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Would you buy patterns if you had the money???
Dennis88
Posts: 5,797 ✭✭✭
We all know that all patterns are rare, and most of them are out of reach for most collectors. But let's say that you have the money to buy several patterns (10 or so) would you buy them then, or would you choose for regular issue coins??? It is IMHO an underrated series of US coinage. Okay, they did not circulated, but they were mostly struck as proofs and some have beautiful designs.
Dennis
Dennis
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But a coin budget gets waaaay more bang for the buck in world coin patterns. And those are often just as beautiful.
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
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The name is LEE!
I can't collect everything, and some patterns are just something that I find interesting, but not interesting enough to divert funds from regular U.S. coins. Other patterns, like some the nonsensical mules (coins made from two dies that don't belong with each other) that are in the series don't interest me in the least.
I do own two pattern coins, but there are those who say that they could or should be called regular issues: the 1792 half disme and the 1836 Gobrecht Dollar.
<< <i>
I do own two pattern coins, but there are those who say that they could or should be called regular issues: the 1792 half disme and the 1836 Gobrecht Dollar. >>
I beleive the current consensus is that the "common" Gobrecht is a regular issue, albeit with a small mintage.
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Dennis
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Les
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My pattern nickel collection is coming along nicely. I also especially enjoy the off-metal Shield and Lib nickels.
If I had a lot more money, I suspect I would own a lot more patterns.
Wondercoin
Some of them are truly beautiful works of art.
09/07/2006
Forgot to say that I've always wondered what a circulating silver dollar with the Schoolgirl on the obverse would be like (didn't really like the reverse too much, though).
-YN Currently Collecting & Researching Colonial World Coins, Especially Spanish Coins, With a Great Interest in WWII Militaria.
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mojo
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my blog:www.numistories.com
One thing that I've noticed about patterns is that they seam to be less often conserved than regular issue coinage. There are many really great original pieces; someday I will start collecting them. For now I am just learning more about them and kind of figuring out which coins I like the best.
While I think a lot of them are really cool looking (and I always wondered why some of them were rejected as coin designs), I've never had an interest in collecting / owning them.
Patterns to me are like collecting prooofs (hey - I think most if not all patterns were struck as prooofs) and I don't have a lot of interest in proofs. Proofs were supposed to be beautiful and were intended to be preserved.
I prefer ordinary circulation strikes. They were made to be coins, not samples of the coiners art, and they were meant to be spent. Or flipped. Or bitten into. Or placed on railroad tracks. The fact that some of them have survived in pristine condition is happenstance - especially the ones that have survived that way since about 1804. Or 1787. Or 1659. Etc.
Dennis
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I hate it when you see my post before I can edit the spelling.
Always looking for nice type coins
my local dealer
09/07/2006
<< <i>No.
While I think a lot of them are really cool looking (and I always wondered why some of them were rejected as coin designs), I've never had an interest in collecting / owning them.
Patterns to me are like collecting prooofs (hey - I think most if not all patterns were struck as prooofs) and I don't have a lot of interest in proofs. Proofs were supposed to be beautiful and were intended to be preserved.
I prefer ordinary circulation strikes. They were made to be coins, not samples of the coiners art, and they were meant to be spent. Or flipped. Or bitten into. Or placed on railroad tracks. The fact that some of them have survived in pristine condition is happenstance - especially the ones that have survived that way since about 1804. Or 1787. Or 1659. Etc. >>
I agree with CCU
Jim
42/92
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Although all my dealer friends seem to warn me off of patterns, I think that our market is changing drastically, and the type of individual that is entering the market now, and for the next ten years, will be a different cat. It is my opinion that tomorrow’s collectors will be more investment oriented, better educated, and better financed, than the “hobbyist” of the past half-century. I also think that super rarities that are R4 to R7 will be the coins of choice regardless of there being MS Proof or Pattern.
Simple fact is that much of the pattern market seems to have lagged behind the high-grade proof and MS market the last few years. As many of the high R factor MS and Proof coins disappear into strong hands, it is my belief that the pattern market will really take off.
I understand from our past discussions here that some collectors don’t even consider proof coins “ real coins” but if you accept patterns as “ real coins” then patterns are the rarest issues of all, and many are priced at or below high grade proofs. Here is an example, last week I bought a pattern, a proof 64 seated half. The proof of that year is retail at $3,000 with 460 minted the pattern I bought was an R6 with 18 known the priced was $2,500.
Collecting anything means looking for the rarest, so count me into the group that loves patterns.
When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.
Thomas Paine
-YN Currently Collecting & Researching Colonial World Coins, Especially Spanish Coins, With a Great Interest in WWII Militaria.
My Ebay!
j1766/p1980 - 1891 barber half
j1700/p1902 - 1882 morgan half
j1645/p1845 - 1880 barber dollar
j1608/p1804 - 1879 morgan school girl dollar
j1512/p1676 - 1878 - morgan half
j1426/p1569 - 1875 trade liberty at the seashore
j1201/p1234 - 1872 amazonian half
1871 - any of the longacre-barbers
1870 - barber dime and dollar
j68/p71 - 1844 dollar
j104/p116 - 1839 gobrecht dollar
j79/p89 - 1838 gobrecht dollar
eh...all fantasies....any of them would be cool to look at
Is there a good book out on pattern's.... Would be interesting to see all the could of been's..
Alot of them are better than what we have.....
dennis
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<< <i>What are the cheapest patterns as of today? >>
The cheapest IMHO is J-229/P-272, the 1859 Indian cent of the type of 1860-1909. This is a R1, wich means over 1250 known. It's generally seen in Mintstate instead of Proof, but still very nice. Expect to pay somewhat near $1000 for a nice MS63-64 example.
USpatterns.com Link
A nice example sold last year March
Hope this helps,
Dennis
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-YN Currently Collecting & Researching Colonial World Coins, Especially Spanish Coins, With a Great Interest in WWII Militaria.
My Ebay!
I certainly would.
We'll use our hands and hearts and if we must we'll use our heads.
You might be thinking of the J228 - the 229 is much rarer.
<< <i>"If I had the money" I would buy every freakin' coin ever made. >>
I'll second that comment...
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.