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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I’ve discussed how using previous auction records can be an extremely valuable asset in determining the current value of a coin. But there are instances when previous records can be misleading and they can keep a collector from making an intelligent buying (or selling) decision. When I recently attended the Heritage pre-ANA Platinum Night Sale, I was bidding both for my own account and for a number of clients.   
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A few years ago, I wrote an article entitled “The Warehouse Theory of Coin Investing.” The gist of this article was that there are certain coins that remain in such demand with collectors that a sound investment theory might be to stockpile attractive examples of these and work with a specialized dealer who could then, over the course of time, resell them to other collectors.   
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What a difference a year makes.   
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In my second State of the Market report, I look at the always popular area of Dahlonega gold and see what’s up with these coins. Dahlonega gold coins clearly remain the most avidly collected of the three southern branch mints. But this market has become very two-tiered in the past few years. Because of this market bifurcation, prices have fluctuated recently and two coins of the same date in the same grade can have wildly divergent values. 1.   
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The Atlanta ANA show was among the oddest coin conventions I have been to in many years. This show was, at times, an exercise in futility yet it featured crowds that were far greater than at any show in Atlanta since the heyday(s) of the great regional conventions that were held there back in the mid-1980’s. The pre-show activity was extremely strong with most dealers reporting very strong sales.   
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