Early Lincolns ..How many GEMS are out there..Many IMO

Manorcourtman

I have seen 2 collections in the last 2 weeks that could change early the POP report significantly , most are Lincolns. Anyone else believe that the POP reports are just a farce that will explode in the next few years? Not trying to blow smoke but in my opinion many GEM Lincolns in the Midwest are in older albums and the true pops at PCGS are only about 60-70% of what will be found in the next few years. Out here in flyover country we don't need plastic to tell us what grade the coins are. Anyone else see a big change in the next few years? Chris

haletj

I'll help decrease the pops by cracking out my gems and putting them in plastic holders! (but my gems are mostly in ms64 holders though)

Yeah, I'm sure there are some really nice raw sets out there. It is a tough question though. You'd think now would be a time of large pop changes at pcgs as Lincolns are selling for so much... but in two years of watching the pops have moved very very little. I think a couple of gem 16-s's were added, 1 19-s, and 1 25-s which was a crackout I know of. Very few new gems on the D mintmarks and ms64 S's too. Some pops in 64rd (23-s,24-s,27-s have gone down a decent amount in 2 years). And specifically relating to albums... A coin won't be gem too much longer if stored in an album. I stored my later dates and memorials in an album when I first started my set and they did change or spot no matter how careful I was to rid it of any dust/lint etc.

jacktheknife

Chris,

Depends on what dates you are talking about. For the late dates (40's and 50's) the pops will most certainly continue to rise, although slower than most would think. I played the BU roll searching game for a while and true 67's are very rare indeed. As for the earlier dates, which I believe you are talking about, I don't see "big" changes. Of course, there will be a few old collections that come to market from time to time. True standout gems from these collections though will be few and far between. I would not think that there will be any significant swings in the earlier date pops.

cladking

There may be some changes in the early pops because there are a lot of collections out there.
Sure the old timers looked for the nicest specimen but finding them was very labor intensive. It
could also be pretty expensive looking through rolls of coins like the '21-S to find a coin that the
guides said was worth only a couple dollars too. How many rolls of common dates like the 27-D
would most collectors check before they decided the one they had was good enough. The average
collection will likely contain only a single or two coins that have a shot at pop top, but there are a
lot of collections. These will probably not be slabbed until the collections are up for sale or sold, so
they'll trickle onto the market for decades.

Cocoinut

Just like most other collectors of the era, I started in 1955 with Lincolns pulled from circulation. I bought my first truly early Lincoln as a high school kid back in 1967, a gorgeous bright red 1925-P, for $5.50. Over the next dozen years I accumulated nearly 200 pre-1934 Lincolns. Granted, most of them were the more common "P" mints, but there were a few mintmarked pieces as well, and I could usuallly count on returning from a coin show with several coins that had great eye appeal. The really common dates, like 1909-VDB, 1929-P, 1929-S, 1930-P, and 1930-S could be purchased for about $3.00 per coin. The other "P" mints (except 1914, 1915, and 1921) were all less than $15.00. I sold about half of them to help come up with a down payment for a house, but kept the best ones. Many of the mintmarked coins were submitted to PCGS last year, and got decent grades, but the Philly coins that I didn't sell 25 years ago are still in my safe deposit box. Practically all of them should make MS64RD or better, some much better. There are definitely some 66's, and possibly a couple of 67's. I started a Lincoln Registry set this year, and will probably submit the best of each of those early dates to PCGS next year.

There will be many more gems of the 1934-1958 wheats in the coming years, as there are more original rolls of those dates still in existence. I have over 50 rolls of those dates, which include all of the "P" mints from 1935-1958, except 1950 & 1951, most of the "D" mints after 1941, and 7 or 8 of the "S" mints. I'm sure there are other collectors like me who still have quantities of raw coins. If it weren't for the Registry, I probably wouldn't slab any of them until I was ready to sell.

haletj is correct in stating that you can't expect many gems from old coin albums. I kept the new Lincolns from each year after 1955 in an album. They were great-looking coins when I put them in the album, but over the years almost all developed spots or became RB. I was older and wiser when I began buying early dates, and stored them in either the Whitman 2"x 2" snaplock holders, or in Kointains. They're both chemically inert, and have preserved the coins beautifully. I can see no change in the color of those Lincolns since the day I bought them. I hope PCGS holders do as well.

Jim

haletj

Thanks Jim for the comments about the Whitman holders because that is what I use. And some of my coins in them sure are delicate... The 97-p in my set is nicer than the one I sent to pcgs, got an ms68 on, and sold for $2000! Here's a picture of a page of my set...

centmaster

<< <i>I have seen 2 collections in the last 2 weeks that could change early the POP report significantly , most are Lincolns. Anyone else believe that the POP reports are just a farce that will explode in the next few years? ? Chris >>



I don't think so. I don't see why now is a more special time as any other time in the past 20 years. The pops have risen very slowly on all early S mints in 65RD for a reason. Some have not risen by even one coin in the past five years, during which time the prices have gone through the roof. The D mints are not far behind. These coins, if they were to exist, surely would have come out of hiding. On the off chance of a completely original, well preserved gem set coming around, the chances of more than one early S mint coin getting the elusive 65RD is very slim for the very reason that they're "freak" coins to begin with, and without super protection are bound to have toned a little bit. I would be really surprised if, say, the 20S ever moved from the current pop of 8/0, since it's been there for as long as I can remember.