Barber Half experts - a question of value...

Walkerguy21D

I've been reading the thread about better date Barber halves and pricing relative to the Greysheet. The 96S has come up a few times, I paid $390 for this. Not great pics, there is more luster present than is showing, though it was lightly cleaned at one time. Feb Bid is $360 in XF, $550 in AU. Was $390 a good deal, relative/fair, or too much, given the condition of this piece? I'm thinking it is XF45-ish.

STONE

My grade is VF-35 all day. The color looks about right although you did say it was lightly cleaned at one point.

Now, did you overpay. I think you paid very fairly for this early date in mid grade condition.

ARCO

It seems that the coins that were the long time key dates, are the ones that have been abused the most by collectors over the years. The 96-S is one of the old time keys that are so hard to find original in VF and higher and it usually found cleaned if found at all.

The coin looks XF40 to me and cleaned. It is an XF coin which is the holy grail of grades for mid-grade collectors, so your price wasn't bad at all. Ultimately it just matters that you like it. A coin isn't much of a bargain at any price if you or the future buyers of the coin don't find it having much eye appeal.

Tyler

Walkerguy21D

Good points, ARCO.
It seems that maybe the collector base has a pretty strong bearing also. Though Barber half collectors are not legion, those out there are really after the nice, no question, original pieces. On the other hand, indian cent collectors are plentiful, so that even coins of the series keys, like 1877, with serious problems, are able to bring strong money all day long.

TheRaven

I personally don't like the "look" of that coin.....

But then again it has to much detail for my set

TomB

Too many problems with that coin, I would have passed.

MFH

Walkerguy21D,

I think you paid a fair price for that coin and I agree with Tyler, its an XF 40 detailed coin.
Being that the coin has some problems, I'd say it was worth what you paid for it.

Craig's last spreadsheet showed a PCGS VF 35 selling for $374 and an NGC 40 selling for $625
and another NGC 40 selling for $599 - all happening in 2005.

The 96-S NGC 45 I posted on The Mega Thread - purchased in 2006 - ran me considerably more -
and was just graded by PCGS as an XF 40. I seriously doubt I'll ever recoup what I have in my coin.

Walkerguy21D

Thank for the useful info, Mike.
I tried to find the Mega thread you referred; found lots of things with Mega in the title, but none had your half posted.

MFH

Walkerguy21D...

The Mega Thread is called " Post some new Barber images ".

Its well over 1200 posts and climbing...

Here's my 1896-S in PCGS 40 [ EX: NGC 45 ]