20 years ago, on Sept 11 the world stopped. In a sense, for many, it even collapsed. It happened after planes crashed into the World Trade Center twin towers and the Pentagon. Another suicide plane, Flight 93 – believed destined to destroy the White House or US Capital – was taken down in a field in Pennsylvania thanks to brave passengers who overpowered the hijackers.
Our world has come to a stop before. It did in 1939/40 when Hitler tried to conquer Europe and killed six million Jews and other citizens in the process. So too between 1975 and 1979 when Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge murdered two million Cambodians. Sadly, the earth has stopped many times in similar circumstances over the past several thousand years....
In the worst of those times there are some who try to profit. It happened in 2001/2002 during the cleanup of the twin towers. There were many stories of what searchers found in the rubble. Some reports told of mountains of cash. Others were of safe deposit boxes filled with treasures. Most stirring were tales of stacks of gold or silver bars or bags of precious metal coins. All of those were mostly the thing of fantasy.
I recall seeing ads for special coins struck from silver ingots found in the basement of one of the towers. The “coin” sold for about $30 and were advertised to be “sanctioned by the US Government.” The ad suggested proceeds would go to help rebuild the towers. Virtually none of that was true – even that of the silver coming from the World Trade Center.
First, these were not coins. Because they were not “legal tender” they were technically tokens. Some of those tokens contained primarily copper with a silver coating. Second, they advertised the coating was less than 200 micrograms. An online conversion calculator I found said ten million micrograms is equal to one third of an ounce. Ten million? That means the value of a paltry 200 micrograms is essentially zero. That pretty much says it all. Experts put the value of the coin at barely 25-cents. Another 9/11 commemorative “coin” even had a pop-up image of the twin towers.
The thing is, we humans are a sentimental sort. We tend to place extra value on things with rounded anniversaries such as 10, 20, 25, 100, etc. Case in point – 2009 was the 50th anniversary of the lunar landing by the Apollo 11 space mission. After returning, Neil Armstrong – the first human to set foot on the moon – signed a goodly number of autographs on envelopes, etc. He abruptly stopped in 1994 when he realized people only wanted to profit from his signature.
Prior to that anniversary, an Armstrong autographed envelope with a lunar landing postage stamp affixed might sell for $1,000. When that 2009 50th anniversary rolled around, the price for Armstrong’s autograph on an envelope jumped to $3,000. Some went for as high as $5,000. Now, with that significant anniversary in the rearview mirror, the price has settled in the neighborhood of $1,200.
With the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 disaster upon us, it’s not surprising that some may try to again profit from it. Collectible coin/tokens are especially rife for this. Happily, legitimate collectible coins are just that, legitimate. Those are in high demand.
The one-ounce “American Liberty” gold coin I recently wrote about and just issued by the US Mint had a limited issuance of only 12,500. Even with a hefty price tag of over $2,700, it sold out in mere minutes. Collectors are now paying a hefty premium for it.
This week, the Mint has another release, a two-coin set of Reverse Proof Silver Eagles. They too don’t commemorate anything but are limited to an issuance of 125,000. That’s ten times the number of that aforementioned gold American Liberty coin issued last month. Nevertheless, silver Eagles are in high demand. That set is also expected to sell out within minutes of being placed on sale by the Mint. The price is $175. Some dealers are already offering $275 – an instant $100 profit for those lucky and quick enough to buy them.
The bottom line is simple – actual coins issued by the US Mint have a built-in base of demand. Right now, much like houses, people are paying top-dollar for high-quality collectible US coins. It’s just critical to recognize which ones are legitimate versus which might also collapse.
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