Even if Canada's hockey team wins gold, Olympic coins not a worthwhile investment
Filed under: Extracurriculars, Investing
The quarter-page ad in the New York Times caught my eye: "Final Year Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games Silver Dollar Just Released!"For as low as $24.95, I could have a silver dollar from Canada -- with a hockey player on it. Since I couldn't make it to Vancouver, it looked like an Olympic souvenir worth having. Or was it?
You'd think that a silver dollar would cost just that -- a dollar, even at current exchange rates. Why would anyone pay $24.95 for a silver dollar? I could buy a Loonie, Canada's dollar coin, for, oh, about $1.
But an Olympic souvenir like this is a "HUGE buying opportunity!" the ad shouted. Not really, I discovered after reading the fine print and talking with some Olympic coin collectors and sellers.
The Olympic coins are "manufactured/hyped collectibles," said collector Pablo Solomon, an artist who was taught by his parents how to find good collectibles and sell them for a profit.
"They are such poor quality and produced in such mass numbers that the only way that they would go up in value is if the factory burned down and melted all but about 10 coins and no more were produced," Solomon wrote in an e-mail.
Getting a famous Olympic star to sign the coin, and have your picture taken with the star signing the coin, might make it worth the original price in about 50 years, he said. A better investment is to buy a solid silver American coin from a reputable dealer for the $25 and it will go up over the years, he said.
And, to get the Vancouver Olympic coin for $24.95, the seller requires buying 100 coins, which adds up to $2,495 before shipping and handling are added. Buying one coin is $27.95.
The ad pushes it as an investment, saying that the first Olympic Games commemorative coin was issued by Finland in 1951 at a cost of about $13. It's now worth as much as $674, the ad says.
The ad's misleading, according to Dan Lynch, owner of San Jose Coin Shop for more than 35 years. The coin was made in 1951 and only 19,000 were struck, Lynch told WalletPop in an e-mail. There was no mass offering of the coins internationally. To assume that the Vancouver Olympic coin will go up so much in value is misleading.
Hundreds of other Olympic coins from dozens of countries were made in massive quantities and offered all over the world, and now sell for a fraction of their issue prices today, said Lynch, who sells the 1968 Mexico Olympic 25 peso coin for $10.
Canada has produced massive quantities of commemmorative Olympic coins that won't hold their value, he said.
As with many collectibles, the value of Olympic coins comes down to scarcity and demand, said Albert Fong, a coin collector in San Francisco. The Vancouver Olympic coins will likely stay affordable for a long time because so many are being minted, making them more suitable to enjoy collecting instead of as investments, Fong wrote in an e-mail exchange.
As an investment, I'll stick with the Loonie.
Aaron Crowe is a freelance journalist in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-25-2010 @ 8:26PM
Jim Fedullo said...
i have been coin collecting for approx 35+ years and have put a considerable amount of money into my pride and joy. it is a time involved hobby. i would tell people to buy cerified only, pcgs if possible, buy 1 hi-grade coin vs several low grade quality coins, look for low mintage & shop around for a best price. shop w/ reputable dealers and try to stay in one particular coinage dollars, halves, qtrs, dimes , nickels or pennys. put a good quality set together amd be prepared to hold onto it for awhile.this hobby can be very fulfilling , think of the history of your collection. never sell to a dealer, they take half the up front profit, sell on the internet by auction, you will do much better on the outcome. i have over 200k into my collection and still buying when i can find a good deal. i have made a few mistakes along the way, take your time, evaluate all of your possibilitys before purchasing anything, ck w/ the B,B,B, of the dealer before you buy from them, there are many shady dealers out there for every good one,
Reply
2-25-2010 @ 9:01PM
johnny oo said...
The price sounds about right with a slight mark up for profit.Depending on the amount of silver in the coin in ounces is how to tell. look up silver prices today and you will understand that this article is a complete joke.
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2-25-2010 @ 9:41PM
John padrick murry said...
i wouldnt buy one it is a scam.
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2-25-2010 @ 11:03PM
Andy said...
My Dad bought Canadian 5 and 10$ silver Montreal Olympic coins in 1973. He paid like 3 x the face value. I checked the prices not too long ago, and was not even offered face value by dealers. This is not a good investment by any strech of the imagination. The coins don't even have a face value!!
Buy gold.. silver or OLD coins... - or stock, bonds, and real estate...
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2-25-2010 @ 11:52PM
Adam said...
You all need to stop. You're telling me that those crappy Olympic Coins are a bad investment??? How can that be? They're from the Olympics, duh. They have to be worth a fortune in just a couple of years. The next thing you are going to tell me is that beanie babies are a bad investment.
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2-26-2010 @ 5:34AM
Al Schrader said...
I joined the US Olympic Shooting Team. Wonder if I'm worth something ? Alfred-
2-26-2010 @ 10:25PM
Gary W said...
Nice post Jim Fed.......
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2-26-2010 @ 2:11AM
Larry said...
Today silver closed at over $16.00, per troy ounce. These coins are advertised as silver coins, so they are silver. If these coins were advertised as Olympic Dollars, then they would be made of something other than silver. The silver olympic coins are .999 pure silver, then with the stamping and producing of these coins the price is actually pretty good.
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2-26-2010 @ 7:38AM
Scott F. Sedlazek said...
Canada has minted some beautiful coins through Their history, and this 2010 Olympic Silver Dollar is beautiful too! It is also a very well designed and well struck coin.
It is a bullion coin that contains 31.39 grams of 99.99% silver which if the fiet currency markets of the World collapse, its value will increase dramatically, but I hope that does not happen because it will be a real mess.
IT IS A BULLION COIN which means that the purchaser is buying silver bulion, and a pretty neat coin to remember the 2010 Olympics with for the price of two movie tickets and a box of Snow Caps. They need to mint a Michelle Kwon Olympic Gold Coin----That would be nice.
Actually, the coin does have some interesting numismatic value because this coin actually is different than all other Canadian coins in that the motto D. G. Regina ( By the grace of GOD ) has been replaced by the word Canada above Queen Elizabeth II 's likeness; therefore, this coin may be of interest to those " New World Order Collectors ". It is a market like every other market place, and with all of these conspiracy theorists out there hawking their goods, I can see these coins selling for a premium because of this. It is a major change. The root of something new.
Maybe Canada's Royal Mint needs to place some ads on he Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly Shows, but They are not conspiracy theorists especially that O'Reilly. But They can move tons of Silver Bullion Coins.
Thank You.
Scott F. Sedlazek
President
Virgin Cola (tm)
" FEED THE WORLD-ONE DAY AT A TIME (R) "
P.O. Box 11008
New Brunswick
New Jersey
08906
Reply
3-12-2010 @ 4:01PM
Kevin said...
The writer of this article did not do his research...these coins are simply Canada Silver Maples with some Olympic imagery in place of the standard maple leaf, and contain 1 troy ounce of .999 fine silver which is worth about 18$ at today's prices. They are a little nicer than the regular silver maples in my opinion, but they cost no more than a regular Maple. The Silver Maple is perhaps the most widely-held silver bullion coin in the world, and for good reason - the Royal Canadian Mint produces the highest-quality bullion coins in the world.
The original writer of this article is a moron.
3-19-2010 @ 12:09AM
WilliamG said...
1, The article described the Olympic coins as follow:
"They are such poor quality and produced in such mass numbers that the only way that they would go up in value is if the factory burned down and melted all but about 10 coins and no more were produced," Solomon wrote in an e-mail."
I respectfully disagree. Check out www.mint.ca to see the quality & craftmanship that goes into the Royal Canadian Mint's Vancouver 2010 coin collection. They may be terrible investments, but they certainly look good!
2. Also the article says:
"Canada has produced massive quantities of commemmorative Olympic coins that won't hold their value, he said."
This could be the case, but the Vancouver 2010 mintages for the $25 denomination silver coins are 45,000 per coin (15 different issues). The Calgary Olympic silver coins ($20 deonomination, 10 coins) had mintages of ~ 500,000 each. I would appear that the Canadian mint has tried to rectivy the "over-mintage" issue.
3. I agree with previous posts that the article incorrectly compared a "silver dollar loonie" with a bullion coin. A loonie isn't made of pure silver, thats why it only cost $1.00 CAD! The coin in question should be valued based on its silver content. I don't believe that the Royal Canadian Mint has issued a circulation loonie depicting a hockey player.
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