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Do you know of anyone who attempted to "corner the market" on a particular coin or series?
braddick
Posts: 23,127 ✭✭✭✭✭
Whether they were successful or not.
For example, someone with nearly unlimited resources purchases every single Chain cent on the market. After five years, will Chain cents still be relatively available? Is it possible with any coin to own enough to affect the market?
peacockcoins
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The main one I can think of that sort of fits that description was Russ with his dot head Kennedys back in the days. I vaguely remember he was able to influence the population reports when he cracked some out and turned in the labels all at once or something like that. Only I think they weren’t attributed as to the variety, just high grade dcams for that date. It was something like that
Mr_Spud
ya
I had over 50 1911 $2 1/2 Indians at one point. That’s about as close as I came, lol.
Wait. What?
Why?
Sounds like a great story...
peacockcoins
Yes, I am trying to corner the market for a certain type of foreign banknote. Luckily it doesn't require deep pockets.
I've bought all but one that has appeared on ebay in the past several years, except for a few that I already owned.
Here's someone who owned 53 specimens of the 1909 VDB Matte Proof Lincoln Cent.
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/928292/collector-owns-53-1909vdb-matte-proof-lincoln-cents-with-link-to-cw
Here's a TrueView of this issue, but not sure if this was part of the hoard.
I'm trying to corner the market on high grade nicely toned 1943-D Mercs but have a ways to go. I only have the three below. Based on what's in Coin Facts, I have about 5 to go but I am sure there are more. Lol, just kidding.
I do remember that 1909 VDB MPL story though. That was an impressive undertaking.
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
Not with coins (yet) but I have seen it with certain autographs. Unfortunately it makes me wanting an example next to impossible to obtain unless I want to spend thousands of dollars.
I knew a guy who was constantly buying 1938-D Walkers in better MS grades.
This issue was saved in large numbers, so I doubt that he had an impact.
“I may not believe in myself but I believe in what I’m doing” ~Jimmy Page~
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947)
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
Also interesting to note that when the person who tries/tried to corner the market on a particular coin decides to liquidate their collection (or dies) that small hoard will temporarily flood the market causes prices to crash.
I remember when I wanted to sell a 1955 Doubled Die cent there must had been at least twenty other examples for sale at a small coin show (20-30 dealers). This was in like 2015. No idea why this was because the one I had was in a collection for decades and not part of any recent liquidation.
Not with legal tender but the Franklin Mint put out a commemorative for my original hometown. I’ve snapped up every one in original packaging I’ve seen. Some of them only have a mintage of <600 so I probably have a sizable amount of them in original packaging.
TurtleCat Gold Dollars
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/339630/when-was-the-1844-seated-dime-hoard-dispersed
Sol Kaplan tried to corner the market on 1956 proof sets.
A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.
A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.
Back in March of this year Julian Coin had this listed on ebay.
This unprecedented hoard of 150 165-year-old 1856 Upright 5 Gold Dollars features two rare PCGS MS-65 specimens and 7 MS-64 specimens, 4 graded by PCGS and 3 by NGC. 37 pieces are CAC stickered. This hoard is estimated to represent approximately 50% of the surviving population of this original Red Book variety and the first year of the Type 3 gold dollar.
The reason this variety is so scarce is due to the fact that it was only minted during Q-4 of 1856 as this variety represents the US Mint's standardization of date logotype on the reverse of the U.S. gold dollar. In 1857, all date logotypes for all denominations of US coinage went upright in non-italic format.
Also, I recall around 2003, Stack's Bowers had an auction catalogue filled with the Hawaiian commemorative half dollar. I had just bought mine the year before. Of course none had green or gold stickers.
I have a hoard of FR02 Hawaiian Commems. If I get another one I’ll have 2. 😁
Lafayette Grading Set
I think Izzy cornered the market on 33 saints. That unfortunately didn’t work out well
Martin
Registry or condition census numbers may be close to that; but it isn't a "need" so collectors can always wait. If someone had a large group of 70-cc $20s and refused to sell unless the numbers went up, they may get a narrow enough bottle neck to demand considerably more for those looking to complete sets.
I kind of inadvertently did a few years back. I fell in love with the Thomas Elder 1909 Hudson-Fulton gold SCD, HK-371, DeLorey 75:
Estimates were maybe 20 survivors.
I set off to find the first example I'd seen many years ago (I think it was @keets). When I couldn't find it, I purchased a really nice NGC MS64 example.
And then I finally found that elusive MS68 example, which was then the pop top.
Except that I found it right after I'd purchased the PCGS pop top MS67 
. So I had three. And then I bought another 64, in addition to the pop top of the other small gold SCD from the series.
Armed with the two TPG pop tops, and two beautiful but slightly lesser examples, for what was then maybe 20% of the surviving examples, I geared up to buy any and every example I could find going forward. Literally hoarding them.
And then something clicked.
As much as I love this series, there is just no reason to own more than one example. Let alone the finest examples from both TPGs. And that was really a turning point for me, when I started to see the logic in a "Box of 20" philosophy on collecting. The more I thought about it, the more I realized: This Is The Way.
I've since sold one 64 example, and I'm happy that someone has recently made at least one NGC MS69, which probably means there are more examples out there to be discovered. And I've essentially completed the run of this series, with the bronze, aluminum, and silver examples, too:
--Severian the Lame
Incidentally, that MS69 example is available. As my man Ferris says: If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up...
https://rmcoin.com/product/1909-ngc-ms69-ny-hk-371-hendrik-hudson-daalder-hudson-fulton-celebration/
--Severian the Lame
I made an attempt to 'corner' the market on Doilys back when the Census has about 145 listed. I had about 110 of them. The attention I was drawing to the slab drove so many out of 'gramp's safety deposit box(s)' that I could not keep up. Then the plastic craze hit full force. My NGC 2.1s and 2.0s went from $190 to $2k . . . . and I sold my Doilys about 1 year too early !!!
Oh well . . . . . it was fun being the starter of something . . . . . . .
Drunner
my grandfather did in the vintage/antique tools market with a certain type of hammer. my mom tells a story of him walking through a regional show, and seeing one. my grandfather was a blue collar type, and the dealer was rude when asked about the specimen for sale. he implied that it was one of 3, and likely out of his reach. my grandfather replied, sure I am a aware I own the other two and I will buy this one too.
Whenever this topic comes up, I respond as follows:
I think a lot of people imagine themselves making a killing by hoarding some rare coin and then holding the market hostage as they release them 1 by 1 for huge prices, buy a large luxury yacht and retire at age 41 in the tropics with a young Tahitian girl who wears a bra made of two seashells.
The reality is that most people who do try to hoard pick items that aren't that rare, they buy examples of the coins enthusiastically for a while, then realize that corning the market on some of this stuff is impossible and ridiculous and not that much fun and so they give up, but when they do give up they just unload everything all at once and take a huge bath trying to liquidate 100 of something at one time, which is no longer a hoard but a glut.
Coin Rarities Online
I have collected about 150 PL business strikes 1938 to 1970 (28 are war nickels with a complete set) over the last 31 years, a few are FS. Our host has graded about a dozen. Does this count?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU4C8GbFdJM&feature=emb_title
Leo
I should add; I'm not attempting to corner any market.
The more qualities observed in a coin, the more desirable that coin becomes!
My Jefferson Nickel Collection
Any idea what happened to this “hoard”?
I bought and sold a ton of $2 1/2 coins, and I was always paranoid I was going to inadvertently sell a 1911-D weak D, so I just never sold any of the 1911’s 😂 I did end up cherry picking three weak D’s from the group, and eventually sold the rest off (I still have two of the weak d’s though. I have a picture somewhere with a roll of them.
Found the pics
peacockcoins
I took a submission once from someone who had inherited their father's (or father-in-law's) coin collection. They had accumulated a quantity of 1883 to 1886 3-cent nickel pieces, and had 30+ pieces of each date, with a binder of 2X2's for each date. There were about 50 1885's which I believed were business strikes, which meant I had .05% of the total mintage of 1000 in front of me. The person who accumulated the collection in the 50's - 70's believed, based on the mintages, that they would be valuable one day.
Correction- that was 5% of the total mintage.
At one time wasn't Julian buying up all the 1999 w $5/$10 AGEs "struck with unpolished dies?"
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Debt
I think that would be 5%.
I'd be hoping they were coconut shells.
But otherwise, your scenario is probably on target for many market cornering attempts.
Yes! I was never great at math
What about the person that went after the sac/quarter mules? Anyone have an update on those?
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
Who is Ferris? Is he the “Big Wheel” of SCD’s?
Steve
My collecting “Pride & Joy” is my PCGS Registry Dansco 7070 Set:
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/type-sets/design-type-sets/complete-dansco-7070-modified-type-set-1796-date/publishedset/213996
About 15 years ago there was guy who was buying up all the 1972-P Ty 2 Eisenhower Dollars he could find. He did this for about 3 years and finally gave up on cornering the market. I think he had about 50 pcs at his height of buying.
I was thinking of this collector too. This is Tommy Bolack of New Mexico with more info here. I believe he had a good dealer relationship with @FredWeinberg.
https://www.coinworld.com/news/us-coins/collector-now-owns-12-of-16-known-mule-errors.html
Never tried such a thing with coins. I do have a custom Colt 1911 that is one of a kind. Cheers, RickO
There were certain scarcer large cent dates that I liked and bought when I saw them…..but after getting ~5 of each I wearied of them and have since dispersed most of them.
OTOH, I’d reported previously on the forum about a dealer friend who loves the low mintage ‘13S Barber dimes. I assumed he’d stopped or leveled off a while ago as I hadn’t heard about them. Nope, in a recent conversation he said he had around 4000 now….
I am trying to corner the market on something, but I'm not sure anyone cares!
At one time, I had 6 examples of a Michigan CWT that was listed as R-7 (11-20 known), but I strongly suspect the actual population was higher. Only have 2 now, sold the rest
As I read through this thread I thought to myself.... hmmm do I know of anyone? The only example I could think of was back about 20 years ago I met someone at a coin show and they talked about hording the '13S Barber dimes. So maybe we have that same person in mind.
Why do people comment that those who corner the market will lose their shirt when they sell all at once.
Any smart market maker will very slowly release a hoard of coins so that it will not be or hardly be noticed.
Terry Brand was hoarding 1794 halves, prices took a dive when they were all dumped onto the market at about the same time. I think it was 2018 or so?
Actually, I can think of one dealer that appears to corner the market on certain eye appealing errors. Every time I see one, there’s a high probability it’s in his inventory 😉
Yes. I know of one person. I don't know their name, but I call them Super Moron Idiot.
I was trying to complete my set of New Orleans Seated Half dollars abut 15 years ago.
The last coin I needed was an 1852-O. I was hoping for a straight graded coin in anything from AG-3 to F-12. That was my price range.
Lucky for me about 7 coins came up for auction in a 2 year period. Unlucky for me, no matter what I bid, I always lost. I won't lie. On more than one occasion I got caught up in the heat of the auction and way overbid. Still I lost.
Then one day I was searching E-Bay for 52-O halves and found a site with over 10 coins.
The cheapest coin was an AG-3 for 1,500 dollars. The coins went up to Fine-15 and the prices went as high as 6,000 dollars. Many coins looked familiar. I did some research and was able to identify 7 coins I had bid on and lost. In every case he had tripled the price of the winning bid.
I checked on his site for about 2 and a half years. I never saw a single coin sell. Then I lost interest. It is my sincere wish that Super Morn Idiot now lives in a van down by the river.
A lot of the time it’s families divesting an inheritance who have no clue.
I vaguely remember a time when 1809 dimes and 1807 CBH's couldn't be found
Early American Copper, Bust and Seated.
I know about the 13-S Dimes. Let's not forget about the Little Orphan Annie Dimes.
Just like the 1794 Halves, the Little Orphan Annies were sold in the same manner by Heritage. Way too many at a time in an auction over multiple sales to ever have a hope to maintain their value!
A very well-known coin dealer back in the mid to late 70s, was trying to corner the market on proof
Type 2 silver war nickels. As I recall, they were successful - the coins tripled in price,
but I am not aware of how they were eventually dispersed.
for PCGS. A 49+-Year PNG Member...A full numismatist since 1972, retired in 2022
Specifics elude me. It's been awhile since I perused David Lange's Lincoln Cent book.
He stated that someone tried to purchase the entire mintage of 1931-S Lincoln Cents (all 866,000 pieces).
If someone has the book, they can look it up. Mine is hiding from me at the moment.
Pete