Spanish Trail commem overpriced?

franklin200

After collecting commems for the past year I have come to the conclusion that the Spanish Trail commem is overpriced to other issues. For example I have had a very difficult time locating nice examples of Hudson, Pan Pac, Alabama, and Missouri commems in 63-64, by contrast it was very easy to find a nice MS65 Spanish Trail. Nice Spanish Trails seem to be common in auction listings or dealer inventories compared to the other issues I mentioned earlier. I would be interested to what other commem collectors thought of this, or if they think if there are any issues that are underpriced right now. I wonder if I am the only one who thinks this issue is a bit pricey when compared to its true rarity.

truthteller

Yes, definitely.

TRUTH

LanLord

i imagine the price is related to the low mintage of the issue, even if you found it easy to find, there are just not very many available, if collectors start moving on them, there isn't enough supply to go around.

BTW, I really like that one, the skull of a steer on a coin, who'd have thought it.

BillJones

I would agree with you when it comes to the Hudson, Missouri and Pan Pac half dollars. Among those I think that the Missouri is the most difficult of all the commemorative half dollars, including the Hawaiian, to locate in attractive MS-63 or 64 condition. Although 20 thousand 2*4 Missouri coins were issued, many of those pieces when to non collectors who had no idea as to how to preserve them. I’d be willing to bet that a most of the pieces that people bought at the Missouri state fair were not Mint State by the time the buyers brought their coins home.

The Hudson is a tough piece to find smooth and well struck also. Many of them have marks. The Pan Pac is like the Missouri was issued to a lot of non collectors who did not take care of them. Those coins were also struck with poor luster, which makes it very hard to find really nice pieces. A lot of Pan Pacs have been dipped, which usually only makes matters worse.

I’ve seen a fair number of nice Alabama commemorative half dollars, especially among the 2X2 coins. Those pieces were struck first and are usually sharper, especially on the reverse, and have better luster. (The same can be said for the two Missouri varieties.

In general I would question the high basal value that the Spanish Trail commands. Certainly pieces that are less than MS-65 which seem a bit overpriced, but since I’m price taker and can’t control the market, my advice is to buy the coin in MS-65 or 66 and avoid the lower grade pieces.