Classic Commemorative

ECHOES

I recently purchased this album, it was sold to me in "new" condition. The album is far from new and I was disappointed at first.
The condition of the album gave me the idea to build a set of commemoratives in XF40/45.
My questions are, would it be difficult to find examples in XF, and are some issues harder to locate in circulated grades?
Your thoughts please...

Update: Finding examples for this album has been fun...




^^^ I really like this type of album^^^

pocketpiececommems

You will have a lot of fun working on this set because you don't know which ones will show up next. The ones from the 20's will be the least difficult to locate. And don't listen to people that will tell you that you won't find them.

Musky1011

I have 2 nice ones in my type set

Musky1011

jmj3esq

It would be a damn nice looking set, but therea are several issues that are going to be very hard to find circulated let alone in XF. It could probably be done, but it will take some time. Some of the rarer issues like Hawaii, hudson, Spanish Trail still carry pretty hefty premiums even in circulated condition. I beleive I recently saw a Hawaii in VF25 on the BST. My guess is that if it sold it went pretty high. There are some real condition rareties out there.

Steve27

"My questions are, would it be difficult to find examples in XF, and are some issues harder to locate in circulated grades?"

Yes, just try to find a Spanish Trail in any circulated grade.

seanq

I have the same album and have been working on the same set for a while now. Some issues are quire easy to find, mainly the ones from the 1920s, while the later coins can be downright impossible to find in attractive circulated condition. One word of advice which I always share with people considering this set - don't do it to save money vs the uncirculated coins. The price spread on many classic commems is so small, and the competition for nice circulated examples so strong, that often you'll pay close to MS63 money for an XF45.

There are a couple of other very informative threads you can find if you search under "CircCam™" and "commem", including the one giving me advice before I began my set.


Sean Reynolds

Edit: Me fail speeling? That's Unposibal!

ricko

I collected a series of commemoratives just from all the states I have lived in. Some were quite difficult. Cheers, RickO

BillJones

Most of the commemorative coins that were issued prior to the 1930s are available in the circulated grades. Once you get into the 1930s, it's hard to find some of the coins in the circulated grades, but problem coins that have dipped or cleaned do show up.

If you reach the point where you can spend over $1,000 for a coin, I would strongly urge you to buy the Hawaiian commemorative half dollar in a certification holder. You may break it out if you wish, but my concern about raw coins is that you could end up with a counterfeit. They are out there, and they were illustrated in the Breen – Swiatek that was published some years ago. There also counterfeits of the Lafayette dollar and other commemorative coins that sell for more than a couple hundred dollars.

The last thing I’ll say is do this for fun, not for profit. The market for these coins has been very weak in recent years, even for the nice Mint State coins. The circulated coins a completely a collectors realm, and many collectors prefer the Mint State coins if they start working on a set.




<< <i>Yes, just try to find a Spanish Trail in any circulated grade. >>



Yes, ditto for the Antietam and Hudson among others.

ECHOES

Winston

Circulated commems are cooler anyway..

jmj3esq

I just noticed taht I already responded to this post. Sorry.

lope208

Personally, I would get them out of that Whitman album.
I don't know what they made them out of in 1960, but they are not archival quality.

I have some old books of Mercury Dimes in old Whitman folders and the toning is ugly from the album.

But I like the idea and I think it will look great when you are able to locate all the coins!

yellowkid

I enjoy my slabbed, ms coins, but I have to think that an album with XF coins would be a lot of fun!

seanq

Here are a couple from my book, you'll recognize the blue pages. I'm actually considering breaking my set up, since I'm more or less at a standstill as far as issues I can find or afford to add. When I spend more time looking at the empty holes in an album than the full ones, that's a sure sign I need to move on to another challenge.






Sean Reynolds