PQ defined and hot gold by Dean Albanese Hello and welcome to our latest market report. Last week was Baltimore and it was pretty active, I walked only dealer day to cherry pick as many coins as possible. As you know we keep our website current with all of the PQ coins we can find. Now, some people use the term PQ pretty loosely, but I cannot use it unless I truly believe it is Premium for the grade given. PQ means Premium Quality of course. But what gives it this meaning is the technical part which only someone who has the eye and skill to grade a coin can give it. PQ to me means if I were looking at a coin such as our 1923-D Saint in MS66 we say it's "a super PQ++++ Coin." That means to me I grade it a MS66 POINT 8, near MS67. Not quite a MS67 but darn close, as high as it can get without being over graded. The coin has to be worthy of the description and using that in a description should tell you how the dealer sees coins. As I skimmed through boxes of coins I picked out the best coins available and there were not too many, but the ones I picked were just about all PQ, so you can say I "cherry picked" the floor. For Proof Gold, wow it is scarce now more then ever. I only found some Proof Gold Dollars and Quarter Eagles and was lucky enough to find 2 Eagles with one being impaired. Proof Gold is skyrocketing in price and the market right now is white hot with no signs of slowing or lowering, trust me on this! We have two amazing pieces on the front page right now that we were lucky enough to get back from a collector who made out great on them. We bought the 1867 Eagle back for 15 Percent in under a year, not bad for that investment. But these coins are going to go for way more in years to come. Look at the 1885 Double Eagle we have in PF67 Cameo!!!!! There are none on the market, do you know why? They are scarce, scarce, scarce, and those who do have them are holding onto them because of the investment side. The other reason is I'm sure a lot of collectors keep these as they would an original Van Gogh painting, for its history and beauty. These people don't need the money. Generic gold is surging to new high levels, this is a good week to purchase all you can I would say with the price of bullion just slipping a little. I'm sure it will rise way higher again. Have a great holiday and enjoy all the new images and stories of coins on the Albanese site! Dean M. Albanese, CEO, Albanese Rare Coins, Inc. Dean's father David Albanese is a Nostomania coins advisor. They can be reached at their outstanding web site. Visit our Coin News Archive.