The trouble with "just missed" pop tops.
cladking
Posts: 28,668 ✭✭✭✭✭
There is some apparently good advice which is often cited around here about the
great values to be found in the "just missed" grades. It may well be a good idea
to pay small fractions of pop top prices for coins that are very nearly as good. But...
At least some moderns may not truly exist in "just missed" grades. You either have
to buy one of the best knowns or drop back two or three grades to something that's
easier to find. Take a 70-S nickel for example. I don't know about the availability of
these gems in BU rolls since I've never seen one from a roll that even came close to
gem. Indeed, in the many rolls I've seen only a few coins might go MS-61! Maybe
somewhere out there is a bag of full step gems, but for the sake of argument let's
assume for a minute that there are not. This leaves the mnt sets. Most of the coins
in the mint sets are none too pretty either. There is an occasional nearly mark free
example, but these will be almost universally poorly struck. And on the few coins that
you can see any steps the coin will be dinged up. About every 1,250th 70-S from a mint
set will be in a class by itself. These were probably all struck by the same new die. It's
PL and has full steps (or nearly) and is well alligned. Each example I've seen is very free
of marks. Surely this die must have made some lower grade coins as it wore out, but I've
never noticed one. This leaves a wide gap between the best 70-S nickels and the 2nd
best. Even if this coin proves not to be an example of a coin without "just missed" coun-
terparts, there are other contenders.
Tempus fugit.
0
Comments
Take the 1970(d) nickel as a example. I personally graded the MS65FS coin earlier this year and right before that the MS64FS coin became available on the market. Frank grabbed it as quickly as it was offered to him. Here is an example of a "just missed" pop top that 100% supports what you are saying. That coin is HUGE to serious nickel collectors in the MS64FS grade. The coin would also be huge in the MS63FS grade without question. Hence, the undergrade coins are both "trouble" (as you put it) and possible "treasure"
Are you a plastic pimp?
Wondercoin
[Edited for forum decorum]
I think I'll add that to my sig.
> At least some moderns may not truly exist in "just missed" grades.
That's an odd situation that I've not come across.
I 've even thought of collecting some series in "value" grades. You can still
get a complete collection of great looking coins for not a lot of money.
-Khayse
<< <i>So if you don't collect top "pop" 1970-D "FS" nickels you are not a collector? >>
This is not really complicated. In Wondercoins reference to "serious nickel collectors" there
was the implication that he meant Jefferson Collectors. And since so many Jefferson collectors
end their collections at 1964 I'm sure he did not mean to imply that those collectors were some-
how not real collectors. Surely no one here has ever claimed that Dbldie55 is any less of a man
or a collector because he doesn't collect modern coins. WE CAN CERTAINLY SEE HOW BEING
RELENTLESSLY SLAMMED FOR YOUR COLLECTING SPECIALTY MIGHT BEGIN TO BE TAKEN PER-
SONNALLY AND MIGH DAMAGE THE FORUM. In this light please be willing to accept Wondercoins
abject apology should he be so kind as to extend it. I'm sure he meant you no harm!
a complete collection of circulated Morgans, a complete uncirculated set of Morgans, a complete set of top pop Morgans;
a circulated set of Jeffersons, a uncirculated set of Jeffersons, a complete set of FS top pop Jeffersons.
Non of these sets lessens the other. The collectors all have different ideals (and probably pocket books). That is it.
Nobody ever said that Jack Lee ruined the hobby, just the opposite. The fact that moderns are pocket change in circulated condition IS NOT AN ISSUE! When I was a kid Morgans were still being dropped into slot machines here in Vegas, and a lot of them still are not worth much over melt. What exactly is the difference. $4 in silver?