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Public Access Added For Major 100 Seated Dime Varieties

Fellow seated dime collectors,

I've added two new links to www.seateddimevarieties.com that are accessible without a membership.

First is a table listing the Major 100 Seated Dime Varieties, second link is a table with suggested pricing for the Major 100 Varieties in grades of Fine through MS63. I'm sure the pricing table well cause much discussion and that is indeed my intention. I need your constructive feedback on the pricing levels. Some of these varieties are rare and do not trade often, but the veterans in the seated dime community know what they paid for their examples and have an idea what these varieties should bring in the current market, of course assuming there is demand. I've also stayed on top of pricing levels from dealers like Dick Osburn and Brian Greer, where possible.

If you have comments, then please use PM to discuss. It would be nice to have evidence of trades at suggested pricing level so I can make adjustments.

Finally, I read the discussion thread entitled "1841-o Seated Dime variety ?" that explored the topic of seated dime experts after Coinosaurus gave me a favorable plug in a response to jdimmick. Since my name and experience was discussed rather extensively, I would like to submit my 10cents for your consideration. My response to the "1841-o Seated Dime variety ?" thread is late and I expect that the forum readers will no catch it, so here it is again.....



What an enjoyable piece of reading this afternoon! First, I don't take offense to being called Jerry instead of Gerry. John McCloskey has been calling me Gary for years.....

Many excellent points have been made in this discussion thread. My seated dime expertise lies in two areas namely, die varieties and the frequency of their appearance over the past 15 years. To build this database requires an incredible commitment for continual examination of seated dimes across all internet venues and at coin shows. As for rarity knowledge, I've attempted to define rarity levels of important varieties and die marriages. Brian Greer's rarity levels at the date/grade level were state of the art for seated dimes in 1992. I've followed in his footsteps, taking the state of the art to a new level with the advantage of internet and PC technology.

Having studied and collected the seated dime series during the age of certification, I believe my grading skills have evolved dramatically. There is no question that I will have differences with others on grading, at times with Jim O'Donnell's raw coins as he is from the same school as Kam Ahwash where strike is the dominate variable and the technical condition of the surfaces is subordinated. Jim's memory of great coins is on that basis, while my present knowledge has been shaped by PCGS standard's for mint state and about uncirculated coins.

My opinion on the all time seated dime expert.....

Jim O'Donnell - a wealthy historian who was active in a hot bed of collecting (NYC) at a young age. Jim is a date and mintmark rarity expert but don't talk varieties with Jim, he's not into that field of numismatics....

Kam Ahwash - The variety pioneer with pencil and paper.....I'm rather amazed at the accuracy of his encyclopedia, but remember John McCloskey provided significant support to Kam's effort.

Brian Greer - The variety and circulated grade rarity pioneer....Brian was my mentor and with time I exceeded the depth of Brian's understanding of varieties as he moved into all series of US coinage, being a mail order dealer is not easy......

Gerry Fortin - The student of Ahwash and Greer.....used his computer expertise and Fairchild Semi stock account to precisely research and collect seated dimes at the die state/marriage frontier extending the research of Ahwash and Greer

Bottomline.....

If you have strong opinions about who is the all time expert on seated dimes, then please buy a membership at www.seateddimevarieties.com....I challenge all of you (yes, Steve Elwood) to take the time (may a day or two) to examine and consider the depth of information contained in the web-book. I've worked on this project endlessly since 1992. The time invested to catalogue, photograph and describe each coin is staggering. Only those individuals who have ever written a book of this nature can understand the time investment and the resulting instantaneous knowledge background when examining a seated dime. I hope that the web-book will be recognized and well received, creating a new generation of seated dime collectors.

Someone has to buy my seated dime variety collection image

Gerry



image
Gerry Fortin's Rare American Coins Online Storefront and Liberty Seated Dime Varieties Web- Book www.SeatedDimeVarieties.com Buying and Selling all Seated Denominations....

Comments

  • CoinosaurusCoinosaurus Posts: 9,625 ✭✭✭✭✭
    TTT. Gerry, pricing some of these obscure, thinly traded varieties is really tough. I suspect that most of them will generally not ever command much premium. There are too few people chasing date and mintmark sets, let alone varieties. Some of this is because there are too few coins to go around to begin with. Also, the commitment just to get a date and mintmark set done sets a pretty high bar to entry. And finally, some dealers don't care to deal in varieties.

    The 5 or 10 major varieties will continue to attract varying amounts of attention over time.
  • mojoriznmojorizn Posts: 1,380
    Great post and site Gerry. TTT for those that missed it. Maybe some will be pulled away from the "gripe" threads.

    mojo
    "I am the wilderness that is lost in man."
    -Jim Morrison-
    Mr. Mojorizn

    my blog:www.numistories.com
  • roadrunnerroadrunner Posts: 28,303 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Thanks Gerry. It's pretty clear who the dime variety guy is.

    roadrunner
    Barbarous Relic No More, LSCC -GoldSeek--shadow stats--SafeHaven--321gold
  • orevilleoreville Posts: 11,953 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Gerry: After my busy season ends after Oct 15th, i will be delving into your site for sure!

    Nice post!
    A Collectors Universe poster since 1997!

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