In a sense, you could ask the following question about any coin series. I am curious as to everyone's opinion as to why certain of the 1oz gold coins are more popular than others. Based upon the three dealers I check (US & Europe) and using buy back prices, the clear Series II winner is the 2010 Tiger. Least popular is the 2013 Snake. Based upon 2 of the 3 sites I check, the second most popular coin is the 2008 Rat/Mouse. The 2012 Dragon and the 2014 Horse appear to be the 3rd & 4th most popular coins of the series. Unlike Series I, each Series II 1oz gold coin is limited to a mintage of 30,000. Eliminating mintage, the remaining differences are design and the popularity of each animal. Tigers, mythical dragons & horses are popular creatures, but why the Rat? The Series I 1996 Rat has the second lowest mintage and is one of the least popular coins. Looking at the Series II designs, I would pick the Snake over the Rat. What is everyone's experience/perception of these coins?
I think 1st coin of any series tends to get a little more attention because of that place holder. 2008 is first of the 2 series and it is of course Year of the Mouse. The fact that the Mouse is less liked by most people in general compared to many of the other Lunar animals (myself NOT included), is the reason why the Tiger may be even more popular than the 2008 Mousies. I'm surprised Rabbit didn't beat Mouse for popularity. To each their own though. Personally, I'm a fan of Lunar rodents and if I were shopping for gold Lunar 2 series coins, I'd start with the 2008 Mouse. .
Being first in Series I didn't help the 1996 Mouse/Rat coin. My guess is that the Tiger leads because (a) it is a tiger and (b) it is a great design and my expectations are that the Dragon should eventually end up in second and the horse third. If the 2008 Mouse stays in second place, it will surprise me.
I simply suggested that it tends to help....not that it's guaranteed to boost its popularity. Just like lower mintage in a series tends to help but doesn't guarantee. In series 2, what other popular animals remain? Monkey? Dog? Rooster? That's not very good competition, eh? I'd say that the most popular animals have already come to pass. .
ML, that is what surprised me about the 1996 coin. First in series, second lowest mintage and still not popular. Normally, I can tell which coins are going to be the most popular, but the Lunar gold coins are still obvious. Dragon, Tiger & Horse coins will be the ones I buy the most of in Series III. Other than that, it will depend upon the design. barsenault, I agree the Monkey has a chance to be very popular, but I think that popularity will totally depend upon the design. Some potential for the Rooster and the Dog, but I don't see any hope for the Pig.
The suspense is killing me. Only question is will the PM raise the mintage limits and damage the Lunar series? I can easily see limits of 50-100k & 500k for the 1oz gold coins and silver coins. With the unlimited mintage of the other sizes, raising the limits on the 1oz coins makes no sense. But we are talking about the PM. Maybe the PM will surprise us with an announcement of no more privy coins for the lunar series?
hey dccpa, I'm looking forward to the Monkey, but you're right, the design will be key. I think the design is key with any issue...probably can't go wrong with horses, although some mints really came out with some doozies (bad). I don't like the tiger I coin, but LOVE the II. I LOVE the I horse, but I also LOVE the II. I agree, can't go wrong with the dragon, horse and tiger. I've loaded the boat with horses...1/2, 1, 2, and kilos. I'm still stacking and putting in storeage the kilo horses. I'd like 50 of those bad boys. I have a 100 of the 1 oz...and got them for a whopping 34.00, remember? hehhehe. Even with spot at 0 (hehehe), those have held up well. My kooks 1997 - 2008's, bougt a lot, when APMEX had a 'ton' for sale, are holding up just fine too. I'm glad I have no 'generic govt issued coins - eagles or maples,' or rounds. Stuck with the good stuff, and it paid off handsomely. I wonder if they'll stop the kooks this year, 25th. I hope so, those are getting a little monotonous...the birds are starting to look the same. Maybe they should do Austrailian horses. I'm sure they can come up with 25 such variations. LOL.
barsenault, For the monkey coin model, I am voting for King Louie. That monkey has style. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Louie#mediaviewer/File:KingLouie.jpg On the gold tigers, I like the SII version better, but I do like the SI. The PM will stop making kooks about a year after everyone stops buying them. It's about time for a two kook coin. I hope you are right about the horses, because a few weeks ago, I swapped 80oz of kooks/lunars for 130oz of horses. What was the price on the 2008 kooks when Apmex was selling the remints? Most of the other years had a $8 premium at $30 silver. I got a few, but $38 kooks didn't entice me much. And getting 20x bagged singles instead of a roll, stopped me from buying in quantity. Even in 2011, I got whole rolls of coins from Apmex, so I don't know when they started breaking all the rolls. There are at least 3 coins that I would like to buy more of right now, but only if I sell other silver to raise the cash first.
Funny. I don't think that monkey would do so good. I have a feeling I'll be buying a big chunk of the Monkey coins. The pig not so much. Hopefully the dog and rooster are great designs. That is great about the 130 oz of Horses. I don't think you can go wrong with those. That is the one coin I have most of. I don't count, but I'm probably up to 15 kilos on the horse (not including the 1 oz, 2 oz, 1/2, etc...). I was tempted to buy another 10 horses, but I'm going to diversify into 10 2014 Kilos. A bit more, but maybe a better chance of higher return with only 20,000 minted. I wonder how many Horse kilos will be minted. I'd imagine once the 'declared value' is reached (whenever that is), it will push 50,000 or more? I really do hope they stop the kooks, and move on to something different. I'm getting a little bored with the kooks. But I buy them because of the low mintage. Back when Apmex had the Kooks en mass, I bought only rolls. I think I bought 100 1996 no in rolls early on, and that was before I knew better, and mandated that from then on, all coins must be in perth mint rolls or I return them. I have nearly 200 (rolls) of the 2006 kooks, and about the same of the 2003, and 1995's, and many other years about 100 or more...90% are rolls of 20 tucked away in storeage. on manh of these I got great prices when spot was a lot higher (33 -35). There may have been some that had 8 premium, but I don't recall paying that much of a premium. Even so, with spot down to 17, those coins are still fetching a pretty penny. Oh, and I'm one of those crazy ones. I'm not selling diddly to make purchases. I'm using fresh greenbacks. Whenever I should get those dang 2014 gold superman coins that I already paid for with certified check to Talisman, I plan on selling 4 of the 6 and will roll the proceeds into my favorite coin...the kilo...probably the horse.
barsenault, I think we may be in different tax brackets. Last week, I sold another 50 1oz lunars, kooks & Rhinos and that money will go back into silver when I am presented with an offer I can't refuse or silver has bottomed. I have no clue what the Monkey coin will do. The amount of Monkey coins I buy will depend upon the premium first and the design second. With so many different types of monkeys, this coin has more potential than all the other 11 animals. We shall see what the designer creates. With all the horses you have, you may need to build a bigger corral. They won't stop the kooks until they quit selling. They could possibly morph the series into birds of Australia.
I have never and will never buy a privy mark coin...there's nothing appealing about owning one in my view. What's next, minting tens of thousands of additional of the same coins, having a shaman wave his hands over the pile of coins, then the mint claiming these coins are imbibed with special spirits and selling these non-special coins as if they were something worth owning in addition to the same coin you just purchased that wasn't waved over by the shaman? Privy marks are merely a cheap marketing gimmick in my view and add nothing of meaningful interest to a series. .
ML, I agree that privy marks are a cheap marketing gimmick. When I stated in early 2011 that I thought the PM would make 500k-1 million dragon coins, I was shown the mintage limit law. The privy dragons were the PM's way around the mintage limit. Then there were the colored dragons, the 9 coin set, etc. I wonder how many 1oz dragons coins the PM actually minted? While I am not a fan of the privy coins, I will buy them if the price is right and I think they will appreciate. So far, I only bought the 2012 kooks with dragon privy and that was because they were only about $4-5 over spot. Barsenault says they are appreciating, so I will keep an eye on them in the future.
