Price Guide information on lower grade Colonials
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lkenefic
Posts: 9,321 ✭✭✭✭✭
Hello Everyone.... I'm looking for pricing on a New Jersey Colonial Cent (1787 Sprig Above Plow, Maris 63-q). I've got an old Greysheet that doesn't go into a whole lot of detail on varieties and ends at F15 grades. There doesn't appear to be any pricing information in any grade on this issue on the PCGS Price Guide. I was looking at completed auctions on ebay (six total for all varieties) and the pricing is all over the place... $60 for an AG Details piece to a single VG10 that sold for $379 and VF's that were north of $500. Does anyone have any suggestions for pricing information? Thanks in advance...
Collecting: Dansco 7070; Middle Date Large Cents (VF-AU); Box of 20;
Successful BST transactions with: SilverEagles92; Ahrensdad; Smitty; GregHansen; Lablade; Mercury10c; copperflopper; whatsup; KISHU1; scrapman1077, crispy, canadanz, smallchange, robkool, Mission16, ranshdow, ibzman350, Fallguy, Collectorcoins, SurfinxHI, jwitten, Walkerguy21D, dsessom.
Successful BST transactions with: SilverEagles92; Ahrensdad; Smitty; GregHansen; Lablade; Mercury10c; copperflopper; whatsup; KISHU1; scrapman1077, crispy, canadanz, smallchange, robkool, Mission16, ranshdow, ibzman350, Fallguy, Collectorcoins, SurfinxHI, jwitten, Walkerguy21D, dsessom.
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Comments
The Greysheet is quite comical when it comes to pricing colonial coins. I would gladly pay “sheet” for many of them while others are clearly overpriced. Colonials are very difficult to grade and price on a consistent basis. Does a coin have choice color and surfaces? Is it well centered and struck? Is the coin naturally flawed or does it have post strike damage? In addition, many slabbed coins are straight or details graded when the opposite is true. There is a coin in an auction coming up that I really need but on closer inspection has been tooled yet is in a straight graded holder. Your best bet to price is to check the archives of Heritage as well as Stack’s/Bowers. From my personal experience it is a pain to sell a slabbed common variety colonial that is in lower grade.
Unfortunately there is no easy answer, colonials just don't play by the same rules as federal coinage. 63-q is a rarity 3 variety so there is no premium for rarity, nor is it a popular one look variety like a camel head, serpent head, no coulter, head left, etc. so it is pretty much a type coin variety. New Jersey's are pretty popular right now, so it has that going for it. About all you can do is check sold prices. A quick look shows similar pieces seem to be selling for well under $100 but there are outliers selling for much more, maybe unknowledgeable buyers.
It’s all about eye appeal, grade is pretty much secondary. If you have Gobs of time the complete EAC grading book is online at the Newman numismatic portal. It breaks down grading by state. Very Concise. •••••. For the OP coin I’d be perfectly happy with the straight VG8 grade. On a bad day, it might have gotten details corroded. List it at $239 and accept close offers