Proof Vs Regular Issue

[HeavyT]

Interested to hear views about which strike do people generally prefer to collect.

When starting out, I only went for regular issue as it's much to find higher grades in MS, and I got more of a buzz of tracking down high grade MS coins.

However, I've recently been drawn more to Proofs, mainly because of the better strike quality which makes for a more beautfiul coin, especially if they're Ultra Cameo. Proofs generally have lower mintage so there a fewer of them, which pushes the price up but it's much easier to find something like a PF65 compared to a MS65 of the same coin type.

What do you guys think? Perhaps a topic for Numi to consider for a future video looking at the pros and cons...

[AlphaBeast]

I think for most,  if not all, it comes down to price... 

However there are some proofs that stands out for me like the Queen's Beasts so I don't mind paying the premium for them. 

[daz]

Price of course is a massive factor , but for me it's the design if it's a cracking design I'll more than likely try to buy both .

[AlphaBeast]

I agree. Both QB bullion and proof are nice so I have bought both sets. 

[NewMSmatist15]

On 3/25/2018 at 07:24, HeavyT said:

Interested to hear views about which strike do people generally prefer to collect.

When starting out, I only went for regular issue as it's much to find higher grades in MS, and I got more of a buzz of tracking down high grade MS coins.

However, I've recently been drawn more to Proofs, mainly because of the better strike quality which makes for a more beautfiul coin, especially if they're Ultra Cameo. 

I'm the same way, I prefer the Business strike or circulation strike for most of my coins, but I do have the Queen's beast proofs. My take - the business strike coins are generally what is collected with older coins when people collect a series or type set. Also, it seems the varieties and errors are more often in business strikes coins which either makes these coin series more interesting or searching for those examples more fun.

Proofs, to me, are made specifically for a collector. So they're more expensive and even if lower mintage easier to find in high grades because of the care in which the mints strike the coins. As an example, the 2017 proof Britannia is fairly easy to see come up on eBay in PF 70. However, that same year for the business strike coin is often not seen in MS 70. So which coin is rarer? Well the proof clearly has less minted, but a higher percentage in "perfect" 70s whereas the business strike has hundreds of thousands minted, but only a hundred or so in MS 70. The proofs are better looking of course, and in this example the image changes annually on the Britannia proofs so it is still an interesting series.

It seems most modern proofs aren't that great and some are gimmicky - take a look at the reverse proof American Silver Eagle or the colorized proofs from Canada. I'm no smarter than the next SilverForum member, but I think it is smart to be picky with proof coins in your collection.