The early gold commemorative series is another that has followed the market trend of steadily softening values. Even though it’s a short series, there are a couple of stoppers: the high-priced round and octagonal $50 Panama-Pacific issues. But because they are also much larger than the rest of the coins in this series – the much smaller one and two-and-a-half dollar denomination issues – the fifties are often left out of collections of this short series.

Of course, the early gold commemorative series has also suffered from its association with the early silver commemoratives and their long-stumbling market. The dominant question has been: How much longer can prices for early commems continue to drift lower before the market gets interested in them again, forcing a turnaround?