In the past few years, I’ve noticed an interesting trend in relation to the pricing of rare date gold coins. I refer to this as “value compression.” Let me explain what I mean. When I mention this term I am referring to a small price premium between grades. The classic value-compressed issues have long been the Iowa and Roanoke commemorative half dollars.   
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A few weeks ago, I wrote an article that analyzed the recent population figures for Type One Dahlonega gold dollars. As I’ve done more research on gold dollars for my upcoming third edition Dahlonega gold book, I thought I would share the findings for the Type Two and Type Three issues. Read on for some interesting findings. 1855-D: I had originally estimated that 70-80 pieces were known to exist.   
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I recently received an email from a new collector with a subject line that was similar to the quotation that I titled this blog. At first I thought the question was obnoxious. Then I pondered it a little and realized that it was actually a pretty good question after all. So why is my current on-line inventory so small?   
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During the last few weeks I’ve had a similar conversation with a few new and more experienced collectors: what should I be collecting? I’ve found all the conversations that I have had with these collectors to have a similar unifying theme; at least from the standpoint of the collectors.   
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There are a few relatively unknown but numismatically significant varieties of early United States gold coinage that I think are likely to be included in comprehensive collections of these issues as they become more popular with collectors. Here are a few of the “secret” varieties that I would suggest collectors be on the lookout for. 1798 Close Date and Wide Date Quarter Eagles.   
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In their recently concluded January 2010 Americana sale held in New York, there were two record-setting Dahlonega gold coins that I think are worth taking a closer look at. What were these two pieces and why did they sell for as much money as they did? The first piece was an 1861-D gold dollar graded AU53 by PCGS. I had sold this exact coin a few years ago and was familiar with it.   
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