Happy New Year from The Reeded Edge!

It’s that time of year again when we reflect back on the previous year and all that went with it. In retrospect, this has been a challenging year, as the coin market at times, struggled to maintain its footing. There were some areas, such as silver dollars, that were largely stable throughout the year. Other areas were more volatile. Coin shows were hit and miss, with most of the larger shows performing well. Another important distinction was that most of the market challenges emanated from the wholesale sector. Cash flow was a major concern for dealers either with too much debt, stagnant inventory or both. This created a trickle-down effect that had an impact on the more solvent dealers. The one constant throughout the year was collector demand. Most collectors were either oblivious or unconcerned by the nuances of the wholesale sector. Overall, our business in this sector actually was up from 2016. We anticipate continued resilience from collectors, as most economic and financial indicators are up, pointing to more disposable income available for their numismatic needs.

A more troubling issue, one which we hope to see corrected in the upcoming year, concerned information and how it was disseminated. As most of you are aware, Coin Dealer Newsletter (CDN) also known under the acronym Greysheet, adjusted reported levels of U.S. coin values (mostly downward) throughout the year. Although there were some areas in need of this adjustment, there were others that were not. Their across-the-board interpretation of the coin market was at times erred and flawed. Since so many operatives in our business derive their information and valuations from CDN, there was quite a bit of negativity and reluctance to do business on their parts. This was especially true of the smaller dealers and storefront shops, that may not have had access to the additional pricing indexes and information available to the larger dealer contingent. This created a dichotomy, and one that in our opinion, was TOTALLY avoidable. We hope that CDN takes a more diligent and responsible approach to reporting in 2018, and realizes that their actions do have consequences.

We want to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a Happy New Year. We hope that 2018 brings with it the fruit of each of your goals, aspirations and dreams. F.U.N. in Tampa next week will serve as the numismatic kick-off to 2018, and we are very optimistic that it will get things off to a great start. We will have more on this show later in the week. Until then, enjoy your holiday season, and thank you for all of your support throughout this year.