Hanging Onto Franklin for Dear Life
Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2013 2:34 pmNo, this isn't a post about Henrysmedford's son, though you might be fooled by the title.
Years ago, back in late 2003 in fact, after I had begun to stack in the spring... with silver at $4.30 an ounce and gold at $322, I rapidly grew bored with plain old 90% junk. I mean, how many bags of it can you amass and still enjoy assembling multiple sets of each denomination? So, I began purchasing Franklin Mint sets, both .999 and .925 (sterling silver) ... just becuz... they are nifty. The detailed engravings on most of them, the marvelous depictions of historical men, women, and events, are enough to take your breath away if you're lucky enough to own a set or two... and if you've grown tired of decapitated presidents.
I figured back then, that if I was purchasing them for seventy to eighty percent of their melt value (common at the time) then I wouldn't be hurt holding onto them, despite the fact that they are somewhat despised in numie circles as tawdry "make-a-buck-off-the-unwitting-public" schemes, and that they are sterling, which somehow makes them harder to smelt than less pure junk silver? And thus less valuable? Meh... I'm not buying that. My reasoning hasn't changed since my original buys, and recent events have made my foresight then seem all the more prescient. Buying only pre-1980, and thus pre-Big Melt Silver, makes these limited edition sets even scarcer than one might easily assume from production numbers, or their frequency for sale on feebay. Some of these sets might actually be becoming downright rare!
Always the redheaded stepchild of stackers, drawing more revulsion than war nickels, these widely mocked sets may yet have their day in the sun. Consider two compelling reasons that this could occur.
1) Franklin Mint sets were never issued as currency, nor meant to circulate in any sense as pieces worth bartering. Thus they make an ideal form of silver for hoarding by the crafty as a coyote under the radar silver stacker who fears that confiscation of silver and gold could someday occur. Should that happen, do you really think they're coming after your Franklin Mint sterling silver set of mini-automobiles too? Really?
2) A wave of counterfeit coins (they've been around for a decade, but only recently seem to be getting acknowledged as they continue gaining more public exposure) is beginning to besiege the silver investment pool. Other threads have covered the extent of the production numbers and breadth of coin types being duplicated, but what they haven't discussed is what one may imply from these events, were one to employ a bit of critical thinking. What "coins" would be most likely to be scorned by the Chinese in their drive to profit by fabricating faux products? They will push with their main emphasis into producing the most "popular" type coins sought after by investors... Morgan's, ASE's, junk numies, etc. They WILL NOT try to imitate 200 piece Franklin Mint sets of locomotives, sailing ships, scenes from the American Revolution, etc, that few consider worth having, as they can MUCH more easily make coin by making coins.
And one more
3) You can always melt it down for its troy ounce content if there are no other buyers around that appreciate it for its own merits when it comes time for you to sell.
So... FM sets represent a hoardable form of silver, undervalued, frequently underpriced, and very possibly the least likely form of silver to ever be counterfeited or confiscated.
I don't think I'll sell mine anytime soon, thank you
Years ago, back in late 2003 in fact, after I had begun to stack in the spring... with silver at $4.30 an ounce and gold at $322, I rapidly grew bored with plain old 90% junk. I mean, how many bags of it can you amass and still enjoy assembling multiple sets of each denomination? So, I began purchasing Franklin Mint sets, both .999 and .925 (sterling silver) ... just becuz... they are nifty. The detailed engravings on most of them, the marvelous depictions of historical men, women, and events, are enough to take your breath away if you're lucky enough to own a set or two... and if you've grown tired of decapitated presidents.
I figured back then, that if I was purchasing them for seventy to eighty percent of their melt value (common at the time) then I wouldn't be hurt holding onto them, despite the fact that they are somewhat despised in numie circles as tawdry "make-a-buck-off-the-unwitting-public" schemes, and that they are sterling, which somehow makes them harder to smelt than less pure junk silver? And thus less valuable? Meh... I'm not buying that. My reasoning hasn't changed since my original buys, and recent events have made my foresight then seem all the more prescient. Buying only pre-1980, and thus pre-Big Melt Silver, makes these limited edition sets even scarcer than one might easily assume from production numbers, or their frequency for sale on feebay. Some of these sets might actually be becoming downright rare!
Always the redheaded stepchild of stackers, drawing more revulsion than war nickels, these widely mocked sets may yet have their day in the sun. Consider two compelling reasons that this could occur.
1) Franklin Mint sets were never issued as currency, nor meant to circulate in any sense as pieces worth bartering. Thus they make an ideal form of silver for hoarding by the crafty as a coyote under the radar silver stacker who fears that confiscation of silver and gold could someday occur. Should that happen, do you really think they're coming after your Franklin Mint sterling silver set of mini-automobiles too? Really?
2) A wave of counterfeit coins (they've been around for a decade, but only recently seem to be getting acknowledged as they continue gaining more public exposure) is beginning to besiege the silver investment pool. Other threads have covered the extent of the production numbers and breadth of coin types being duplicated, but what they haven't discussed is what one may imply from these events, were one to employ a bit of critical thinking. What "coins" would be most likely to be scorned by the Chinese in their drive to profit by fabricating faux products? They will push with their main emphasis into producing the most "popular" type coins sought after by investors... Morgan's, ASE's, junk numies, etc. They WILL NOT try to imitate 200 piece Franklin Mint sets of locomotives, sailing ships, scenes from the American Revolution, etc, that few consider worth having, as they can MUCH more easily make coin by making coins.
And one more
3) You can always melt it down for its troy ounce content if there are no other buyers around that appreciate it for its own merits when it comes time for you to sell.
So... FM sets represent a hoardable form of silver, undervalued, frequently underpriced, and very possibly the least likely form of silver to ever be counterfeited or confiscated.
I don't think I'll sell mine anytime soon, thank you
It was a commemorative round celebrating the year 2000...
They only buy plasma ever so often, y'know. 