Home U.S. Coin Forum

What is it about key dates and being engraved?

I feel like I see more key dates that are engraved than common dates, is there a logical reason for this?
Also I get so enfuriated when I see a key date that is engraved, the damage haunts me. On the bright side it can be more affordable to a collector.

What brought this up today? Ive been looking for an 89CC for the collection and came across this one. hopefully the carver was born in 1886. :p

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1889cc-Morgan-Silver-Dollar-Cull-With-Birthday-Graffiti-Key-Date/143939665523?hash=item218378fe73:g:0CMAAOSwMa9gGvVF

End of rant

Comments

  • braddickbraddick Posts: 22,514 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Most for that date/mm under $300. are totally trashed. That one isn't as bad as others.

    peacockcoins

  • ChrisH821ChrisH821 Posts: 6,179 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 7, 2021 8:40PM

    Who would bother to re-engrave a common coin unless for practice?
    Edit- just realized we are talking about engraving, not re-engraving.

    Collector, occasional seller

  • CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 31,256 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Mr_Spud said:
    Maybe being a key date kept it out of the melting pot? Maybe common dates with graffiti got melted long ago?

    Exactly

    Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
  • bfjohnsonbfjohnson Posts: 521 ✭✭✭

    I think I know what day it was engraved 🙄

  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Some engraved coins (key or not) are attractive... Others not so much. A key date (such as the OP) is worth keeping though....Cheers, RickO

  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 44,840 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Let's not forget that when these coins were engraved they were nothing more than pocket change worth only face value rather than rare and valuable "key dates".

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.

  • CatbertCatbert Posts: 6,264 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Life is short. Being infuriated over an ebay advertisement is first world problem angst.

    "Got a flaming heart, can't get my fill"
  • HydrantHydrant Posts: 7,773 ✭✭✭✭✭

    What jmlanzaf said.

  • HydrantHydrant Posts: 7,773 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @NSP said:
    As Mr_Spud said, many of the common date graffitied coins found their way to the melting pot years ago. There’s a strong incentive to save a rare date with graffiti, but not common dates with graffiti, so graffitied rare dates seem to be over-represented. Most likely all dates had an equal chance of being graffitied.

    This is similar to what was discovered with damage patterns on bombers in WWII. The military noticed that damage on returning planes seemed to be clustered in certain areas, while damage in other areas was never observed. Based on this, they thought that they would be best served to increase the armor protection on the areas where the most damage was seen. However, a statistician noted that the analysis was only based on surviving planes, and planes with damage outside of the commonly observed areas never actually made it home because the damage was too critical to survive. Therefore, it was ultimately decided to increase the armor where no damage was observed.


    (Image from Wikipedia)

    Very,VERY, interesting.

  • @NSP @Mr_Spud
    Ahh So survivorship bias. very interesting read, thanks for the article about the WW2 airplanes. Things make more sense now.

Leave a Comment

BoldItalicStrikethroughOrdered listUnordered list
Emoji
Image
Align leftAlign centerAlign rightToggle HTML viewToggle full pageToggle lights
Drop image/file