Some interesting statistics about $20 Saints

Longacre

I received a newletter from a national dealer who tends to specialize in higher end material, especially $20 Saints. The article was about the value of Saint-Gaudens coins in certain forgotten grades. Among the interesting statistics were the following

-96 of every 100 $20 Saint-Gaudens certified MS-65 or higher by PCGS (i.e, 96%) are one of 13 dates.

-The other 39 dates combined constitute only 5% of the series, and MS-65+ coins of these dates are very expensive or unavailable. However, there is much better value in a lower than MS-65 grade for these.

-Due to their abundance, there are 4 $20 Saints that are not reccomended for investment in any grade: 1908 n/m, 1924-P, 1927-P, and 1928-P. There are another 4 dates that are not reccomended in less than MS-66 for the same reason: 1911-D, 1923-D, 1925-P, and 1926-P. There are another 5 dates that are not recommended in less than MS-65 for the same reason: 1914-D, 1914-S, 1915-S, 1916-S, and 1922-P. Out of the 45,392 MS-65 Saints certified MS-65 by PCGS, 42,861 are the above 13 dates.

-There are 12 dates that are so scarce to be desirable in any grade: 1908-S, 1920-S, 1921-P, 1925-S, 1926-D, 1927-D, 1927-S, 1929-P, 1930-S, 1931-P, 1931-D, and 1932-P. These dates combined make up one-quarter of 1% of all certified PCGS Saints.

-The other 28 dates in the series are the ones that are great value in at least one grade of MS62, MS63, or MS64.


I don't collect Saints by date, but I was wondering if any of the board members who collect Saints have any comments on the items above. It is interesting to have the entire Saint series broken down in such a way that more focus can be put on a relatively limited number of coins in limited grades (if you can believe what is written above). Does anyone have any comments?

parkave

You can never go wrong owning Key date Saints. The market demand for 20-S, 21, 27-S, 27-D, 29, 30-s, 31, 31-D and 32 continues to grow as can be witnessed by the strong auction prices realized 2004 and the recent records set for these dates at the FUN sales.

Buying key dates in any series makes sense.

WACoinGuy

I don't know Saint dates but I agree -- it's always best to buy key or semi-key dates in any series.

That said, the only saints I own are a 1928 and 1911-D. Guess I should follow my own advice.

Stuart

Longacre: Was the newsletter from Ellesmere?

I receive a periodic newsletter from them promoting high grade Saints and high grade Morgans.

Merc

You didn't need a newsletter to tell you which ones to buy. A pop report will tell you which ones are common. The 1908 NM, 1924, 1925, 1926, and 1927 are amazingly common. They are like the 1879-S to 1882-S Moragns in MS65. There are others in MS64 that are much tougher but only cost a bit more than the super common dates. I just bought a nice 1911-S.

relayer

Interesting analysis