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variety price guide?

10 posts in this topic

There is no guide that covers all errors or varieties.  Some of the most popular ones are found in the standard price guides, some others are in things like the Cherry pickers guide.  Some are priced in specialty  publications.  Some general classes can be found in various books. And the vast majority have no guides what so ever.  They will bring whatever they bring. There is no way of knowing beforehand what that will be.

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9 hours ago, K.D. Lewis said:

thank you conder for your response. just hoping there might be one that i didn't know about. maybe something for a future numismatic writer.

A variety price guide would be tricky because the market for most of them is so thin. There are thousands of different varieties, sometimes they have fairly small populations, and the number of people who will pay a premium for them is small. Plus, with a small population, the discovery of a couple new examples could really change the pricing structure (if there was enough data to accumulate to get a good guide in the first place). 

Its impossible to make an error price guide because no two errors are alike. You have categories of errors (off center, broadstrike, clip, etc), but literally every single one is different. Because of that, no two errors will ever sell for the exact same price. Yes, I know that no two regular coins are the same - but there is a significantly larger degree of uniformity in regular strikes. The best you can do with error coins will be a classification guide, like Alan Herberts book: https://www.amazon.com/Official-Price-Guide-Mint-Errors/dp/0375722157

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thank you physics-fanpi for your response. the book looked helpful but a 10 year old price guide? i already own a 1965 red book, hard bound. it's fun to peruse when i need it. i guess as far as prices go;  just see what the market says, and hope for the best. 

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3 minutes ago, K.D. Lewis said:

thank you physics-fanpi for your response. the book looked helpful but a 10 year old price guide? i already own a 1965 red book, hard bound. it's fun to peruse when i need it. i guess as far as prices go;  just see what the market says, and hope for the best. 

Like I said, the book linked is not really a price guide: it is more of a classification guide. It explains how each type of error is made, and walks you through what makes them more valuable. The book has significantly more information that a 1965 Red Book (and really, if you are interested in collecting coins, you should get a few more modern books.... a lot has changed since 1965). 

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thanks again physics-fan. it was kind of you to provide the info and links. i think you are correct about 1965. the year our coinage was debased.  i would rather invest in an upgrade, than spend precious funds on on a book. a fatal flaw in collecting, it is said. The F/S books have paid for for themselves many times over. i am thinking about selling a collection with several varieties and errors and was hoping to fix a price in my mind for the total. perhaps the best route would be to sell the varieties separate. anyway thanks again for your time.

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If you are looking to sell Cherrypicker's Guide varieties, those are usually more significant, more popular, and will garner more of a premium. You can look at Heritage Auction archives to see what similar examples have sold for recently. 

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