Question About Designated "Error" Coins And How To Determine Value?

stman

How does one put a value on error coins?
Is it by how rare the error is?
Is it by coolness factor?
Is it by how much a collector with a warped sense of taste will pay for the coin?

All of the above?

nwcs

Coolness followed by rarity for me.

stman

Hey thanks for "All" the replies Anyone else?

Prethen

I would check out auction records like at Heritage's Permanent Auction Archive. Maybe Teletrade archives?

LALASD4

The stranger the better.

F117ASR

Whatever you think is fair ............................................................and then some

TommyType

I don't have an answer....Only a complaint.

There are very good references on errors/varieties out there. Cherry Picker's Guide, Complete reference on __fillintheblank__, etc. The problem is that when they see fit to talk about value, they always seem to put in a $$ amount.

The problem is, that's only good for a few months around the time it was published! Since they aren't updated but once a decade, it becomes useless as the overall market moves.

I wish they'd quote a % premium value instead. While it still would become less accurate over time with population and interest, at least it wouldn't be influenced as much by the fluctuations in overall coin market.

Example:

$50 in MS-63 becomes useless when the NORMAL coin becomes worth $50.
10% premium in MS-63 allows you do guesstimate a value no matter what the normal coin value moves to.

Just my rant for the day.

jonathanb

The useless answer is, of course, "one puts a value based on how much someone will pay for it". The funny thing is that really *is* the answer. For all of their apparent variety and one-of-a-kind-ness, I'm constantly surprised at how consistent the prices for error coins are. If you post a picture, you should be able to get several estimates that are pretty close to what you end up getting for it.

If you want something just slightly less useless, there's not much in the error category that's worth more than $100 for a modern coin, and it has to bee pretty special to get that high. Off-metals (nickel on cent, quarter on nickel, etc) are worth roughly $200 if struck on a planchet, roughly $600 if struck on a struck coin. Significant state quarter errors are worth $400. Most "normal" errors (off-centers, etc) on obsolete types are worth about $600. Virtually nothing is worth more than $1000 unless it's *extremely* showy, very rare, on a very obsolete type, or all three.

Yes, there are exceptions galore. Those are just *very* rough figures.

jonathan