<< <i>A circulated 1880 Shield Nickel is a condition rarity, not an absolute rarity. Proofs/alleged Mint State specimens are not particularly hard to find.
Condition rarity can work both ways. >>
No, you are conflating two issues. You are taking the general easy availability of 1880 proofs and using it as an argument that 1880 business strikes are not rare. Proof vs. Business strike has nothing to do with condition rarity.
Provable 1880 business strikes are rare. Proof 1880 strikes and prooflike strikes (where you don't know for sure) are common.
Lesser grade provable 1880 business strikes sell for strong money due to their general unavailability. High grade provable 1880 business strikes sell for moon money, probably due to the registries. I recall a PCGS MS65 1880 going for over $50K on Heritage a couple years ago.
There are plenty of dates that come predominantly prooflike due to their low mintages. By 'not being sure' the fact that the MS coin is expensive is a self perpetuating circumstance.
<< <i>The problem with condition rarity is that the condition is always just the opinion of whoever graded the coin. Spending gazillions of dollars on an opinion with which a lot of people may not agree strikes me as foolishness. Also, if we are talking about moderns, condition rarity is subject to change with time. Plus certain opinions carry more weight than others, and just the generally held acceptance of that principle can greatly affect pricing of identically graded items.
I like owning coins where I know only a handful of collectors will ever own one. I'm not talking about, for example, 93S dollars, which are plentiful but expensive. I'm talking about coins that you can search for for years without finding one no matter how much money you are willing to spend on it. The hunt is everything.
I like the quote someone posted from Antiques Roadshow. >>
A certain MS70 1963 Lincoln cent comes to mind. Wasn't this coin later found to have spots or something and demoted?
<< <i>There are plenty of dates that come predominantly prooflike due to their low mintages. By 'not being sure' the fact that the MS coin is expensive is a self perpetuating circumstance. >>
I'm not sure what you mean by a self-perpetuating circumstance.
The 1880 shield nickel, which is what started this part of the thread, is a special circumstance. There were only two obverse dies used in 1880, and both dies were used to strike both proof and business strikes. So there are no generally reliable die markers to differentiate proofs. *
* Actually there is one reliable die marker for a late die stage business strike, and that one always gets "business strike" acknowledgement from TPGs. (It's called "island reverse." If there is interest, I'll post more, but it has been covered before and you can probably find the info with a search.)
Comments
<< <i>A circulated 1880 Shield Nickel is a condition rarity, not an absolute rarity. Proofs/alleged Mint State specimens are not particularly hard to find.
Condition rarity can work both ways. >>
No, you are conflating two issues. You are taking the general easy availability of 1880 proofs and using it as an argument that 1880 business strikes are not rare. Proof vs. Business strike has nothing to do with condition rarity.
Provable 1880 business strikes are rare. Proof 1880 strikes and prooflike strikes (where you don't know for sure) are common.
Lesser grade provable 1880 business strikes sell for strong money due to their general unavailability. High grade provable 1880 business strikes sell for moon money, probably due to the registries. I recall a PCGS MS65 1880 going for over $50K on Heritage a couple years ago.
http://www.shieldnickels.net
<< <i>The problem with condition rarity is that the condition is always just the opinion of whoever graded the coin. Spending gazillions of dollars on an opinion with which a lot of people may not agree strikes me as foolishness. Also, if we are talking about moderns, condition rarity is subject to change with time. Plus certain opinions carry more weight than others, and just the generally held acceptance of that principle can greatly affect pricing of identically graded items.
I like owning coins where I know only a handful of collectors will ever own one. I'm not talking about, for example, 93S dollars, which are plentiful but expensive. I'm talking about coins that you can search for for years without finding one no matter how much money you are willing to spend on it. The hunt is everything.
I like the quote someone posted from Antiques Roadshow. >>
A certain MS70 1963 Lincoln cent comes to mind. Wasn't this coin later found to have spots or something and demoted?
<< <i>There are plenty of dates that come predominantly prooflike due to their low mintages. By 'not being sure' the fact that the MS coin is expensive is a self perpetuating circumstance. >>
I'm not sure what you mean by a self-perpetuating circumstance.
The 1880 shield nickel, which is what started this part of the thread, is a special circumstance. There were only two obverse dies used in 1880, and both dies were used to strike both proof and business strikes. So there are no generally reliable die markers to differentiate proofs. *
* Actually there is one reliable die marker for a late die stage business strike, and that one always gets "business strike" acknowledgement from TPGs. (It's called "island reverse." If there is interest, I'll post more, but it has been covered before and you can probably find the info with a search.)
http://www.shieldnickels.net