The 1873-s Seated half dollar: a tough coin to find
rhedden
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I have always liked the S-mint Seated half dollars dated from 1855 to 1877, and I collect Seated halves in XF-AU with a few VF and BU coins sprinkled in for fun. Many of these San Francisco mint coins are difficult to locate in nice XF-AU, though they certainly don't compare well with the quarters of the same era. Many of the "sleeper" dates from the Liberty Seated half series were S-mints 10 years ago, with price guide values that were just plain ridiculous, so I began purchasing these coins with a vengeance around 2005. In addition, who doesn't love the comical, oversized S mintmarks on the 1855-S to 1864-S dates?
While the 1855-s to 1857-s coins have been recognized as semi-keys for a long time, some of the other dates that were vastly underpriced 10 years ago were the 1860-s, 1864-s, 1865-s, 1866-s WM, 1867-s, 1868-s, 1869-s, 1870-s, 1872-s, 1873-s, 1874-s, and the scarce mintmark varieties of the 1875-s. I have to mention the 1878-s as well, since I might have actually been able to afford one of those back in 2000, but that opportunity is long gone. These coins have made huge gains the past ten years in circulated grades. For example, a nice XF 1864-S cost around $100 in 2005 (I bought two), and now it's realistically a $350 to $550 coin at Heritage, with some optimistic eBay sellers now wanting $400 or more for a decent VF. An 1870-s in XF was probably priced at about $150 back then, but I couldn't find one and had to shell out $475 for a PCGS XF45 about two years ago. That was probably still a deal. Really, the only coin in that run that was overrated and overpriced was the semi-scarce 1866-S No Motto, which is still readily available and might have been driven to unrealistic price levels by hoarding at some point. A quick look at the PCGS population report confirms that it is actually more available in holders than the cheaper 1866-s WM. I refuse to buy one.
While I got in on the ground floor of the price increases in this series, I never found an "original" XF-AU 1873-s that I wanted to buy until today when one showed up on Brian Greer's website in a PCGS XF45 holder. I looked periodically on Rich Uhrich's site, Brian's site, Dick Osburn's site, eBay, Larry Briggs' site, Gerry Fortin's new site, dealers at shows, etc. (Did I miss anybody?) While several PCGS coins went by, I passed on them all because they didn't have the look I wanted. The longer this search drew on, the more determined I was to get one with the right look. The closest I came was a PCGS VF30 that I returned to Brian some time around 2008 because it just lacked eye appeal and had too many little flaws in-hand. There was another original-looking PCGS XF coin that passed through at some point, and though I tried to get it right after it was listed, someone else had it on hold within 5 minutes of its appearance.
The 1873-s is scarce in its own right, but it becomes a major problem if one is looking for a truly original coin in a holder. Nearly all of them have been cleaned. Was it the victim of a full-page Coin World "Borderline Unc." promotion in the 1970s or 1980s? Perhaps. Did most of the survivors come from a hoard of scrubbed-up S-mint coins? Might be. Alternatively, maybe it was targeted for cleaning due to its status as an Arrows-at Date Type coin?
In a sense, the 1873-s Arr. half is a condition rarity, even though this date is available in slabs. (The same is true of 1872-S and 1874-S, but to a lesser extent.) For whatever reason, most slabbed XF-AU 1873-s halves are either unnaturally white coins that were given a "mercy grade" by the TPG. In addition, why there so many coins with rim damage for this one particular date, I do not know. There is also a population of coins that looks like it was cleaned 100 years ago, and retoned with a dark, quasi-AT looking patina that probably came from sitting on a window sill or a gas stove in the past ten years. Not that there is anything silver sitting on my window sill.
Some of these non-original coins are slabbed as XF or AU by the major TPGs. I don't like them for the price, which is over $500. When the coin below showed up on Brian's site, I was quick to put it on hold, even though it too might have a little rim bump at 9:00. It's got that dirty, untouched look that I prize on circ. Seated material.
Looking at the Heritage archives, there are a few dozen PCGS/NGC coins in the XF-AU range, but only a single XF45 has a CAC sticker out of the whole lot. On the other hand, there are plenty of Details grade coins and mercy-grade slabbed coins to choose from. Among these, I really only like a couple of the AU's that escaped my attention a few years ago. There are a couple of real nice VF35's that look original, and they went in the $450 to $500 range, but I wanted a strictly XF or better coin for that money. The PCGS population report shows only 83 coins in all grades, with 6 Uncs., 25 AUs, 29 XFs, and 15 VFs. What the Pop. report doesn't show is how many of those coins are original and CAC-worthy. I would bet it's about 15% of them for this date. In case you thought "why not buy an Unc.?", which I did at one point, consider that a PCGS non-CAC MS64 brought $14,687 last year. I'll settle for the XF45 without the $14k in front of the price.
If anyone else has a nice 1873-s half to add, please post it, regardless of grade. There are a few collectors on this board who have much nicer Seated 50c sets than I do, and probably have been collecting for a much longer time. I wouldn't be surprised if my new acquisition gets put to shame, but I'm still happy to have it after a long search.
While the 1855-s to 1857-s coins have been recognized as semi-keys for a long time, some of the other dates that were vastly underpriced 10 years ago were the 1860-s, 1864-s, 1865-s, 1866-s WM, 1867-s, 1868-s, 1869-s, 1870-s, 1872-s, 1873-s, 1874-s, and the scarce mintmark varieties of the 1875-s. I have to mention the 1878-s as well, since I might have actually been able to afford one of those back in 2000, but that opportunity is long gone. These coins have made huge gains the past ten years in circulated grades. For example, a nice XF 1864-S cost around $100 in 2005 (I bought two), and now it's realistically a $350 to $550 coin at Heritage, with some optimistic eBay sellers now wanting $400 or more for a decent VF. An 1870-s in XF was probably priced at about $150 back then, but I couldn't find one and had to shell out $475 for a PCGS XF45 about two years ago. That was probably still a deal. Really, the only coin in that run that was overrated and overpriced was the semi-scarce 1866-S No Motto, which is still readily available and might have been driven to unrealistic price levels by hoarding at some point. A quick look at the PCGS population report confirms that it is actually more available in holders than the cheaper 1866-s WM. I refuse to buy one.
While I got in on the ground floor of the price increases in this series, I never found an "original" XF-AU 1873-s that I wanted to buy until today when one showed up on Brian Greer's website in a PCGS XF45 holder. I looked periodically on Rich Uhrich's site, Brian's site, Dick Osburn's site, eBay, Larry Briggs' site, Gerry Fortin's new site, dealers at shows, etc. (Did I miss anybody?) While several PCGS coins went by, I passed on them all because they didn't have the look I wanted. The longer this search drew on, the more determined I was to get one with the right look. The closest I came was a PCGS VF30 that I returned to Brian some time around 2008 because it just lacked eye appeal and had too many little flaws in-hand. There was another original-looking PCGS XF coin that passed through at some point, and though I tried to get it right after it was listed, someone else had it on hold within 5 minutes of its appearance.
The 1873-s is scarce in its own right, but it becomes a major problem if one is looking for a truly original coin in a holder. Nearly all of them have been cleaned. Was it the victim of a full-page Coin World "Borderline Unc." promotion in the 1970s or 1980s? Perhaps. Did most of the survivors come from a hoard of scrubbed-up S-mint coins? Might be. Alternatively, maybe it was targeted for cleaning due to its status as an Arrows-at Date Type coin?
In a sense, the 1873-s Arr. half is a condition rarity, even though this date is available in slabs. (The same is true of 1872-S and 1874-S, but to a lesser extent.) For whatever reason, most slabbed XF-AU 1873-s halves are either unnaturally white coins that were given a "mercy grade" by the TPG. In addition, why there so many coins with rim damage for this one particular date, I do not know. There is also a population of coins that looks like it was cleaned 100 years ago, and retoned with a dark, quasi-AT looking patina that probably came from sitting on a window sill or a gas stove in the past ten years. Not that there is anything silver sitting on my window sill.
Some of these non-original coins are slabbed as XF or AU by the major TPGs. I don't like them for the price, which is over $500. When the coin below showed up on Brian's site, I was quick to put it on hold, even though it too might have a little rim bump at 9:00. It's got that dirty, untouched look that I prize on circ. Seated material.Looking at the Heritage archives, there are a few dozen PCGS/NGC coins in the XF-AU range, but only a single XF45 has a CAC sticker out of the whole lot. On the other hand, there are plenty of Details grade coins and mercy-grade slabbed coins to choose from. Among these, I really only like a couple of the AU's that escaped my attention a few years ago. There are a couple of real nice VF35's that look original, and they went in the $450 to $500 range, but I wanted a strictly XF or better coin for that money. The PCGS population report shows only 83 coins in all grades, with 6 Uncs., 25 AUs, 29 XFs, and 15 VFs. What the Pop. report doesn't show is how many of those coins are original and CAC-worthy. I would bet it's about 15% of them for this date. In case you thought "why not buy an Unc.?", which I did at one point, consider that a PCGS non-CAC MS64 brought $14,687 last year. I'll settle for the XF45 without the $14k in front of the price.
If anyone else has a nice 1873-s half to add, please post it, regardless of grade. There are a few collectors on this board who have much nicer Seated 50c sets than I do, and probably have been collecting for a much longer time. I wouldn't be surprised if my new acquisition gets put to shame, but I'm still happy to have it after a long search.
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I did pick up a nice raw VF20 (my grade) 74-S on EBay a few years back. Any comments on the scarcity of finding this date?
<< <i>I don't have one, and now I know why I don't.
I did pick up a nice raw VF20 (my grade) 74-S on Ebay a few years back. Any comments on the scarcity of finding this date? >>
I don't have an 1874-S in my collection. That's a good indication that it's scarce. The major difference between the 1874-S and the 1873-s is availability in grades VF20 or lower. The 1874-s is available, especially in VG, while the 1873-s is quite a bit tougher. In the XF-AU range, the 1874-s is also very tough with nice eye appeal. There is additional pressure from variety collectors because there are three easily distinguished mintmark sizes. I'm certain there are a few dozen collectors out there who have all of them. Yours appears to be the WB-103, very small "s", which is the moderately scarce one. I don't have the latest info. on the Seated half varieties because I haven't bought Bill Bugert's new books, but I should buy them.
I've never owned an 1873-s. But, I became quite aware of that date when Jim Halperin's NERCG picked up a white MS65 gem example back in the mid-1970's and were asking a fortune for it. I've only owned a couple of low grade 74-s halves....though also the PCGS MS66 CAC ex-James Stack/Pryor/Riordan coin. Still kick myself for flipping a semi-PL 1874-cc in MS63 back in 1988 for $12K. That same coin is a MS64 today. I don't know off hand if any of the gem 1873-s halves are fully original and eye-appealing.
Tyler
I always say, you know quality when you see it and throw the price guides out the window when you see it.
Menomonee Falls Wisconsin USA
http://www.pcgs.com/SetRegistr...dset.aspx?s=68269&ac=1">Musky 1861 Mint Set
This is a great old thread. In response to the OP's request, here is an original PCGS XF40.
Photos replaced. Curses to Photobucket - my account there is long gone. Are they finished going out of business yet?
Great half Rhedden. Plus Brian Greer is a great dealer to work with
Congratulations
Nice coins. Let’s see your 1873-S No Arrows halves!!!
4 years later it’s still a nice coin 😉
I am amused by your “mercy grade” term.
"Got a flaming heart, can't get my fill"
We sold this example a few years ago, but they are few and far between.
(We're seeing a big increase in demand for seated material with CAC approval in all grade ranges).
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Seated coins are a growing interest for me..... I have been fighting the urge to start acquiring them... not sure if I want halves or dollars....Really do not want to start down another coin road....maybe just getting one of each will stop the craving....sounds like an addiction...
Cheers, RickO
This was a really insightful post. I'm glad this old thread was bumped. Interesting story on an interesting coin hunt!
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Nice to see this thread, it took me quite a while to find the XF-45 below:
10-4,
My Instagram picturesErik
My registry sets
Love that “charcoal” look Erik!
"Got a flaming heart, can't get my fill"
These are excellent remarks that match what I see.
In a recent survey of S-mint seated halves belonging to LSCC members (Gobrecht Journal #142, 2021), the 1873-S was the second rarest date among the coins reported after the 1878-S. Out of a total of 1,814 S-mint coins reported, counts for the five scarcest dates were: 1878-S - 7, 1873-S - 35, 1866-S NM - 36, 1855-S - 37, and 1857-S - 49 specimens. The 1874-S was tied for eighth with 62 coins submitted. I didn't realize the 73-S was this scarce, i.e., in the scarcity neighborhood of the 55-S and 57-S. At the current time, there are about a dozen low-grade 74-Ss on eBay but only 3 high-grade 73-Ss.
Regarding the 1874-S shown above, this coin turned out not to be the rather common WB-103 but a WB-4, the only additional one found in 30 years after its discovery. It's the only die marriage in the Seated Liberty halves designated as an R8 other than the unique 1866 no motto. Just luck. In my case, dumb luck.
Sorry for resurrecting an old thread. However, this is a great thread and I had written the above months ago and never posted this info on 73-S halves from the latest LSCC survey of San Francisco mint seated Liberty halves. The data shows just how difficult the 73-S is, and compared to tallies for the 66 NM, 55-S, and 57-s, may be considerably underpriced as well.
Edited to add that PCGS price guide values for the 73-S in EF40 have increased 53% in the past year, and a 33% increase recently! Looks like the word is getting out on how scarce this coin is.
Wonderful piece and I do love that massive S mintmark on the early S mint coinage. My pocket piece is an 1859-S half that I believe could make Poor-1.
"You can't get just one gun." "You can't get just one tattoo." "You can't get just one 1796 Draped Bust Large Cent."
It was definitely worth a "necro post" to get the following update from Barberian:
"In a recent survey of S-mint seated halves belonging to LSCC members (Gobrecht Journal #142, 2021), the 1873-S was the second rarest date among the coins reported after the 1878-S."
Although I recognized that the 1873-S was one of the most underrated issues in the series when I posted this thread back in 2015, I'm still a little surprised.
Also, the 1874-S WB-4 flew straight over my head back in 2015. It never crossed my mind that there could be an unrecognized, ultra-rare variety staring me in the face. If this is a great thread, maybe it's because the 1874-S WB-4 slipped past all of us at the time? We're supposed to be coin collectors, yet I said, "Yours appears to be the WB-103, very small "s", which is the moderately scarce one."
It's not the first time I had something rare in my hands and blanked out on it. I remember a dealer friend handing me a (raw) Judd-228 Indian cent that came in with an old collection back in the 1990s. I looked at it for a few minutes and said "MS61 or so," handing it back to him. He then said, "take another look. Missing anything? You're supposed to help me notice stuff like this." I flipped it over and saw the shield above the wreath on the reverse. This one went straight into my Numismatic Hall of Shame Moments.