07-04-2009, 01:05 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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| 1909 Collector
Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Calabasas, CA
Posts: 1,090
My Mood:  | 1908-S Indian Head Cent Grading Set - The First Branch Mint Cent
Hello everyone. I just joined this Forum this weekend so I figured that my first thread here should be a good one (though many of you will likely prefer my second thread as it’ll be a giveaway!). I’m fairly active over at the Collectors Universe U.S. Coin Forum and I already see several familiar faces here, but many new ones as well. A few months ago when I posted this set over at the other forum, The Penny Lady suggested that I also post it over here. Now I am finally getting around to it!! While my first love in coin collecting is my 1909 Mint Set (link in signature line), I also really enjoy collecting Indian Head Cents. I figured that a decent way to learn the series and how to grade the series better was to work on a grading set (one example of each grade). I've always loved the 1908-S semi-key date as it's the first time the cent was produced outside of the Philadelphia Mint. For those who have never attempted a grading set, it’s a fairly expensive task since you pretty much need to choose a semi-key or key date coin; otherwise, if you choose a common date coin the lower graded certified examples will simply not be available. You need to choose a coin that is worth the certification fees even in the lowest grades or you’ll spend lots of time and money sending the coins in for certification yourself hoping they come back graded the way you need them to come back. The 1908-S Indian Head Cent works well since it is available in all grades G4 and above and is much less expensive than the key dates such as the 1877 or 1909-S. In looking at my 1908-S IHC grading set, I know that not all of the examples in the set below are the best examples for the grade, some are overgraded a little and some undergraded a little, and some have other distractions like nicks and spots. However, some of them are fairly low population coins for the grade and it can be hard to find even one example in the grade at all. If you would like to know the current pops of these coins, a link to the Showcase set in the PCGS Registry with that information is in my signature. Eventually, I’ll “upgrade” a few of them once I find better examples, but for now they'll have to do. Also, sorry that some of my photos aren’t the best. I have difficulty taking photos of copper especially and plan to have the set professionally imaged once complete. Thanks for looking and hope that maybe the set helps a few others learn the series too. Feel free to post your questions or comments. I’m especially interested in hearing which examples you feel are overgraded or undergraded. PCGS G04   PCGS G06   PCGS VG08   PCGS VG10   PCGS F12   PCGS F15   PCGS VF20   PCGS VF25   PCGS VF30   PCGS VF35   |
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