – those that have been made from 1982 to the present – it sometimes seems as if these big guys get bypassed. Either the gold $5 half eagles draw the attention of folks, or collectors on a budget gravitate towards the base metal half dollars. This means there might be some fertile ground to go over when it comes to very attractive dollar coins at equally attractive prices. Let’s pick on a few dates and themes, and examine them to see just what might be available to the savvy bargain collector.
The first on the now-impressive list of silver dollars in the modern commemorative program are the 1983 and 1984 dollar coins of the 1984 Olympic Games held in Los Angeles. Each coin came out of three different mints, and the number of proofs produced completely dwarfed the combined uncirculated issues. The reason for the hefty number of proofs, and the rather lean numbers of uncs, was that for that event the Mint allowed collectors to put in orders themselves. Most people wanted that best of the best, and thus, there are a great deal of proofs today from which to choose.
As with our other expeditions into bargain hunting, we look for both a high mintage coin, and its price, the latter to serve as a baseline. In the case of the Olympic dollars, we have some interesting results. The price tags are about the same for either the uncirculated version or the proofs – generally $35 to $50 even in grades like MS-69 or PF-69. What makes this very interesting is that there were, for example, a total of 174,014 of the 1983-S uncirculated dollars – the discus thrower – and 1.57 million of the proof version. Yet the prices are about the same. This undoubtedly makes the ’83-S uncirculated piece an undervalued coin. But it is also a coin that will probably always be in the shadow of its proof sibling. We probably would be getting our hopes up if we thought this dollar was going to launch upward in price anytime soon. Still, $50 for an excellent-looking piece is a price that is appealing to most of us bargain hunters.
Let’s jump forward a bit more than three decades and do this same comparison with a couple of the far more recent commemorative dollars. We’ll start with the American Legion silver dollar, part of a three-coin set that was issued in 2019. The Legion was honored with the set for their centennial, with the silver dollar even proclaiming, “100 years of service.” When it came to sales, though, the results can politely be called slim. The official record indicates 63,144 of the proof dollars were coined, and only 13,788 of the uncirculated version. If we were to compare these mintages to any of the classic rarities in United States coins, such as the 1909-S VDB Lincoln cent, the three-legged Buffalo nickel, or the 1916-D Mercury dime, we might think these Legion dollars would be insanely expensive. Yet today the proof version runs about $60, while the unc is only $85. This is plainly not that much higher than those much, much more common Olympic dollars.
One comment is in order before we take a look at another of these very modern silver dollars: the slight jump these price tags show may not only be the result of lower mintages, but could be because the fineness of such commems went up from 0.900 to 0.999 as the program matured. Whether it is one reason, the other or both, these American Legion silver dollars are eyepoppingly inexpensive when we consider how uncommon they are.
With this in mind, let’s go through this exercise a second time, and see if we can go two-for-two when it comes to discovering a good price for a modern yet rare silver dollar. Let’s look at the 2020 Christa McAuliffe silver dollars.
A generation of collectors has grown up who may not know much more about Christa McAuliffe than that she was on the space shuttle Challenger mission that went fatally awry for its crew on Jan. 28, 1986.
The silver dollar honoring her has on it the inspirational comment, “I touch the future. I teach.” It does not, however, indicate all the hard work and sweat she had to go through to be the first teacher in space. More than 10,000 teachers applied for the spot she ultimately attained. When the shuttle exploded just a little more than a minute after launch, the nation was stunned, especially since millions of school children were watching the event live.
The McAuliffe silver dollar saw mintages in the same general zone as that of the American Legion dollar. This time it was a rather small 54,214 proofs, and 15,505 uncirculated pieces that were produced. And today, on the secondary market, either version of this commem costs about $85 in the incredibly high grade of MS-69 or PF-69. It seems we have indeed gone twofor-two in taking a peek at modern commemorative silver dollars.
Are There More?
With the commemorative silver dollars we have just looked at – both the common and the uncommon – we can quickly get to the conclusion that no matter how impressive the theme, the collector base for such coins may have become pretty thin. After all, those common 1984 Olympics dollars were made in large enough quantities that any collector who wants one today, 38 years later, should be able to grab it with no problem at all. But the costs for the two pieces we just saw that are very low mintage indicates they shouldn’t be too much harder to land. It certainly seems like there are some bargains to be had in this growing series of dollar coins. The challenge for us bargain hunters is to see just how many more might be out there. ◆