How to start a Walking Liberty set?

petersolson

I have been thinking about starting a Walking Liberty half dollar set, and I have been poking around on ebay a bit. But, I would appreciate some advice on how to start this set, maybe how to go about jumpstarting with a bunch of the common date coins. I am interested in putting together a low grade MS set. The set appears to consist of 65 coins. This would be my first non "modern crap" set, and I will have to go slow with it. Anyway, I would appreciate any thoughts people have! Thanks. -pso

DennisH

My advice would be to get hold of a copy of the Grey Sheet and carefully examine the differences in price between grades for each date. Sometimes the differences are tiny; sometimes they are huge. (I'm a believer in buying the grade right before the huge jump.) This exercise will tell you whether you can afford to finish the set, and what grades to start shopping for.

Another 4¢ worth of advice: stick to PCGS and NGC coins, and avoid bargain-priced coins (there's always a good reason why they're bargain-priced.) Instead, buy the most attractive coins you can find.

Russ

You might want to build the short set first. At 20 coins, you can complete it without breaking the bank and if you get further in to the project and have a change of heart, it's very marketable as a set. I like the grade of MS64 on these. If you're patient and careful, you can get some beautiful examples at this grade and, relatively speaking, it's much less expensive than MS65.

Russ, NCNE

streeter

I had almost those exact thoughts about a year ago and started picking up 1929-1941 dates on ebay--RAW in 55-65.

JUST DO NOT TRY IT the way I did.

If you practice with 43-45 P mint coins at $10 each--you will learn what I did but be a lot better off at the end of the experiment.


WAY WAY WAY too many cleaned coins and 58 coins being sold as 63+. A good photo makes that raw 58 LOOK like a 63+

solid

What Dennis and Russ said.

I like sets that are fairly consistant in grades and some of the early key dates can get
quite expensive in high MS grades. So, estimate what you would be willing to spend
for those keys to set your target grade range whether it be MS60-63, MS63/64, 64/65,
or whatever.

Then, follow Russ' advice and start with the short set to get a feel of what a nice coin
looks like in the grade range you are targeting.

Good luck - These are beautiful coins and a fun set to build!

Ken

Hedger

First, you need a million dollars.