Best Grade To Collect 0

[Central Coast Coin]

Hey Everyone,

 

I am More of a bullion stacker, but am wanting to start collecting coins.  There are a couple set I have my eyes set on. I understand the concepts pertaining to exponential values of coins and grading, and  I am by no means in a place to build a "best of"  set.  Is there a grade of coin that is better to stack than others? Am I over thinking?

 

Thank you ahead of time!

[Coinbuf]

The best grade to collect is the one that you find pleasing to the eye.  If that metric fails and you need a financial measure then the best grade is the grade where the next grade up is a large price jump.  The problem with that is the big price jump will be different for every series, every date in a series, and then for each mint for every date in a series.  As an example a P mint 19XX might be $250 in MS64 and $1500 in MS65; however that same 19XX from the D mint might be $250 in MS62 and $1500 in MS63.  If you have a very fat wallet (or you decide to collect at much lower grade levels) you certainly can just pick a grade and buy all the coins in a series at that grade.  All of this changes depending on the series you are going to collect as many 19th and 20th century coins are (except for a few key dates) affordable for many up to even MS65 levels.  Where many18th century coins can be expensive at low grades even as low as very good grade level.  So what you decide to collect may very well decide for you what grade is the best.

 

Most collectors that build date and mint mark sets tend to have mismatched grades throughout the series, usually with the early and key dates being lower grades than the less expensive common dates.  Two ways around this is to collect by type, and/or collect moderns where most are priced about the same regardless of which mint produced the coin.

[kbbpll]

Everything Coinbuf says +1. And it definitely depends on what you decide to collect and your budget. I recent completed a set of all the transition varieties of Barber dimes, and since my criteria was having one of each, without breaking the bank (for me that's less than about $300/coin), I ended up with anywhere from raw AG3/G4 through slabbed MS64. As a wide generality, I find AU58-MS63 the optimum range. I figure if I ever have to sell, someone will also be looking to buy it in that range.

[Conder101]

1 hour ago, Coinbuf said:

The best grade to collect is the one that you find pleasing to the eye.

And that you can afford.  I find early large cents in MS very pleasing to the eye, but I' not going to have much of a collection if I can only buy one coin every 15 to 20 years.  You have to find a compromise.  In my case I prize completeness and rarity over quality so my early date variety set is low grade, averaging around G4 to 5.  But there are only a small handful of collectors with collections more complete than mine. (and their incomes a MUCH higher than mine.)

[Central Coast Coin]

On 8/10/2020 at 7:13 PM, Coinbuf said:

The best grade to collect is the one that you find pleasing to the eye.  If that metric fails and you need a financial measure then the best grade is the grade where the next grade up is a large price jump.  The problem with that is the big price jump will be different for every series, every date in a series, and then for each mint for every date in a series.  As an example a P mint 19XX might be $250 in MS64 and $1500 in MS65; however that same 19XX from the D mint might be $250 in MS62 and $1500 in MS63.  If you have a very fat wallet (or you decide to collect at much lower grade levels) you certainly can just pick a grade and buy all the coins in a series at that grade.  All of this changes depending on the series you are going to collect as many 19th and 20th century coins are (except for a few key dates) affordable for many up to even MS65 levels.  Where many18th century coins can be expensive at low grades even as low as very good grade level.  So what you decide to collect may very well decide for you what grade is the best.

 

Most collectors that build date and mint mark sets tend to have mismatched grades throughout the series, usually with the early and key dates being lower grades than the less expensive common dates.  Two ways around this is to collect by type, and/or collect moderns where most are priced about the same regardless of which mint produced the coin.

Thank you!  This makes a lot of sense to me. For some reason I though it is  "better to have a set all being the same grade. The financial metric is helpful as well.  Looks like you are finding coins that are rare, but not so rare that the price begins rising exponentially. 

Thank you for your response.

On 8/10/2020 at 8:01 PM, kbbpll said:

Everything Coinbuf says +1. And it definitely depends on what you decide to collect and your budget. I recent completed a set of all the transition varieties of Barber dimes, and since my criteria was having one of each, without breaking the bank (for me that's less than about $300/coin), I ended up with anywhere from raw AG3/G4 through slabbed MS64. As a wide generality, I find AU58-MS63 the optimum range. I figure if I ever have to sell, someone will also be looking to buy it in that range.

I agree the collection does really have an impact on what grade one could collect, I completely agree.  

On 8/10/2020 at 9:07 PM, Conder101 said:

And that you can afford.  I find early large cents in MS very pleasing to the eye, but I' not going to have much of a collection if I can only buy one coin every 15 to 20 years.  You have to find a compromise.  In my case I prize completeness and rarity over quality so my early date variety set is low grade, averaging around G4 to 5.  But there are only a small handful of collectors with collections more complete than mine. (and their incomes a MUCH higher than mine.)

I like the idea of completeness as well, if I were to go off my notion that everything should match... then your example shows my anxiety. 

 

Most importantly, all three of you pointed out I should like the coin as well.  Why buy it otherwise?

 

Thank you for your input, it helped greatly.

Edited August 13, 2020 by Central Coast Coin