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There’s a good chance that I might have overpaid for this… but I did it anyway!

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Revenant

Entry posted by Revenant ·

1,798 views

I’m not sure if I should care.

An NGC 1880 Netherlands 10G appeared in the wild in MS65 for sale! For $600! … Ouch. But it was perfect for my set!

I’ve never seen one of these (already graded by NGC) come up for sale before. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it hasn’t happened in all that time, but this is the first one I’ve been aware of while it was for sale. A recent round of internet searching revealed that in Sept 2015 a PCGS graded example graded MS66 went up for sale with several other PCGS graded coins from this series through Heritage. I hadn’t realized that happened at the time. If I had I might have gone for those, PCGS graded or not, but a PCGS coin wouldn’t have helped my registry here, post January 2012.

The thing that made this particular example PERFECT for my set is the fact that it’s in an old fatty holder with a 1959XX serial number - quite the emerging feature of the set.

The Seller of this NGC graded example did have a “Best Offer” option, which I was hoping to haggle him down to about $525. But, before I could do that last week, he offered it to me - and the other person watching it - for $540 (+ 8.45 shipping). Neither of us took it.

That was still more than I wanted to pay so I offered $460. He came back with a counter of $540… Joy.

So, I waited a week. It was during this time that I did some searching and found that old Heritage auction result wherein the PCGS MS66 sold for $320 in Sept 2015 - when gold was about $1100. If you add the buyer’s premium and increase the cost of the coin to reflect the increased cost of gold (with it at about $1,650 at the time I bought it, but, boy, is it down now) that put the value of the coin in the range of $500-575. The NumisMaster price guide (that you get through NGC) puts the coin at $475 in MS63 (but those prices are almost always inflated, and they list the same price for the common date 1876 and 1877s which usually don’t go for that much). That made the price the seller was looking for not entirely unreasonable, but it was still somewhat higher than what I’d really wanted to pay.

I came back Monday morning (3/9) and offered $500, hoping he’d budge a little - maybe give me the $525 I’d hoped for? He counter offered $540… Okay… so no budge on that at all then.

I sat on it at that point and thought on it throughout the day and ultimately decided to buy the coin for $540. Part of my reluctance had arisen from the fact that I’d only paid $500 for my 1888 - which is the rarest issue and the key date of the series. But… the melt value of the coin has gone up by about $75 since I bought the 1888 and the 1888 was in a new-gen, pronged holder where this was in an old fatty, and, right or wrong, people tend to ask for premiums for coins in old fatties.

Also, while the 1888 is the rare key date of the series, this 1880 issue has the third lowest mintage of the series at just over 50,000 made. And, with the addition of this coin to my set, I have the three lowest mintage issues - all in old fatty holders with 19XXXX serials. These coins were graded around 1993. They’ve been in these slabs since I was about 6 years old.

While I would have preferred to pay a little less for it, at the end of the day this coin is too perfect for the set and too rare and hard to find for me to let this go over about 5%. As it happens, part of the reason I waited to make another offer and made the offer yesterday was that eBay had given me a 5% eBay bucks deal, so I’ll get $27 in eBay Bucks next month, in addition to what I was getting from the purchase of the British Sovereign. So, I suppose there’s that little win.

I will also say that I bought this at least to some degree counting on the fact that it is NGC graded and in an Old Fatty holder, because the seller’s pictures on the listing are marginal at best. I’ve never been disappointed with an NGC-graded MS65 in this series and I do think that some of my coins in these old fatties could get MS66 grades if I wanted to go for the re-grade.

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Sorry! This was a long one! Thanks for reading if you did!

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Just Bob
Quote

 But it was perfect for my set!

 

I’ve never seen one of these (already graded by NGC) come up for sale before. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it hasn’t happened in all that time, but this is the first one I’ve been aware of while it was for sale.

 

The thing that made this particular example PERFECT for my set is the fact that it’s in an old fatty holder with a 1959XX serial number - quite the emerging feature of the set.

 

But… the melt value of the coin has gone up by about $75 since I bought the 1888 and the 1888 was in a new-gen, pronged holder where this was in an old fatty, and, right or wrong, people tend to ask for premiums for coins in old fatties.

 

Also, while the 1888 is the rare key date of the series, this 1880 issue has the third lowest mintage of the series at just over 50,000 made. And, with the addition of this coin to my set, I have the three lowest mintage issues - all in old fatty holders with 19XXXX serials.

 

... at the end of the day this coin is too perfect for the set and too rare and hard to find for me to let this go over about 5%.

 

Looks to me as if the "pros" far outweigh the "cons." I wouldn't give that extra few dollars another thought.

Nice pick-up. :golfclap: You did good.

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ColonialCoinsUK

Great addition to your set - congratulations!

A few years ago I decided that I just had to pay up for some coins and because I planned to hold for a long time the few extra £/$s now would more than work out in the end and even seem a bargain in the future. This became more obvious as coins that I couldn't bring myself to pay for years ago are now priced way beyond my reach!

Once again many congratulations :)

 

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rons

Isn't it amazing that a coin that old is still in incredible condition after 200+ years in the wild? 1880 in ms65 is amazing. Well done :)

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Revenant
21 hours ago, Jade Collection said:

I think I overpaid for all my coins but I'm happy and enjoying this hobby. The coin looks great, hope your happy with it!

One of the things I asked myself, "Six months down the road, am I going to regret it if I let this one slip away?" and I decided the answer was, "Yes." I'm quite happy with the decision - even as gold and silver are tanking right after I bought it.

8 hours ago, rons said:

Isn't it amazing that a coin that old is still in incredible condition after 200+ years in the wild? 1880 in ms65 is amazing. Well done :)

Well, it was minted in 1880 and, based on the slab and serial number, it was graded and put in there in 1992 or 1993 - nearly 30 years ago now if you can believe that. I'm assuming with most of these that they spent most of the time in the middle (112-113 years for this coin) in a bank vault or in someone's collection. I doubt any of these really spent much time in the wild.

Edited by Revenant
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deposito

If the coin isn't available anywhere else and you have been looking for a year or more, and search coinarchives or heritage or something like that, stretching within 20% or something seems like a no-brainer if you aren't hurting to pay rent or a mortgage or medical etc.  

Interesting strategy to collect by holders too.  When I Get a coin in one of those un-pronged holders I break them out and send them in for the new-style NGC holder, because I don't like the obstruction and shadowing.  I never thought about the time they got holdered even being "long ago" or part of the coin's history

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Revenant
2 hours ago, deposito said:

Interesting strategy to collect by holders too.  When I Get a coin in one of those un-pronged holders I break them out and send them in for the new-style NGC holder, because I don't like the obstruction and shadowing.  I never thought about the time they got holdered even being "long ago" or part of the coin's history

It wasn't something I started out doing. I just realized at a certain point that I had several in old fatties and then I realized that the serial numbers were REALLY close on some of them. This got me thinking / speculating on the possibility of these coins having a shared history or maybe passing through the same dealer years ago who submitted them all. It amuses me to think that I could be bringing a set BACK together after years of the coins being apart. It's funny to imagine / think about their journey through history.

There's a good chance that one day the whole set will be reholdered because I prefer the look of the new holders and I think it'll do great things for how the set looks in person if all the holders match.

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AJ2008

Nice coin! surely an very nice addition. wish i could get something like it, but im very young and i use my money too quickly. great job overall! :applause:

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