What do dealers do with circulated commemoratives

pocketpiececommems

When I look for circulated or holed commemoratives some dealers will tell you there is no such thing. Others might have one or two. Are there a lot of dealers that just don't want to mess with them? If you are a dealer and a seller offers them to you do you decline? If you come across some in a large collection how do you market them?

fc

i would keep looking on ebay, raw or slabbed.

it sounds like commems are hard to find in low grade
because so few saw true circulation.

jmj3esq

I see dealers who have circulated commems all the time. In fact I just bought 2 last week.

IrishMike

They put them in a cardboard 2X2 and call them BU/MS.

BillJones

Many commemoratives from 1892 to the 1920s exist in the circulated grades because they were spent or put into circulation. The Hawaiian half dollar may have been the cut off point because I have seen few of those with a lot of wear. (Worst Hawaiian by honest wear that I have seen would grade EF-45 or so.)

For example a goodly number of Columbian half dollars went to a Chicago bank to pay off the fair’s expenses and were put into circulation. There was even an effort put the Monroe commemorative half dollars in circulation after they were issued concurrently with a silent film festival in Hollywood. Many early commemorative coins were sold to non collectors who did not take care of them. The Missouri is a prime example of this. After the 1920’s collectors got into the act. They carefully stored their commemorative coins, and far fewer numbers got into circulation. In fact for some issues, like the Antietam and the Spanish Trail, anything under MS-64 would be considered to be a low grade example.

Some dealers have made an effort form collections of the “poorest known” commutative coins. In fact an extensively worn (e.g. AG-03), but undamaged example of some commemoratives from the 1930s are worth premium prices among dealers because they are great rarities.

Some circulated commemoratives do have decent values and are collectable. And given the rarity of some issues that fact that there few potential coins available makes their prices higher than you might think.

rhedden

Dip 'em, buff 'em, submit them to a pretend grading service like "CCGS," then list them on ebay.

VTCoins

I just sorted an old bin and came across 50+ circulated Columbian Halves.

I have so many already listed on the web site, I am not sure what I am going to do with these coins.

mirabela

The ones from the 30's are much tougher in circulated grades. I once tried, just because, to find a circ Spanish Trail. Ruling out net graded coins with problems, it seemed like there just was no such thing, not even in AU.

a039

pocketpiececommems, I heard the same thing when I started collecting for my 7094 about two months ago. Sometimes a dealer will tell you that at a show and five tables down there will be some.

Because I am putting them in a dansco I didn't want high ms coins. VF 45 and up are ok with me. The first thing most dealers do with them is DIP em. I have found most of the early commems are graded incorrectly anyway as they vary so much in the quality of the strikes and condition of the dies during the minting run. It looks like you are collecting the extremely worn ones. That is definitely a condition rarity in this set.

I have had a bit of luck on the local bid boards as most people are looking for the ms coins that are white. Good luck on you set! The coin below was found at a local bidboard

CaptHenway

<< <i>When I look for circulated or holed commemoratives some dealers will tell you there is no such thing. Others might have one or two. Are there a lot of dealers that just don't want to mess with them? If you are a dealer and a seller offers them to you do you decline? If you come across some in a large collection how do you market them? >>



I just put them into our inventory raw.
Tom D.

dizzyfoxx

Check your forum sig name for the answer.

mozin

Last year I did a little research into encapsulated Classic Commems in grades of F15 or less. What I found, is that the Columbian is available in most any circulated grade. The Isabella is next for availability, followed by the 1920 Pilgrim, and the Lafayette dollar.

I never started collecting for the PCGS Registry because there are so few PCGS super low graded Classic Commems.

What we need is a method for wearing out these coins so that PCGS will still encapsulate them. Once this becomes known, there would be many more competing with pocketpiececommems.

morganbarber

I was surprised by this thread. I have always seen many more circulated classic commems than I would have expected. Some were released as 1/2$, and I don't know what happened to the others. If you check Ebay, they are always there.