Just a topic I was thinking a bit about. My decision to post this came after seeing the 1907 High Relif double eagle being called "the most expensive common coin in the world" by Johmiliton on here Commonly we will hear people call common date Morgan dollars "rare coins" which they are not even if they are still very cool. The term get used far too liberally. Even a 1893-S is a coin you can find rather quickly if you have the cash F Personally I own a fair number of coins and I would only consider my Ottawa Specimen Sovereign to be rare and even then I might argue the 1908-C isn't quite rare with it mintage of 636 and a few auction appearance a year. my 1909-C specimen with 10 exsamples certified between the 2 major services and "The Gold Sovereign" estimating number in the dozens range is unquestionably a rare coin it's a little funny that got it by throwing a low bid because I wanted a specimen and of course because "This Thread is worthless without pictures"
It's the amount of collectors that are willing to buy the coin. This Antonius Pius has very few die matches, it's considered rare, There will never be enough collectors after my coin as there are a 07' High Relief. Thats a beautiful Sovereign by the way Ser!
Right, the market is the key factor here. I could draw a picture, it would be terrible and no one would want it or pay for it. But by definition it would be rare with only one in existence. I agree with your point that the word is used far too often in coin circles.
I found this while cleaning a batch. My coin has since been listed in the Wildwinds RIC register as R4. Constantius II, AE follis, Cyzicus. AD 335-336. FL IVL CONSTANTIVS NOB C, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right. GLOR-IA EXERC-ITVS, two soldiers holding spears and shields with two standards between them. Mintmark star SMKA. RIC VII Cyzicus 113 var (officina); notinric 7cyz113. Rated R4. Contributed by David Zachmeyer, Feb. 2020
Rare is what the collector does not possess and does not have the Wampum to possess, but still covets.
What makes a "rare" coin ? You might want to read this thread - https://www.cointalk.com/threads/how-do-you-define-rare-in-numismatics.279980/ There are many other threads similar to that one and yours here that discuss the topic. To see them simply do a search of the forum using the words - rarity scale - as your key words.
Number of collectors divided by number of surviving coins = "market rarity" I guess. The higher the number, the more "market rare." My favorite comparison is that 1893-S Morgan $1 versus the Canadian 1948 dollar. Both are famous as the rarest dollar coins in their respective countries. 1893-S mintage - 100,000 with roughly 10,000 survivors. 1948 CAD$ mintage - 18,780 and probably a similar (or smaller) number of survivors. Price guide in MS63 - $450,000 for the 1893-S, $2,760 for the 1948. So it costs 163 times more for one coin than the other, with close to the same absolute rarity. Both "money coins" - easily found if you have the money. And the obligatory image.
I much prefer to retain a traditional view of the word "rare" or "rarity. Such a designation, IMO, should be reserved for that which is quite difficult to obtain, no matter how much money can be thrown at the attempt. For coins, this might be something like it takes more than two months to find an example, an admittedly arbitrary length of time. But in my view, any coin I can find in less than a week is not rare by any stretch of a traditional definition of the word. For those coins that are hard to obtain solely because they are expensive, I would prefer a term like "economically difficult to obtain (EDTO)". Or maybe just EAS (Expensive as s***).
As has been mentioned previously, rarity is not always defined by the number of pieces struck. Nor does rarity define value. I can go to my dealers shop and find four 16-D Mercs in his case ranging from G4 to VG priced at $400.00 to $600.00. There were 264k struck. Conversely I have a 1999 Washington Bicentennial with only 22k struck that would barely go for melt…. Everyone wants a 16-D. Nobody is looking for the Washington Bicentennial.
A lot of times people confuse value with rarity. Value is a function of supply and demand. Rarity exists on its own, although it is often highlighted by demand, or concealed by lack of demand. That's my view, anyway.
Well said @JBK. Rarity is one of those buzz words that set some people off. I have seen rants that, "There are no rare American coins!" They usually proceed to show you some Peruvian coin with a mintage of 2.4 anf they own the .4 Other people will show a coin they think is rare because it is a specific die marriage or condition. Some people will wail that those are conditional rarities and simply do not count. I personally use my use of time to determine rarity. If I can buy 5 of them right now it is not rare. If it takes a good month or so to find an attractive piece. It is slightly scarce. If it takes a year or more to find even 1 or 2 pieces for sale than the coin is potentially rare. If you have been looking more than 5 years I don't care if it is conditional, a variety, or struck in Peru. The coin is probably rare. Whether or not this rare coin will cost you a few dollars, a few hundred or many thousands is just a matter of how many other people have discovered that particular coin. James
You can call something "rare," but if no one wants it, most collectors are not going to care. I have a couple little silver tokens that a fellow named Harold Flarity made which he used to overstrike cents. He was small dealer who sold these pieces to collectors at small shows in Northern New Jersey in the mid 1970s. According to Harold, these tokens had a mintage of 5 to 10 pieces. That would qualify as rare, but most collects would not acknowledge it.
These discussions are always interesting. Many things to base rarity on - overall mintage, total survivors, conditional rarity, die marriage rarity, variety rarity, market value based rarity (how hyped or famous, number of collectors/number available, etc). The 1909-S VDB 1c, 1916-D 10c, 1955 1c DDO aren't "rare", they're just money coins. Another fun example - the 1900-S dime is common. Bowers estimates 40-50000 in circulated grades. Gem examples MS65 or higher? 90-110. Quirky specialist looking for a gem with the reverse of 1892-1899? Probably 5-10 at most exist.
Rarity often depends on the qualifications tossed into the description. Take pre-2000 Morgan dollars. Hundreds of millions were minted, and survival rate is high. Narrow that to the 1896 Morgan dollar. First qualification is strike: over 20 million circulation from all mints, about 800 proofs. Let’s continue with circulation strikes. Now for mints: about 10 million P, 5 million each O and S. Survival rate from different mints varies. However, thousands from each mint have been graded by PCGS alone. Let’s look at the S-mint coins. How about rare varieties? There are none that are considered major (i.e. none in the Red Book). There are some VAM varieties listed on vamworld.com. The rarest is VAM-5, which is in the Hot 50 Morgan dollar book. This coin has sold for as much as $21k at auction. It’s pretty scarce. PCGS has graded 40; top is MS65. However, most existing 1896-S Morgans have never been VAM’ed, so the number of VAM-5s must be much larger than 40. Then there’s proof-likeness. There are no PCGS 1896-S DMPLs and only 10 PLs (highest is MS66 and it’s a $100k coin). And no VAM-5 PLs. How about grade regardless of VAM or PL? Highest is an astounding MS69 graded by both PCGS and CAC. A pic is below. Yeah, there’s only one. Last sold for about $800k. There are only a handful of pre-2000 Morgans of any date that have been graded MS69. So, are 1896 Morgans rare? Cal
