What are the toughest Philadelphia Seated Liberty issues?

Blackborder · February 25, 2010 7:03AM

By denomination? Not including proofs or condition rarities.

Half Dime
Dime
Quarter
Half
Dollar

speety · February 25, 2010 7:06AM

1851 and 1852 for the dollars

DIMEMAN · February 25, 2010 7:09AM

1863 - 1867 for the dimes.

Marauderrt10 · February 25, 2010 7:15AM

i would say the civil war dates, very tough to come by nice PQ pieces, and when you do see them they are gone fast

roadrunner · February 25, 2010 8:15AM

These are my top picks in no particular order since it's hard to separate them. I'm not including doubled/tripled/quadrupled dates or overdates. This does not include seated dollars.

These first 2 stand out from all the rest:

1873 na open 3 half
1873 na closed 3 quarter

1842 LD quarter (the "easier" variety) - I've always liked this date and other pre-1858 issues since proofs don't cloud the issue. And on the pre-1852 issues there are very few uncs either.
1866 and 1869 quarters (1868 and 1867 next in line)
1863,64,65,67 dimes
1864,65,67,68 half dimes
1882,1885,1887 halves
1882, 1886 quarters
1853 na quarter
1851 half and quarter
1846 dime and half dime
1840 wd dime and half dime

A number of the above dates show up more in unc than they do in circ so that pushes them down the list a bit. A list of just circs from Good-AU would look somewhat different. For comparison purposes the 1880 nickel and 1804 dimes are in the same general league as many of the above dates.

roadrunner

LindeDad · February 25, 2010 8:15AM

1853 for the quarter and half as the Arrows & Rays are a one year type coin for them, allways garner a premumiun in my experience.

blu62vette · February 25, 2010 8:19AM

<< <i>1882,1885,1887 halves
>>

I agree!!

coolest · February 25, 2010 8:21AM

What about the 1884 half$

roadrunner · February 25, 2010 8:35AM

The 1884 half would probably make the list if only circs were being considered. Just a few too many uncs out there. The 1886 half has the same issue where very few circs are ever seen (3X as many uncs). But this is only my opinions. I know that others prize the 1884, esp. with it having a minute mintage. It's still a great coin.

If we were only considering XF and below I'd list the following as all generally equal:

1879, 1882, 1885, 1886, 1887, 1890. In both uncs and circs the 1881 wins the most "common" prize. But it's all based on our own experiences.

roadrunner

Blackborder · February 25, 2010 8:37AM

I'm surprised no one mentioned the 1842 small letters half.

I figured that one would be at the top.

coindeuce · February 25, 2010 9:21AM

Try to find an 1884 circulation strike quarter in any condition. They just aren't available, at least not without problems. The quality pieces are all in collections.

roadrunner · February 25, 2010 11:15AM

The 1842 sd half barely fell just outside my list...as did the 1841, 1845, 1846 TD, 1862. All of them are tougher underrated dates imo. And then you have the rest of the 1880's and 1860's to deal with. Many 1842 and 1846 halves are not attributed as to small or large dates which might actually make them more common than frequency of appearances/auctions would suggest. The 1842 sd is a very worthy coin but imo not the key date that an XF 1851 would be. One can't really use pop reports to fine tune these dates as the bulk of the circs are in hands of collectors/speculators/dealers that don't intend to send them in anytime soon. I checked an LSCC club census done in the 1990's and the 1842 sd ranked 21st in number of specimens owned. Every date in the runs of 1850-1852, 1867-1868, 1879-1890 was listed ahead of it. So a top 20 or so coin but definitely not in the top 10 of P mint halves.

It's interesting that in the seated series a coin with <250 pieces remaining in existance is very desireable. Yet one somewhat comparable with 300-400 pcs known would be chopped liver to most. In most series such a small difference would have almost no bearing on price and availability.

Listing every better date in the seated series quickly leads one to a unmanageable list. In the quarters over 75-85% of all the dates/mint marks are rarer than the 1901-s quarter and could be considered "better" dates. It's more fun to deal with the top 25% or so. But out of 58 or so designated major Philly halves by date/mm/variety maybe only 12-15 pcs could be considered "common."

I inadvertently left off the 1840 lg letters off as well. Another coin where attribution hinders existing population accuracy. The 1852 is a great coin in circ but the large number of uncs pulls it off the list.

roadrunner

coolest · February 27, 2010 11:31AM

For quarters what are the toughest between 1884, 85, 86 and 87?

Any seated quarter experts?

Thanks!

CaptHenway · February 27, 2010 1:44PM

<< <i>I inadvertently left off the 1840 lg letters off as well. Another coin where attribution hinders existing population accuracy. The 1852 is a great coin in circ but the large number of uncs pulls it off the list.

roadrunner >>

Not a Philadelphia issue.
TD

fastfreddie · March 2, 2010 8:07AM

<< <i>By denomination? Not including proofs or condition rarities.

Half Dime
Dime
Quarter
Half
Dollar >>

1848 and then 1840 in MS quarters

Blackborder · March 2, 2010 8:25AM

I think the discussion got a little bit off track.

For halves, it has to be the 1842 small letters, only 2 known, unless you don't consider it a regular issue. If not, then probably 1873 open 3 no arrows would be at the top.

Dimes and half dimes, probably something in the 1864-1867 range.

Quarters and dollars, I have no idea.

What are the toughest Philadelphia Seated Liberty issues?

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