Louis Eliasberg #1 All-time finest Registry sets question

mercurydimeguy

Sorry if this has been asked before, but what is the deal with that?

I am building some sets where he holds the #1 All-time finest spot yet had none of the required coins?

The sets have grades, but no coin numbers, and then in comment it says "assumed grade"...then says he had a Gem Proof yada yada, but the set is a Mint Set registry set.

So, if he had Proof coins that were "assumed" that he had, then how can an "assumed set" of proof coins occupy a real set of Mint State coins?

Thanks for helping me better understand this...and sorry if this is a dumb question.

MGLICKER

Hope this helps. I have the Bowers/Merena/Stacks US coin auction catalogs and all the coins were sold as raw. Grades were catalogued for each coin, which btw were mostly well below the ultimate grades assigned by PCGS and NGC.

Nap

Eliasberg frequently collected a proof coin instead of a business strike. I don't think he cared as much about this distinction as do modern numismatists.

illini420

I think it's great that PCGS has his sets there so modern collectors can see where their set rates amongst the best. Even when they use estimated grades, I'm sure they are at least close to reality. But when they use the "assumed grades" for coins Eliasberg never owned, but PCGS believes he would have and could have had in his set it gets a little weird. Especially, when they put in the top pop coins for the "assumed grade" making it very hard to meet or beat.

What is the worst is when the estimated or assumed grade for Eliasberg's coins are put in the registry as being higher than the current top pop at PCGS, showing up as Pop 0 with 0 grading higher. Pretty hard to compete with something that doesn't exist in a PCGS holder!!!

Ed62

Eliasberg is listed as the #1 all-time finest for patterns with (as pointed out above) coin grades that are conjectures at best and with only 10% of the Judd book listings. Using the conjecture standard there are several 'sets' that were/are far more complete than Eliasberg's: King Farouk, Wm. Wooden, Dr. Judd, Mr. Lohr, the Whitman owner (forgotten his name at the moment), and a present day Texas collector come immediately to mind.