Whats your vote for most undervalued US coin?
BrettPCGS
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My votes:
Vintage: 1850 gold dollar. Virtually no premium in low mint state grades for a coin that is markedly rarer than the other P mints in the type 1 set.
Modern: 2011-s Mint State Silver Eagle. First S mint marked mint state silver eagle and I believe still the lowest mintage MS silver eagle produced, gets no love.
Variety: 1919 double die Merc Dime. Strong doubling, remarkable story. As one of the few Merc Dime variety hunters on the planet I cringe thinking that I may have completely missed one of these as a kid because I was spending all of my time looking for stuff like 41-s RPMs. When will a high grade coin be found?
My picks above are for most UNDERVALUED US coins. I’d say by default that also means they’re underrated. But I also think wire edge $10s are underrated, just maybe not undervalued.
What ya got?!
Brett Charville --- I work at PCGS
Comments
Most undervalued coin - all the coins I already own
Other than that, I really don’t know. There are some varieties like Bugs Bunny Franklins that I wish would take off.
I like the topic and I’m sure there’ll be some great answers that I’ll learn from.
Your choices are very right on. If I had to choose just one coin, it certainly would have to be the 1932p Washington Quarter! Look at his counterparts, the '32d and the '32s. Sure, the mintages are different but com'on. The Philadelphia is stuck between his two brothers in the same house but doesn't get the respect (value) that the two evil stepbrothers get. Where's prince Charming when you need him? Lol.
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Agree with you about the mercury dime part. If he where here
Martin
1998 SMS Kennedy
Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value. Zero. Voltaire. Ebay coinbowlllc
Let me think...........the Morgan Dollar?
Great idea for a thread topic.
No motto $10 Liberty gold coins would be my choice for an underrated coin.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
34-S peace dollar.
There are many more overvalued coins than undervalued coins in the market.
1842, 1850 and 1859 No Motto Half Eagles.
Well less than 100 extant and much more rare than any branch mint dates for the pre civil war period, but attainable, if found, for a fraction of the cost of a mint marked piece.
Latin American Collection
Braided hair half cents
Tough question.
That is like looking at a group of 100 people and trying to pick out
the best looking 3. Going to leave a lot of attractive people behind.
Undervalued from a monetary POV or under appreciated? I tend to think most, if not all, moderns fall into the under appreciated camp. I would also say most half cents could be considered under appreciated as well.
As for undervalued... I have no idea. The market tends to settle on price relatively quickly so things are worth what the market decides upon.
I am with @DNADave . Braided Hair Half Cents.
@ShaunBC5 ...
You beat me to it... When I read the OP, that was my thought...then I read the first reply, and you had it nailed. To the topic, I always thought it was the Two Cent coins.... JMO... Cheers, RickO
1846 small date HE. Many other Philadelphia half and quarter Eagles made before the Civil War.
1998 SMS kennedy half dollar.
If we are talking undervalued vrs. the PCGS Price Guide my vote would be for many of the Mid Grade Barber Halves!
Rare varieties of rare types. R4-R5 varieties of early gold tend to sell for not-dramatic premiums over the more common R3 examples as people tend to just want one for a typeset.
1793 Chain Cent
It's like the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle for baseball cards.
I agree on the QE's and HE's. The 1846 Small date is not quite as rare as previously suggested. After the variety became designated, more and more came to the surface. Still, maybe 100 extant. I used to own about the most beautiful example, now another forum member owns it.
Latin American Collection
Indeed a lot of Philly gold is severely undervalued.
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100 exist and $700 retail in AU 50 sounds downright cheap for a gold coin.
Agree, just saying it isn't as rare in my view as Coinfacts suggests.
Latin American Collection
Most aren’t. Coinfacts is just a starting point giving a rough idea of scarcity. I also check how many are graded by the competition and how many you can find for sale and check past auctions. Many factors go into determining a coin’s scarcity. The Philadelphia issues often seem overlooked by everyone lusting for branch mint coins.
Vintage: 1877-cc Trade Dollar. 1858 $5. 1869 $5.
The most undervalued U. S. coin according to the PCGS guide?
I think that would have to be the unique proof 1976 No-S Eisenhower Dollar.
It’s in the guide at $850,000 and has a market value likely more than 4x that amount.
Broadstruck 1945 Mercury dimes. These usually have full bands and are orders of magnitude cheaper than a normal 1945 FB, plus you get the coolness of it being an error.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
In addition to what others have suggested, I add my own: the unique 1870-s half dime, graded by our host at MS-64. Not known to exist for 108 years until it was discovered in 1978. PCGS price guide suggests a value of $1,750,000. It may not be that undervalued, as I don't think half dimes are on many collectors' minds, and its miniscule size doesn't pack the same visual punch as the 1794 SP66 dollar and the 1933 Double Eagle do. But it would be the one I'd go after if I had that kind of money.
A very interesting concept I heard years ago was that sometimes coins are "too rare", or in this case the coin is unique. Personally I believe this is what helps keep the 1804 $1, 94-s 10c, and 1913 5c in A++ top tier status. They actually trade hands!
Brett Charville --- I work at PCGS
First, there’s a difference between being undervalued in a price guide and being undervalued by the market. And I think we’re talking about the latter.
Second, do you really think any Ike can be worth more than a gem 1804 Dollar? I mean, i love that coin, and even owned it for a while, but $3.4 million seems like a lot.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
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Andy. I love it too! Lol.
The 1976 Ike dollar is, of course, Unique. Do you happen to know off hand the complete short list of the Unique coins for the 20th Century?
Regarding Brett’s point about Unique coins, I agree with it to a great extent. But, I would add one caveat now based upon my own observations. The ultra rarities with mintages (or known specimens) of 5 or 9+ pieces can see serious price depreciation when they trade too often.
I believe this is now the case with the 1894-S Dime. When I bought for my customer the finest known 1894-S PCGS graded specimen at auction 15 years ago, it sold at around $1.32 million with BP. It had been on a straight up trajectory as far as its increased price for decades and decades. I sold the dime just (23) months later for about $1.9 million (Including a commission to the buyer’s agent). But, it took a dozen more years to resell at only around $2 million including the 20% BP. And, the second coin in the same finest known grade just recently sold at $1.2 million plus BP.
So, I believe these ultra rarities with 5-25 known can go up or down in price now based, in part, with how many auction appearances they are making each year. Again, for decades before that, they were typically only going one way- up in price. On the other hand, I have seen Unique coins trading at only higher prices the very few times they actually trade. What was the “problem” of Unique coins being “too rare” seems to be less of a problem these days.
As always, just my 2 cents.
Wondercoin
The 2006 one ounce platinum bullion (not the burnished) coin.
Mintage of 6000 and with almost zero collector interest. They are almost impossible to find on eBay or Apmex and I suspect a fair amount of them got melted down whereas the burnished collector series did not.
I don’t own one, but it’s going to be in my hypothetical box of 20 someday!
BN toned lincoln cents. The populations are really low compared to the numbers minted.
"Whats your vote for most undervalued US coin?"
Whatever I happen to be selling at the time.
"The unique proof 1976 No-S Eisenhower Dollar."
The problem is there are plenty of proof 1976 Eisenhower dollars with that little mintmark that practically look the same.
Yes, it is definitely a cool coin, yet can we all quietly admit it isn't "1804 Bust Dollar" cool?
peacockcoins
Wondercoin - the 1894 s Barber Dime that you sold for $ 1,900,000
Could probably be the finest one .
The one that just sold for $ 1,200,000 plus BP was a POS
PCGS should be embarrassed
grading it Proof 66 when in reality
It was at best a 62-63 coin. It had scrapes,scratches hairlines galore
and even a huge digit on the obverse . Buyers are more attuned to quality now than ever before .
Vintage coin -the most under valued vintage coin IMO is the gem mint state 1856 Flying Eagle cent . One with mint luster that doesn’t look Proof
Modern - How about a gem red MS
1969 s DDO Lincoln Cent graded
MS 65 red or better ?
What about a gem MS 1970 s LD
Double die obverse Lincoln Cent graded ms 65 red or better ?
Variety - A gem mint state 1905 micro o Barber dime graded
MS 65 or better ?
“Wondercoin - the 1894 s Barber Dime that you sold for $ 1,900,000
Could probably be the finest one .
The one that just sold for $ 1,200,000 plus BP was a POS
PCGS should be embarrassed
grading it Proof 66 when in reality
It was at best a 62-63 coin. It had scrapes,scratches hairlines galore
and even a huge digit on the obverse . Buyers are more attuned to quality now than ever before .”
RC... I agree with you that the one I bought and sold was probably the nicest. That coin arguably appreciated 5% in the 12 years since I sold it when it resold again for $2M (including the 20% BP). Or lost $200k if one backs out the BP.
But, you may recall, that (15) years ago over on the Registry Forum the one I bought was criticized by many of the “best and the brightest” (not you though) as not being nearly as nice as the colorful specimen that was (as I recall) a PCGS 65 at the time and then an NGC-MS66 (and now the PCGS 66 coin you just assessed). That was the “explanation” at the time as to why I was lucky enough to buy that “ugly” Finest known coin at auction for only 1.3M all in and not one of the usual suspects who always wins these world-class ultra rarities. 😂
Wondercoin
"The unique proof 1976 No-S Eisenhower Dollar."
The problem is there are plenty of proof 1976 Eisenhower dollars with that little mintmark that practically look the same.
Yes, it is definitely a cool coin, yet can we all quietly admit it isn't "1804 Bust Dollar" cool?”
Pat. The Unique 1976 Eisenhower Dollar is more than Just a coin without an S mintmark. It is also the one and only Ty 2 proof Silver Ike Dollar in existence. No other proof Ty 2 Silver Ike Dollar exists WITH OR WITHOUT AN “S”. The entire multi-million coin run of 1976-S Silver Ikes found in the 3-pc. 1976 Silver proof sets are all Ty 1 examples.
Wondercoin
Ah, shoot. I wasn't aware!
Now that IS cool.
(Thanks for the education.)
peacockcoins
“Ah, shoot. I wasn't aware!
Now that IS cool.
(Thanks for the education.)”
But, 1804 Bust dollar cool? 🤣
Wondercoin
“The 2006 one ounce platinum bullion (not the burnished) coin. Mintage of 6000 and with almost zero collector interest. They are almost impossible to find on eBay or Apmex and I suspect a fair amount of them got melted down whereas the burnished collector series did not. I don’t own one, but it’s going to be in my hypothetical box of 20 someday!”
Kiyote... not just melted down two years later when platinum skyrocketed to over $2200/oz., but, these coins are also used in retirement accounts and tubes and tubes are poured on tables and counted and recounted as they trade hands as the bullion coins they were designed to be. Meanwhile the scant 40 something MS70FS coins in total are very difficult to obtain as you point out. Especially as compared to the nearly 450 MS70 FS coins of the W burnished version!
Wondercoin
One thing I will say is very much undervalued is fully struck Walkers. Walkers, including proofs, don't always come well struck, but don't have the premiums that FB brings for Mercs and FH for SLQ's.
It's definitely a cool coin because it's unique, but what is story behind this coin?
Did San Francisco strike any other Type 2? If all Type 2 were in another mint, could this have been struck somewhere else, like Philadelphia?
Is this like a trial or presentation piece?
People don't really appreciate how rare some moderns are. They think just because it's modern, it's not worth holding on to. The only thing stopping moderns from becoming more expensive is the lack of collector interest and the reduced amount of newcomer millennial and gen z collectors relative to boomers.
All coins were modern at some time or another!
Generally, I'm a believer in efficient markets and the US coin market is very efficient and very mature.
Because of this, I have a hard time coming up with "undervalued" series and don't think there is any. At the same time, I can more easily come up with a list of less valued or unvalued coins. For collecting purposes, I would say unvalued coins are ones with very little numismatic premium (over face value or melt value).
The 32S Washington is a good call. Many classic Commemoratives are a bargin at these levels.
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The story of the No-S Ike from our hosts:
https://www.pcgs.com/top100/coin4
One thought is that it may be the most expensive coins that are undervalued.
Here's the thought. Imagine a country where income distribution disparity is widening, population growth is slowing and the youth are not interested in coins. In this scenario, it may be the few select top end coins that see further interest in the future while the majority of coins have less interest, and would thus be overvalued today.