Bluesheet: EARLY WALKERS & SLQ’S A BRIGHT SPOT IN THE MARKET

In this week’s Bluesheet, we’ve reviewed early Walkers (pre-1920) and the entire Standing Liberty Quarter series, and it’s clear that these two series are among the hottest series in the certified U.S. coin market at this time. The numbers on pages 6 and 11, respectively, speak for themselves. A further observation on our part is that the differential between the Blue and Greysheets for these two series is also tightening. The explanation for this is most likely collector demand. The better dates of both series are quite difficult to find in dealer inventories, especially in the grades covered by the Bluesheet.

Full head Standing Liberty quarters are especially challenging and many of the key dates have been on dealer wantlists for quite a while. An impressive 22 of 38 different issues in the SLQ series see pluses this week in the MS67 FH grade. Eighteen of 38 see pluses in MS66 FH. A few minuses are seen throughout, but they are the exception in this case. Even more surprising is that we feel there is more room for gains in both of these series as we await more inventory to come to market.

In the Walker series, we’ve actually overlooked even stronger auction numbers from a couple recent auctions because the levels appeared to be outliers (too high in this case). What’s interesting is that if future auction results confirm the values of recent activity we will see more price increases as a result.

GOLD TYPE COINS IMPROVING WITH HIGHER BULLION PRICES

It’s not unusual for so-called “generic” gold to follow the bullion market. We’ve now witnessed several straight weeks of positive gains for the yellow metal and investor confidence is slowly moving beyond the skeptical stage to greater confidence as buyers believe the current run may indeed have legs. Double eagles are moving up and, as reported in the Greysheet, bidders for CAC coins are reporting a shortage in supply for CAC-approved gold coins. The market bids for CAC coins are indicated on the Greysheet publications where applicable.