In the past, we have highlighted the fact that the volume of posted dealer bids on the electronic exchanges has significantly decreased over the past five years. This reflected a change in the business model of the coin dealer in response to a much more complicated market. These complications stem from a multi-tiered price structure in which the same coin in the same grade can trade at varying levels, which at its core is an issue with grading. While this has always been the case-a premium coin will always bring above market-the spreads were getting more extreme. Thus, the reluctance to post bids in order to protect oneself became a reality. Dealers do not have the confidence to post a bid if most of the coins they receive are not buyable; it is a waste of both time and money. Additionally, the volume of coins offered at auctions continues to increase, such that dealers may find ample supply without having to post buy bids. For us as pricing editors, a problem arises when realized prices at auctions begin to fall consistently. We do not have these dealer bids to support the wholesale prices, so we are forced to lower the numbers to the transactions that we see.

In this light, a welcome development we have observed this week is that the Heritage wholesale department has begun to post an increased level of bids on CDN Exchange, to support the areas in which they deal. The majority of the bids are for sight-unseen NGC coins in a wide range of areas from type coins to dated gold issues.

Heritage is one of, if not the largest, wholesale dealers in the country and the liquidity provided by an increased number of bids is certainly a positive for buyers and sellers alike. It is hoped that other wholesale market makers follow suit by providing support to the market.

THIS WEEK’S MARKET

Gold Type:

Precious metals have certainly been a bright spot recently, as metals have risen over the past week. Gold is now approaching the $1,350 level, a price not seen since November of last year post-election. Silver has broken through the $18 per ounce level. There are many factors that are simultaneously causing this price action. These include the dual natural disasters of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, the ongoing crisis with North Korea, poor recent unemployment data, and uncertainty about the long-term Federal debt ceiling. All of this has also pressured the U.S. dollar, which has weakened in recent trading. All of this has pushed up generic gold prices.

Morgan & Peace Dollars:

This week we continue with the re-pricing of Morgan dollars through 1889 with CAC prices broken out from non-CAC. The CAC values from 1878-1889 can be found on our web site until the entire process is completed. The Peace dollar series has been re-priced completely (in print) starting with this issue.

New pricing added this week: MS64 CAC, MS65 CAC, MS66 CAC for Peace Dollars & MS61 for U.S. Gold Type. More grades can be found for all series at:www.greysheet.com/coin-prices