A rare coin

[JTO]

Number 1 of my top 10 "rare coins"... in no particular order.

 

I have previously posted about how freely the word "rare" is used about particular coins when they come to auction. To me if there are 20 examples of a particular "rare" coin in a single auction it really begs the question: How do they define rare? One of the most glaring examples of this is also a coin many of us dreamed of owning as a kid and a few of us were lucky enough to find in pocket change: The 1909-S VDB Lincoln Cent.

 

The 1909-S VDB Lincoln Cent is frequently, I really meeting frequently, offered at auction with the catalog author waxing on about how the coin is "a lustrous example of the key date of the Lincoln series". This drives me crazy. On the platinum night there may be 4 examples in MS-65 Red or better. Then in the live auction there are between 10 and 20 grading from AU-55 up to MS-65 and in the subsequent automated auction there will be another 8-15 graded from Good up to a plethora of problem coins. It's not necessary to single out the 1909-S VDB for all this abuse, as the 1877 Indian Cent fit the same profile almost identically, with the exception that the grades for each auction are slightly lower. These are not rare coins they are simply expensive coins. If you have enough money you need not wait longer than the next auction at your disposal.

 

So with all that negative commentary what do I suggest IS a rare coin? First, a disclaimer: as a fan of the New Orleans Mint, and since that is a focus of my collecting, I may be over emphasizing coins from New Orleans. But, that said, however about 1838-O no stars half-dime. Although there appear to be as many as 150 that have made it problem free into slabs, when you take into account all of the re-submissions, the actual number of coins is probably closer to 80 problem free, gradable examples.

I literally spent years waiting for an "affordable" nice problem free example to come to market. I would regularly check Heritage, Collector's Corner and occasionally even eBay. Sure I could have gone to Legend Numismatics for the single MS-66 example but it is priced that well over 60,000 dollars. When the pictured example showed up on the Internet I tracked it back to the Liberty Coin website and snatched it up for ~$1000 dollars below recent auction archive results.

 

This coin, because of its rarity, poses a number of challenges both for the dealer and collector. If you walk up to a dealer's table and (as I attempted once) grandiosely open your offer with "I'm willing to pay full Red Book, i.e. retail value", you will likely be treated to a round of laughter and told "you should go by it from the Red Book". The problem is, that the coin comes to auction or sale so infrequently that it is difficult to track its actual value. I was fortunate that the folks at Liberty Coin didn't go to the Heritage website to do an auction archive search on the coin. Because I had been searching for an 1838-O no stars Half--Dime I was up to date on the auction results and lucked out on the price.

Sorry for the rambling post. I was just trying to share a bit of my perspective and passion. Thanks for reading,

John

 

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[Electric Peak]

Hi John,

 

Indeed, the 1838-O half dime is tougher to find that a lot of the more popular, and more common, "rare" coins. I just got mine, for my set of Liberty Seated Half Dimes, a few months ago. As for things like the 1909-S VDB, perhaps its rarity should be described as "rarely found in the collections of people who do not have a lot of money to spend" on such things. I have dropped what I consider to be a lot of money on coins, and I have always wanted a 1909-S VDB, but never got one. There are other coins that are simply more interesting to me. And most of them are significantly scarcer than the more popular 'rarities', not to mention cheaper for comparable quality.

[#]

NLI

[CaptBrian]

I too have looked around and the word 'rare' seems to be kicked around fairly loosely.

I suppose, we as coin collectors have the 'right' to define rare as something we want and can't find or afford.

 

I don't know and for sure am no authority bu t I usually condider a 'rare' coin is one which is low population and high grade (for that coin) Sometimes an AU 50 may be the highest grade available for any date for a given coin and may also come in high populations.

 

Therefore, I feel a 'rare' coin, should be one of low population in that grade and of the may also be one of high grade for a populous coin but low population in highest or top five grades.

 

See how confusing it gets. I feel rarity should be one of highest grade or low population, the lower the better.

 

Perhaps a conference of the graders of NGC and PCGS should have a summit and declare a proper discription of a rare coin and even perhaps give us a new category of rare coins that are hard to find but higher in populations. Perhaps give them a rating like a deck of cards or such like.

 

See, I can ramble too.

 

Capt. Brian

 

PS I liked your article and it was not rambling.