Hey gang! I just got this guy back from the graders today. I have posted it before in another thread but I figured this would be a great coin to make a new thread about. This coin has a mintage of 48,588 however collectors have long known that the vast majority of these went into the melting pots over the years. Estimates of surviving numbers range from 3% to 5% of the original mintage.
I love early gold! These along with the 1795-1806 half eagles are two of my favorite series. That is one beautiful coin.
That is terrible, ugly and disgusting. Now, that said, can I buy it? J/K of course. [It bugs me that I have to explain sarcasm. There should be a font for that.]
I got 209 on all 3 varieties with 98 of those being MS60+. Very low numbers that I wasn't aware of which makes that 1818 pretty dadgum special...:thumb:
BTW, the math doesn't work... 209 would be 0.4% of the original mintage... So survival rate would be 0.3% to 0.5%
I did buy it raw. It body bagged at NGC for a small scuff on the cheek. I thought this was rather harsh and after setting on it and thinking about it I decided to give it a shot at PCGS. Some may not agree because it was previously in a details holder... But I obviously knew it was a close call... And am happy I reconsidered.
Wow nice! I will have to stop by your shop on my many trips from Madison, WI to Cincinnati. I may not be able to afford some of the coins you have, but just seeing them would be worth a pit stop. Now to convince the wife
That was a fortunate grade; the mysterious "53" grade, used most often on early coins like this of significant value. I have also had no grades in early 5s grade at PCGS. If you look at their statistics, PCGS has a fairly low no grade percentage, they prefer to net coins down a notch..... Trends is around $18K in AU50; my guess it was bought south of $10K.
OP may be off a little...APX. 200 coins (all 3 varieties) raw or graded. Doug and I have similar numbers, not sure where OPs info came from.