For collectors of New Orleans and Carson City gold coinage, the Stack’s January 16-17, 2007 Americana auction offered an important selection of high grade coins. Billed as the Morgan Collection, these were pieces which I sold to a Midwestern collector between 1992 and 1999. Many were listed in the Condition Census in my books but had never appeared for sale at public auction.

Assuming you want to sell coins at auction, does it make a difference when you do? In my opinion, timing in the coin market is everything. Here are some tips about when to sell and when not to sell at auction. Traditionally, people have assumed that it made more sense to sell coins at auction during major conventions like FUN or ANA. In the past, this was definitely true.

To borrow from a Chinese Proverb, after this year’s FUN show it looks like we will be living during interesting numismatic times in 2007. I would give the FUN show a grade of B (or possibly a B+) on the Winter Coin Show Grading Scale. It wasn’t the best FUN show I’ve had but certainly not the worst. Most of the dealers I spoke with had similar mixed results.

If you ask ten knowledgeable people if coins are too cheap or too expensive, you’ll probably get ten different answers. I think certain coins are clearly too expensive but I think others are dirt cheap. Read on for my explanation. Coin prices depend a lot on perspective. I’ve been involved with coins since the 1970’s and in the market as a professional since the early 1980’s.

Remember when you were a kid and 6th grade took around two and a half years (or so it seemed) to complete? I guess the best sign of getting older is that your perspective of time changes completely. It literally feels like I was just at the 2006 FUN show a few months. Is it possible that we’re just a week or so away from the 2007 edition? As I’ve written before, FUN is one of my favorite shows.

Can you determine a market trend from one auction result? A few mixed results from a recent coin auction caused a number of clients to call me and ask me this question. My answer(s) were that, in each case, I did not feel that changes in the market could be determined from these results. Let me be more specific. In the November 2006 Heritage sale there was an 1845-O quarter eagle in NGC AU53 offered as Lot 1937.