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PCGS Colonial Price Guide
Colonialcoin
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Out of curiosity, how often do prices in the PCGS colonial price guide get adjusted? It seems like it would be a difficult undertaking as one could lay out a group of say state copper and have them graded by dealers and/or collectors from VG to VF due to strike, flaws, color, surface, etc.
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Agree that colonials seem to be a bit more "all over the place", for the reasons you stated, plus "etc.". At least that's what auction records seem to tell me. Not that colonials are alone in this regard, but I think that "buy the coin" takes on more significance with colonials. I note that CAC no longer looks at colonials, perhaps for similar reasons.
I sure agree with you that auction records are all over the map. One really needs to be on top of this market. Basically buy the best you can afford.
As you mentioned, the "non-grade attributes" matter immensely in valuing colonial coins. Not only that, how each collector places value on each attribute is different. For example, for me centering is a big deal...for others, it might not matter near as much...it's personal taste. Things like this make it difficult to come up with a realistic "guide" price.
You probably have checked out the beautifully centered pine tree shilling in Heritage's next auction, lot #1. Will no doubt sell for a big premium. Just bought a well-centered Pitt token, took me a bit of searching. Like you, I like to see all of the coin or token.
A difficult undertaking, indeed, since there is a huge variation in quality of coins that have a certain amount of wear. Prices most likely reflect a middle-of-the-road, market acceptable, problem free coin. Coins that are exceedingly nice or wholesome will bring a much higher number. Perhaps @CoinRaritiesOnline wishes to comment, as I believe he has input into this price guide.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Excellent points here, and one can certainly see the difficulty of such an undertaking, but I too am interested in knowing how often the guide is updated.