Gold Reaches Record High

Once again, rare coins offered through an auction have demonstrated just how strong the demand for high-end collectibles really is. Several rare-date cents that were certified to be in unusually high conditions set new records during November. Among these was an 1856 Flying Eagle cent graded Professional Coin Grading Service MS-66 with a CAC sticker that realized $343,125. A PCGS 65 Red graded 1955 doubled die Lincoln cent more than doubled the previous record for such a cent set 22 years earlier.

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Record prices aren’t the exclusive realm of rare coins. The gold coin market made everyone sit up recently, with gold setting a new $2,000-plus spot price record before backing off modestly, likely due to profit-taking. The price of gold commemoratives, circulation strike gold coins, and gold American Eagle coins jumped in tandem with market prices for bullion, with demand for these coins increasing as might be expected. The spot price of bullion silver rallied as well, boosting the price of intrinsically valued circulation strike coins, ingots, and silver American Eagles.

In other good news, the question of whether cash is still king appears to have been answered by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The BEP set a new record for printing $50 bank notes last year, with a total of more than 756 million having been produced. The $50 denomination represented 3.5 percent of all U.S. notes in 2019, but in 2022, the denomination represented 8.5 percent. According to the Federal Reserve Service, people have started saving more money, and it's apparently more convenient to save that money in higher-denomination bank notes. So much for the United States inevitably becoming a cashless society.

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