1796 quarter on ebay - strong $$

roadrunner

Noticed ebay auction 3019168431 completing in about 15 min. Jay Parrino and another bidder have taken this nice looking PCGS 1796 25c in VG8 up to $8900. CDN is about half that price. Actually this exceeds VF bid price! Coin is very choice though and looks closer to fine than VG. Bidding has been very heated with 29 bids to date.
Is early type this underrated with the CDN lagging so far behind.
Comments?

roadrunner

kobrakoins

I don't know much about 96 25cs but it sounds like too much.

littlewicher

I saw that quarter too, and I looked at the price, and I thought that it looked a little off. I don't collect the series or know anything about it, but the price kind of blew me away. Here's a link for anybody that wants to see it. link

airplanenut

Could there be some unseen-by-us die variety here? Maybe your Greysheet doesn't reflect Long Beach prices and the price will shoot up very soon?

Jeremy

Higashiyama

I've always found the pricing of the 1796 quarter interesting -- with surprisingly little spread between grades, and often little spread between a very choice AU coin, and an acceptable mint state coin. I will be curious to hear answers to this question, as I've always been afraid that prices will go through the roof before I find one for my type set!

By the way, does anyone on the board happen to know the whereabouts of the remarkably toned 1796 quarter from Stack's Taichert sales a couple of years ago?

redhott

definitely fine, not vg

abuell

Reminds me of the story Abe Kosoff used to tell about the early days in the 20's when he had his shop in New York. One day James McAllister walked in and opened up a large folder filled with mint state '96 quarters. 'You can have your choice at $95 each,' he said. Then he pulled another large folder out of his pocket. 'These are the really nice ones. You can have your choice of these at $125.'

How rare are they?

TomB

There was a mini-hoard of these coins in AU/MS of approximately 200 or so pieces, I believe. These have since been dispersed. The price on the coin that just closed does not seem odd to me. The coin is incredibly difficult to obtain with lots of eye appeal in any grade between G6 and EF45. The bids mean nothing on this coin in those grades when we are talking about a piece that looks like something. I paid over VF20 money for my coin and it is only F12. I have since been offered substantially more than VF20 money for the coin because it is a problem-free, mid-circulated grade. By the way, the people offering that money to me are full-time dealers who go to every major show. They are big time players that know the true value of coins like this.

DaveG

Having seen Tom's 1796 quarter, I have to say: "It is to DIE for!"

airplanenut

<< <i>Having seen Tom's 1796 quarter, I have to say: "It is to DIE for!" >>

I haven't... Tom, I demand that you show it to me next time I make it to Parsippany

Nic

RR,
Check recent auctions... lets say from Whitney forward. Prices are very strong with AU's 20-28K, MS better yet(even if AU )! K

rays

No problem examples of this date are worth more than Gray sheet bid. I bought a VF 35 PCGS piece in a Heritage auction for more than AU money (see picture). The PCGS VF20 example in Heritage's Signature sale brought $11,500 this week at Long Beach (lot 6607).

roadrunner

Thanks for those replies. It's not easy trying to keep up on every series in all grades. Especially circs. I can recall back in 1988 when a friend referred me to a collection being sold by a dealer named Taber in Mass. This was a nice run of seated and bust halves, a hundred or more pieces in nice orig circ to MS64 grade, many diff dates. One of the pieces I didn't buy was a 1797 half in AG/G condition for about $9000. It turned out to be a VG coin worth about $12K wholesale. Another dealer scarfed it up immediately.
I had missed my chance by the time I came back for a second look.

I had figured the 1797 as no better than good due to an incomplete rim on each side!! Lesson learned!! At least I was able to buy a neat prooflike MS63+ 1874-cc arrows half from the group with a dealer friend for a great price (well under $10K). It's no doubt in a 64 holder today and it was one I should have kept for the long term Duuhhh!!

roadrunner

toyonakataro

Wow!! Great coin, rays!! Seems like you have LOTS OF impressive coins

Barry

I got this NGC VF-25 several months ago through Superior's auction. Was about 13K with juice:

jdimmick

I was a little shocked of the 8700.00+ bid on the vg 1796 also, although really not surprised. It looked like a really nice problem free high end vg closer to a full fine. I believe these will continue to advance strong right along with the chain cents, 1794 half and so forth.

I saw the 1796 VF-20 in the heritage auction, I really did not like the eye-appeal of that piece for the money.

Rays,
Thanks for sharing your vf-35, what a spectacular piece. A truly nice mid-grade example well worth what you paid?
jim d

jdimmick

Barry,

Yours was not up when I posted. Thanks for posting another nice example in Vf, I like the color of this piece.


There is one 1796 quarter that I would love to own, to me its a dream piece, its the Red Book plate coin.

Baley

had my eye on that '96 as well, a very nice coin. lost serious interest above $7K though, but continued to watch out of curiosity. strong money was paid, but where can you get these? a rare coin indeed.

I am very impressed with those of you who own an example of this coin, one I have coveted since I was a kid. how much more interesting is our nation's first quarter than, say, the finest known 1941 quarter or 1963 penny?

someday, someday, I will have one of these 1796 quarters.

BillJones

All early coins are going WAY more that what it says on the CDN. The CDN prices are "wish prices" for nice coins and probably about right for pieces with minor problems that meet the sharpness grades.

I'd say that the price for this piece was about right.

Here are photos of my coin, which I just sent in for grading. I believe that it got a VF-25. When I purchased this coin more than a decade ago, I paid over "ask" for it at the time. A week later a well-known dealer, who specializes in early coins, offered me a $500 profit on it.

Baley

wow Bill, your coin has a perfect "look" to it. is it for sale? will offer you full greysheet bid

roadrunner

Wow Bill, that coin is about as clean as any typical XF walker from the 1940's!! I can see it has a nice home.

Thanks for the interesting replies all. Buy with your head and heart, not with the "sheet."


roadrunner

TomB

WOW!!! Those are absolutely stunning examples of mid-grade 1796 quarters. I think the entire extant population resides in the collections of Board members! Since we are sharing images of them, I have included my PCGS F12 in the attachment below.

DaveG

Tom:

I beg to differ: that image doesn't do your coin justice!

BillJones

I agree, DaveG. TomB's coin looks like a VF to me!

Gemini

Say eveyone seems to have one of these...I thought these were supposed to be scarce.

BillJones

The 1796 Quarter is not rare so far as early coins go. The mintage was 6,146 pieces, and the survival rate is somewhere around 10% which would make the population about 600 pieces. That survival rate is higher than normal because these were the first coins of their kind and more were saved.

Among variety collectors that would make the more common of the two 1796 quarter varieties and R-2, which means, "Not so common." An R-2 is usually no sweat to find except that you have all of those pesky date and type collectors that want one too, which drives up the market.

Among that 600 pieces there are coins with holes, damage and pieces that are almost worn smooth. Still that’s 600 coins, guys, which is why those of us who collect and deal in classic coins kind of chuckle when people try to tell us that modern coins with mintages in the hundreds of millions and survival amounts in the millions are “rare” or “scarce.”