"conditional rarity" - this piss anyone else off?
PutTogether
Posts: 2,141 ✭✭✭
I hate an otherwise common coin being disturbingly expensive because of it being scarcer in higher grades. I hate it. I mean i really really hate it.
I'm curious to see how others handle this in their collections. What do you do when a coin you need for a set you are trying to accomplish is ungodly expensive in anything close to the grades of the other coins you have - but isnt really all that rare in general? (think 34S peace dollar, not 93S morgan)
I'm curious to see how others handle this in their collections. What do you do when a coin you need for a set you are trying to accomplish is ungodly expensive in anything close to the grades of the other coins you have - but isnt really all that rare in general? (think 34S peace dollar, not 93S morgan)
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<< <i>What do you do when a coin you need for a set you are trying to accomplish is ungodly expensive in anything close to the grades of the other coins you have >>
Find it raw and rip an unsuspecting dealer.
Russ, NCNE
-YN Currently Collecting & Researching Colonial World Coins, Especially Spanish Coins, With a Great Interest in WWII Militaria.
My Ebay!
U.S. Nickels Complete Set with Major Varieties, Circulation Strikes
U.S. Dimes Complete Set with Major Varieties, Circulation Strikes
Does it piss me off...Sure! Though, I usually get over it quickly.
If it's a coin that's truly a condition rarity, people will always question the condition when you go to sell it. That's because they don't want to pay the premium. Solution: buy the coin in a PCGS slab. Whether it's and AU-58 or an MS-67, the certification will give credibility to the assigned grade, so you are protecting your investment.
Example: an 1884-S Morgan in PCGS MS-63 will attract a lot of interest at MS-63 prices, but a raw 1884-S Morgan in MS-63 will attract a lot of skeptics who try to tell you its an AU-58.
Ken
In my Ike collection I have pretty much hit the wall.
Link to my pitiful collection
Any IKE coins of higher grade appear to require me to start selling body parts in order to buy them.
Simple non silver clad coins are going for astronomical prices in MS65-MS66 grades. MS68 silver clad coins can give you a heart attack.
<< <i>Well I can feel for ya there.
In my Ike collection I have pretty much hit the wall.
Link to my pitiful collection
Any IKE coins of higher grade appear to require me to start selling body parts in order to buy them.
Simple non silver clad coins are going for astronomical prices in MS65-MS66 grades. MS68 silver clad coins can give you a heart attack. >>
IKE's are neat, your doing fine.
-YN Currently Collecting & Researching Colonial World Coins, Especially Spanish Coins, With a Great Interest in WWII Militaria.
My Ebay!
PutTogether: No it doesn't bother me. A lot of people want to have the very finest, but few can have it so that drives up price. If you want a matching set you can predict in advance which coins will cost an arm and a leg in the grade you want. So you can either lower the grade you want for your matched set, or be satisfied with a set that has one or two coins in a lower grade.
That being said, a sparkiling ms-69 lincoln is still a beautiful coin and if that is what someone wants to purchace, go for it!
https://www.ebay.com/mys/active
very nice for the grade.
<< <i>I don't like the idea of true conditional rarity on coins with HUNDREDS OF MILIONS in circulation. I.E. pop top 2004 ms-69 lincoln cents. Wait about 10 years and I bet that pop top will be pop 6,567,984!!!! hahahah! >>
TheLiberator: As a general rule the mintage of moderns in very high grades is well under six
and a half million. In fact in some cases like '76 type 1 Ikes there is every possibility that there
were no superb gems minted. More importantly perhaps, the vast majority of those minted have
been kicking around in circulation for many years and are no longer very high grade.
The MS-69 2004 Lincoln will have a mintage of under 10,000 if the recent past is any indication.
While survival rates of new coins in high grade has improved dramatically in the last few years,
there is still only a very small chance of coins that were issued for circulation to be set aside.
Fortunately most of modern Lincolns are readily available in MS-65 though, so those who collect
them can have very nice sets for very low cost.
I thought it was pretty good, but being number 67 in the list tends to deflate ones ego some.
But then having the 67th best set in the world can't be bad at all.
Never collect coins that are worth many times less outside of their holders than in.
A true rarity will be worth just as much holdered as it is sitting in 2X2 flip. I try to collect only these types of coins. If I buy a coin and I'm very sure that someone would want the same coin for the same price if it was raw, I know I'm getting a true rarity.
I don't even look at pop numbers any more. A rare coin with exceptional eye appeal is always what I'm after. Pop numbers only give me a good idea of how rare a coin is. I'd rather have the knockout MS66 than an average looking pop 1(0) MS67.
4000th post
<< <i>I don't like the idea of true conditional rarity on coins with HUNDREDS OF MILIONS in circulation. I.E. pop top 2004 ms-69 lincoln cents. Wait about 10 years and I bet that pop top will be pop 6,567,984!!!! hahahah! >>
I don't think that this is what most folks think of when discussing condition rarity. In the Morgans the 1892-s, the 1884-s, the 1897-o and 1901 are the top condition rarities in that uncirc or nice uncirc examples are difficult to find while the same coins are common in circ condition. The 84-s is tough in ALL uncirc grades while the 97-o is tougher in 64 and above.