Prices for Error Coins????

kryptonitecomics

Is their a definitive pricing source for Error coins.....Lincolns in particular???? An example would be the 1954-S Lincoln with the "BIE" error..................................


Thanks

shylock

Mint Error News has a general price guide but I wouldn't call it definitive. This is one area of numismatics where the the collector is on his own and you have to follow the prices realized at major auction houses. The markups those coins get once they reach a dealer's inventory are all over the place.

kryptonitecomics

Thanks, I guess I'll just have to make up my own values as well

jtwax

<< <i>Is their a definitive pricing source for Error coins.....Lincolns in particular???? An example would be the 1954-S Lincoln with the "BIE" error..................................


Thanks >>



BIE errors are quite common and usually fetch from $1 to $5 in BU Red.

Rob790

I don't think you are really looking for an Error Coin price guide but more of a Variety price guide. COPPERCOINS.COM would be a good place to find a variety guide for the lincoln cent.

kryptonitecomics

I am actually looking for a little of both. I bought a lot of 24 error/Variety Lincolns on Ebay and I am out of my element. I really don't care about the value per say, but since I am going to own some errors, I'd kind of like to put an established value in my database.


I've been to coppercoins.com before, but when I looked recently I could not locate the 1954-S BIE variety?

sliderider

<< <i>Is their a definitive pricing source for Error coins.....Lincolns in particular???? An example would be the 1954-S Lincoln with the "BIE" error..................................


Thanks >>



The price for any coin is set by however much someone is willing to pay to have it. There are no prices set in stone for any coins, including non-error coins I have a few error coins that I keep around for my own enjoyment. Errors and VAMs are mostly of interest to error and VAM collectors. The average collector usually doesn't want them or isn't willing to pay a premium for them. Search around on the internet, though. There are some error and VAM clubs out there. You'd probably get a better idea of what a particular piece is worth by talking to a specialist in that series.

seanq

jtwax pretty much nailed the value of your BIE for you.

I have never seen an accurate price guide for error coins. Every error is so unique that it is very tough to generalize. For example, mostof the guides will give a generic price for an "off-center coper Memorial cent". But then you see this off-center 1970-D cent sell for about $10, while these two 1969 cents, which ran concurrently, sold for many multiples of that. You might think the bidders had gone insane - the '70-D is further off-center, and thre was only one running, not two at the same time. Nowhere in any price guide would you find that 1970-D is a very common date for O/C strikes, while through some incredible coincidence, those two 1969 O/C cents were the first legitimate auction appearances in six years of an O/C strike for the date. Few people know it, but 1969 is one of the major keys to the memorial cent O/C set - rarer than the San Francisco mint coins of the same era.

I specialize in incomplete planchets, and when I'm coming up with a value (say, my max bid on an eBay auction), I'll consider the coin's condition, the size of the clip, and any history I can recall. I save prices realized information from eBay and other auctions, I have an eight year purchasing history for my own collection, and I keep careful track of the coins I have in my various sets. This way I know to bid only $10 on a 1992-D cent clip (considered "just" rare), but more like $150 for a 1992-P cent clip (currently unknown in any major date set).

Personally, I think the degree to which knowledge is king is a big part of why I enjoy collecting errors and varieties.


Sean Reynolds