I just got back from the Chicago International Coin Fair at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Rosemont, IL.
There were about 100 vendors from all over the world including Germany, Switzerland, but mainly dealers and private sellers from the United States.
In this coin fair, I realized that coins are broken up into two different distinct categories of people. There are collectors and then there are investors. Collectors collect coins for the numismatic or the art value of the coin. This can include ancient coins, special coins, artistic coins, rare coins, etc. Coins are collected for the sake of the value that the market can bare. These types of coins are generally called numismatics.
Then there is coin bullion. Coin bullion is primarily bought and sold for the content. So if there is gold and silver content in the coin, the coin is sold usually at a small premium above what is called the spot price of the coin. The spot price is simply the value of the pure metal content of the coin. For example. The spot price of silver is about $43.05 right now for an ounce of silver. So, there were sellers in this fair that sold silver for about the spot price of silver per ounce.
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