What do you see as currently over-hyped coins?

The lightest dimes, quarters, and halves I've ever weighed (relative to their as-struck, 25-grams-per-dollar weight) have been Barbers. Maybe some SLQs as well. Those things circulated very heavily, and I wonder if the Fed slowed down their reclamation of worn coins during the 20th century. (But I don't wonder hard enough to go look up the relevant reports, at least not right now.)

So if you're looking to maximize the amount of silver you get per face value amount, Barbers are indeed a bad bet. Best yield of silver is from 1964 issues, because they had so little time to circulate.

One other interesting note -- my tubes of slick Barbers and SLQs actually weigh a good bit more than any others, because you can fit a lot more slicks into a tube! Losing the rim and the high points removes some weight, but a lot more thickness, so slicks pack more densely than barely-worn coins.

 

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Collectors have poo-pooed the Barbers probably since their inception. Which is why there is so much left to discover in the series. I don't understand the disdain - if it's the design, I don't find it much different aesthetically than the insanely popular Morgans. They both have a giant-headed manly Liberty and an eagle on the back.

 

True, however I don't see the Morgans worn down as slick as many Barber coins. A heavily worn Morgan does not appeal to me either.

 

Yeah.... Well I suppose it figures that I am not much of a Morgan man either, however I do have a few rolls stuffed in my SDB for a rainy day. I think as coin collectors we gravitate towards what we find appealing and I never found the Barber series to be very appealing.

 

Barber's have always been a divisive series. Generically I think they are bland unless fairly high grade. However, as a coin design there is no denying its unbelievably functionality. As many have said they are MASSIVELY worn, yet nearly all still have date and mm legible even in poor 1 grade. While not necessarily my taste, technically I believe its one of the best coin designs we have ever had. My favorite circulating US coin design is the buffalo nickel, beautiful but horrible in technical terms.

 

I attribute that to the Barbers being the workhorse of the daily economy, whereas Morgans sat in bank vaults by the millions. So "never cared for them" versus underappreciated is a personal opinion, and maybe the Barbers will never move from the former to the latter. Sure, the design is mostly the same on three denominations, so they're boring in that respect. Yet there are tons of RPDs, RPMs, transition varieties and interesting hub type pairings, many poorly documented and many still waiting to be found. Here's an example. To many/most, just another slick Barber. To me, a scarce example of the obverse 1 / reverse 3 pair found on less than 1% of the mintage. To each their own! OK, now I'm over-hyping them.

 

IMO:

Overhyped - many modern mint products. Some are great but many are just terrible.

Underhyped - circulated coins that didn't have much love.

 

The most overhyped (and ridiculous IMO) are the graded low ball coins, I don't GAF how much the coin industry claims it's good for collecting. It's BS. You can make a coin a lowball in your pocket (or by other means) but you'll never bring or restore a coin to it's mint condition. It's a joke, big time.

 

As far as I'm concerned, it's a huge perverse incentive for people to manipulate coins, and worse yet, to manipulate them into a poorer condition than that in which they were found. I imagine very few lowballers actually do that. But there are going to be people who see the market, and think "I want a piece of that, who cares if a couple of old beat-up coins get a little more beat up..."

 

This. Most surviving Barbers are in the AG/G and below range and are butt ugly. But at least for me, the higher grade ones are some of the most beautiful coins produced by the US. It’s an uncluttered and very pleasing design.

 

Spot on. If counterfeiters go to all the trouble to make fake Morgans and Peace dollars, beating up some circulated coins is merely child's play for those idiots.

 

For my money, the most beautiful uncirculated coins are SLQs in mint state with some album toning. I just can't afford them and refuse to chase them.

 

That’s another personal favorite but, like MS Barbers, not something I can afford on any frequent basis.

 

I think world coins in general are underappreciated, especially by people in the U.S. There are the popular areas such as Latin America, Germany, China and the UK, but I think the rest of the world is largely ignored except by a few. If a collector is interested in the history of coins and getting high grade pieces at a fraction of U.S. coin prices, world coins are where it's at!

I know I might catch hell for this, but I find Morgans over hyped. Every single show I've been to has cases upon cases of them. Might just be me, but I don't see the appeal.

I agree with the sentiments about low ball collecting. I just do not understand the fascination. And though I do love a nicely toned coin, it does seem that sellers deem ANY toning as worthy of a premium.

 

Moderns I agree with.

On Libertads....they are very nice...in bigger sizes the big clear fields are very attractive. The woman with her....ummm....physical assets...is somewhat unique.

It's a nice-looking coin especially in the bigger 5-ounce size.

The erosion of premiums for classic gold or silver prices as the metals rise in price is something we are experiencing in real time. The percentage rise is large enough and so is the absolute rise.

I am somewhat surprised that ASE premiums have seemed to never return to their pre-Covid levels. The absolute dollar amount has been constant it appears...but with silver now having doubled in 5 years the percentage has fallen. Not really sure why premiums have persisted...I know silver is more affordable to retail investors but that doesn't seem to be a good enough reason.

I've stated that if the Mint had more dealers they'd work with the premiums should fall.

 

It is the high premium that I don't understand. I know why people like the coin, but very few - if any - silver coins are currently commanding such a high premium. If I were a stacker, I wouldn't care what type of silver I had. However, what I see in most stackers is actually a fairly narrow category. Old silver foreign coins, 40% silver halves, and war nickels seem to generally sell below melt. It seems that if I were in the refining/minting business, I would take a look at the market and try to follow the current trends. In essence, I am saying silver isn't just silver. I recently sold a lot of sterling jewelry and silverware and was surprised I couldn't get more than 70% spot on it. Compare that to 90% junk silver which is more like 90% spot. Then you have .999 which is even closer to spot. It makes me think that stackers are not actually sackers, but rather badly concealed collectors. Back in the day, people used hack silver for trade! To each his own.

 

As an ancient collector mainly nowadays I have to agree of course. I think all collectors should be aware of ancient coins, since that is literally where every single idea for coinage ever originated. Its pretty fascinating when there were no rules of what a coin must be the creativity they displayed, then even when what a coin is was established, they were still way more creative than today in execution.

I also agree with you about morgans. I have never found them even to be a decent design. The weird thing is the reason morgans are popular is because there are billions of them. Popular coins are always coins in which there are lots of, to gather the most collectors. Same with mercury dimes, lincoln cents, etc. You need lots and lots of volume of a series to spark the most interest in it. If most collectors have never seen a coin, how can they become interested in collecting it? That, and the fact most collectors are older so a great big silver coin being easier to see, along with the fact most are dated in the 1800's, (wow this is really old...) and you get popularity.

Meanwhile, I collect things like my avatar, a coin from the first woman to ever rule the Roman empire by herself and nearly married Charlamagne and reunited the Roman world. 99.9% of coin collectors have never seen this coin. I am not bragging, just illustrating why I can afford to collect this when there are 1 or these in the world for every million or ten million morgan dollars, or 1 for every 100 1893 S morgans, rarity does not beget high prices if there are not enough demand.

 

seen the asking price for some pf 70 cents, stupid. maybe not hyped up tho. filling out my lincoln proof set, most of the 1970 to 1990 prices are keeping me to either raw or low graded. wondering if there any full step pf70's,.

 

it was said -why would you need more than one perfect example of each coin?

i would say to that, because we are true collectors. why do we gotta have more then one of each coin- because we collect.

 

I think it's supply and demand.

They don't strike anywhere near as many as the U.S. does ASEs or Canada minting Maple Leafs, etc. And they aren't offered for sale as much it appears to me.

Yes, stackers aren't going to go for this coin and they'll get silver the cheapest way possible. But if lots of coin and/or silver collectors just want 1 of these coins or 2 or 3....it can lead to excess demand and a rich premium.