What is the average grade of all surviving Continental Dollars?

ColonialCoinUnion

I'll take a guess that, based on today's grading standards, its at least AU.

There are some that trade, infrequently, in the VF25 - VF35 range, a very, very few in the XF range and the rest are, seemingly, AU55 / 58 or better.

I also remember Bowers and Merena offering one about 3 years ago in P-1 for $1,776 in one of their RCRs. Now THATS a rare coin.

I would peg the number of survivors at somewhere around 500 for all varieties combined, but I may be way off base with that guess.

dorkkarl

i would guess the average grade is "circulated". breaking it down into further sub-grades other than "circulated" & "uncircualted" is meaningless to me for continental dollars.

K S

Pistareen

Hey CCU:

I bought that Poor-1 Continental $1 at a C4 show for B+M stock -- there were multiple orders, as you can imagine at the price. The grade was a trifle misleading though. By sharpness it was probably VF, but it was heavily corroded. From what I was told (and I actually believe this), it was discovered in the mud of the Thames by one of the regular pickers there.

I agree with your grade assessment. Continental dollars are more common in Unc or near Unc than any other grade range, a fact that points out how poorly they were accepted in commerce. Your estimate of total number extant may be pretty close as well.

Continental dollars are a funny species. It doesn't take much circulation to make a pewter coin heavily worn, yet very few show any wear at all.

John K.

Shamika

<< <i> I'll take a guess that, based on today's grading standards, its at least AU. >>


I'm not a Colonial Coin collector, but I always look them in major auction catalogs. I agree that AU seems about right for certified examples.

I've always been impressed by the general quality of Continental Dollars when they show up at auction.