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Crazy prices for circulated liberty seated quarters!
Crepidodera
Posts: 280 ✭✭✭✭✭
David Lawrence Rare Coins auctions of "Helen's Quarter Collection" have resulted in some wild prices for circulated liberty seated quarters. Feb. 29th - 1866-S PCGS VF30 sold for $7,150, PCGS retail price - $2,250. March 14th - 1870 PCGS AU58 CAC sold for $7,055, PCGS retail price - $1,325!!
Doug
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There are so few recent comps that price guides are not very helpful.
High-end Seated 25c seem to be in short supply compared to 3-5 years ago. Still, it looks like the auction contained many coins that were exceptionally nice for the grade. The prices realized may not be reflective of the series in general.
Here's the 1866-s VF30:
https://www.davidlawrence.com/inventory/762538
and the 1870 AU58:
https://www.davidlawrence.com/inventory/762551
Those are earth shattering results for circulated seated quarters. I don't know how else to perceive those prices.
The high prices will drive more collections to the auction market as current collectors realize they are now priced out of the market for even circulated Liberty Seated quarters. The high prices may also start to drive many of the hoarded scarce and rare dates to market.
1864 quarter in P53 CAC went for $2327. Underbidder (way under) on that one....
The 1870 quarter was amazing - over double guide going into the final days and rocketed up much further.
Is this the registry set phenomenon with fierce competition to get key coins again?
It has often been said that you can't judge a market by a single coin or even a dozen or more.
I can't play in that end of the pool, but I saw those coins and would have thrown the price guides out the window too. Some coins are just way better than others and that is why they are price guides and not price specifics. Good to see other people interested in Seated Quarters though. James
Some of those coins, looking like that come along once every 5 years or so. If you don’t buy them now, you might have a hole in your set for 5 years, plus prices will have moved higher when you get another shot. That means you need to pay the guide price from 2029 today to buy them. When I check that guide, these prices are almost perfectly in-line.
Regardless if it's only one auction CU tracks DL auction results.
Those of us with a few seated qs should see a well deserved bump in values.
The 71-cc in Au-55 went from 80k to 102,750 in just 2 years since it was sold last by legend
Que sera'; sera'
Not a whole lot is making "sense" in coins today.
Other than bullion I wouldn't put much money into them.
Glad my Seated 25c set is complete (minus 1873-CC No Arrows). I'd hate to experience a huge price spike while I'm in the middle of building a set.
FWIW, the very last coin I added was an 1882-P business strike (PCGS MS67 OGH).
High grade, beauty, rarity and few buying opportunities will result in strong prices.
“I may not believe in myself but I believe in what I’m doing” ~Jimmy Page~
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947)
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
if some one wants to spend that type of money then God bless you, fwiw
This is the issue. Some of these are so rare in problem free VF-XF that you wont see another one for years.
I won several coins in the four sessions and paid dearly.
Price guides are just that, guides. I have bid well over guides and won and have bid well over guides and lost many times.
Ooh how do I get my hands on a copy?!
That could really simplify my life
@conrad99 ... you'd obviously need an enhanced buisness strike DeLorean.
This thread needs some pictures.
Some raw meat closing tonite on Ebay. Good luck to those who are bidding!
Yes saw that at recent show / guy across aisle had some slabbed ones a bit over CPG (retail) but he sold a few. Strong demand. Expect to pay the money.
Hammered at $785.02
It's about time the market realized the true rarety of liberty seated coins. A beat up 1866-s also sold for over $500.00
I am vglad that I finished my liberty seated sets over 15 years ago. Time to sell I guess. The prices for bust and seated coins are not coming down any time soon.
I have two 1866-s quarters in my collection. The first is a PCGS F12 example. The second is an AU Details example that has a patch of hairlines around the date and was probably dipped at some point.
Here are the four coins I won in the four sessions.
PCGS AU55 CAC
PCGS AU55 CAC
PCGS AU55 CAC
PCGS AU53 CAC
Nice!
That 64 quarter is very nice. Congratulations.
It's gotten to the point where you might have ten serious collectors of Seated Quarters looking for a certain semi-key date,and only one coin up for sale; this leads to higher prices. And there are maybe twenty collectors looking for each key date.
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.
I won these three in the DLRC "Helen's Quarter Collection" auctions. Side note: it was a stellar collection which included an 1823 and an AU 1871-cc. I paid over PCGS guide for the 66-s and 67-s, and just under for the 64-s which surprised me. I figured there would be more competition for the 64-s, which I consider the rarest S mint quarter. The good this about having a complete set is that at least you can sell the coins that you're replacing and recoup some of the cost.
Thank you!
Here are my thoughts on some of the coins posted above, and a few pictures of my examples.
1842-O Large date: Tough to find in any grade higher than VF. MS graded examples in TPG holders are usually heavily toned and don't look any better than an AU. A condition rarity, but overlooked because 1842-o Small Date steals the thunder. My example is a PCGS AU58 with great eye appeal except for a rim bump that probably precluded CAC approval. I paid dearly for it after many years of looking and passing up numerous MS62-64 graded examples that just didn't have eye appeal.
1859-O: A tough, nasty coin to find in any AU or Unc. grade with original surfaces. Nice ones exist in VF-XF. I have a PCGS AU53 that took a long time to find.
1864-P: The business strikes of 1863-64-65 years have a reputation among Seated 25c collectors as "not that rare." Still, they have become difficult to find because of increased collecting pressure. My 1864-P was purchased raw for $200 plus change on the BST many years ago. What a deal that was in retrospect. It graded AU55 at PCGS, but it has some chatter under the toning that keeps it from being "choice."
1864-S: A legendary condition rarity in the series, but not the rarest S-mint quarter by total population. 1872-s has it beat hands down. In fact, I think 1872-S is just about tied with 1870-CC and 1873-CC in terms of total population in all grades. Going back to 1864-S, it's hard to find, and most of us settle for a coin in the AG-F-12 range with nice surfaces after some searching. Mine is PCGS F12 and should be in a VG10 holder. I'd like to have an XF or AU example, but so would a lot of other people. I think I still have a VF details coin in my junk box that's somewhat cleaned, but not too bad.
Story about 1864-S: In the 1990s, I was in a brick & mortar coin shop in upstate NY when my dealer friend whipped out an old leather pouch that "came back from California in the 1890s." He wasn't kidding, because all the coins from the 1880s and 1890s were stone cold Unc. The 1864-S quarter that slid out into my hand was AU58 on a bad day and would probably grade Unc. by current TPG standards. Unfortunately, the silver coins in the pouch had heavy toning and red stains from the decomposing leather. The 1864-S quarter needed conservation services, with a mixture of ugly brown, black, and red stripes across its surface, and strips of full mint bloom peeking through. I wanted to buy it right then and there, but his helper behind the desk said, "Spoken For." Ugh, how I regret hearing those words. I never saw the coin again, and if it has turned up in an auction at any point, it was conserved and doctored to the point of being unrecognizable. Sigh.
I still have an 1883-P $5 gold from that pouch that has reflective surfaces and graded MS63+ at PCGS after I removed all the red crud from the obverse using some mild solvent method that I can't remember. It may have been the only P-mint coin in the pouch, as the rest of the coins were a time capsule from 1890s San Francisco.
@rhedden,
Thanks for posting photos of your coins. I really love your 1842-O and 1864 examples. I think I owned your 1859-O at one time. I agree with you about the 1864-S/1872-S quarters, 1872-S is much rarer. I wish I still owned the PCGS XF40 CAC example of the 1864-S from my second collection.
Doug
Thank you for posting that information regarding the scarcity of 1842-O quarters in grades above VF. I was not aware of that.
If I may, this is an example I found at a coin show here in Germany some years; besides the low price I paid, it also shows an interesting feature: per information to be found in the net, the reverse of the 1842-O quarter is found in two varieties: one with eagle with 'closed claws', the other with 'open claws', (Briggs reverse A and reverse D respectively).
The open claws variety seems to be very scarce (but probably very little known, and therefore not likely to get collectors too excited).
The trouble with minor varieties in Seated 25c is that many of the coins are already so expensive in higher grades that die marriages are unlikely to bring much of a premium, outside of some major feature like an oversized mintmark. For example, my 1842-O also seems to be an Open Claws variety with a mintmark far to the left, but due to the high cost, I failed to even look it up in Briggs. (Shame on me.)
Most Seated 25c collectors who search for varieties want to cherrypick everything. They won't pay a premium for a scarce die marriage that isn't one of the most obvious and popular varieties like 1840-O WD Large O, 1873 Closed 3, 1854-O Huge O, etc. Even the 1854-O Huge O sometimes sits in dealer inventories for months and months because everyone wants to cherrypick it without paying the variety premium. On the other hand, some sellers are happy to declare everything to be a rare die marriage and jack up the prices. (Welcome to Coins, right?)
Yes, it's a combination of the scarcity, prices, and the length of the series.
When most cannot even complete the series by date/MM, there is no point in attempting to collect by variety.
Reholdered trueviews. Considering the low quality pics lately, these aren't too bad.
nice coins but those pics
@Crepidodera
Now that is an interesting MintMark.
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
Really heavy die polishing!