Where can I find a listing of the rarity of different GSA dollars? I know that Vamworld has some of them, but is there a complete list somewhere? Doesn't the grade affect the rarity value assigned? I have over 30 different GSA variants.
I'm not sure if this is what you are asking for or not, but here it is. GSA coin quantities The accepted quantities of each date were: • 1878CC - 61,000 • 1879CC - 4,100 • 1880CC - 131,500 • 1881CC - 147,500 • 1882CC - 605,000 • 1883CC - 755,500 • 1884CC - 962,600 • 1885CC - 148,300 • 1890CC - 3,950 • 1891CC - 5,700 one each of the 1889-CC, 1892-CC, and 1893-CC The remainder consisted of approximately 125,000 circulated and uncirculated Dollars from various other mints.
Those are not mintage numbers I listed above. Those are the actual numbers of coins by date/mint that were sold in the GSA sales. In most cases the mintage numbers are much higher than what you see there. Here are some rarity scales, those used most often. The Sheldon Scale R-1 Common R-2 Not So Common R-3 Scarce R-4 Very Scarce (population est at 76-200) R-5 Rare (31-75) R-6 Very Rare (13-30) R-7 Extremely rare (4-12) R-8 Unique or Nearly So (1,2 or 3) The Universal Rarity Scale by Q. David Bowers Universal Rarity Scale-0 = None known URS-1 = 1 known, unique URS-2 = 2 known URS-3 = 3 or 4 URS-4 = 5 to 8 URS-5 = 9 to 16 URS-6 = 17 to 32 URS-7 = 33 to 64 URS-8 = 65 to 124 URS-9 = 125 to 249 URS-10 = 250 to 499 URS-11 = 500 to 999 URS-12 = 1,000 to 1,999 URS-13 = 2,000 to 3,999 URS-14 = 4,000 to 7,999 URS-15 = 8,000 to 15,999 URS-16 = 16,000 to 31,999 URS-17 = 32,000 to 64,999 URS-18 = 65,000 to 124,999 URS-19 = 125,000 to 249,999 URS-20 = 250,000 to 499,999 URS-21 = 500,000 to 999,999 URS-22 = 1,000,000 to 1,999,999 URS-23 = 2,000,000 to 3,999,999 URS-24 = 4,000,000 to 7,999,999 URS-25 = 8,000,000 to 15,999,999 URS-26> = same progression What it seems you are asking for is a specific rarity scale for only the GSA coins. Well, to the best of my knowledge there is no such thing. There are rarity scales for Morgan dollars however, I think you can find them in the Van Allen books, but even that is based on the specific varieties of each coin. So unless you can identify a specific variety for each individual coin you want to know about, I'm not sure you can find what you want. But I've been wrong before and no doubt will be again. In any case, the numbers I gave you do give you a pretty good idea of just how scarce or common any of the GSA coins are when you combine those numbers with the either of the rarity scales I also provided. Given the numbers of the actual GSA coins, there's no way, shape or form that any of them besides the last 3 can even be considered to be scarce, let alone rare. But the numbers I gave you do tell you which ones sell for more than the others. What they don't tell you is the conditional rarity that is based solely on grade. For that, you can go to Heritage and look them up one at a time.
Still not what I am looking for. I know how many were minted, how many are in GSA slabs and what the general rating values represent. Here is an example of what I am looking for. I have an 1880-S GSA in MS65; what is the rarity of that coin? Is it R-3, R-8, etc.? I have 47 others that I am looking for the same information. VAMworld has a value for the VAMs, but does not take grade into consideration, list the normal die coins or tke GSA slabs into consideration. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After your second comment that's what I thought you were looking for, but as I said above there is no such thing, no such rarity scale based on that. About the only way you can get an idea of what you want to know is to go to Heritage and look the pop numbers up for that specific coin. Or, if you have access to them, you can look up the pop numbers at the TPG websites.
Aince you say you know the population reports and the rarity scales put two and two together and there’s your estimate
Wrong. A rarity scale is not the same as the rarity of a specific coin. A scale is generic for all coins. The Sheldon Scale R-1 Common R-2 Not So Common R-3 Scarce R-4 Very Scarce (population est at 76-200) R-5 Rare (31-75) R-6 Very Rare (13-30) R-7 Extremely rare (4-12) R-8 Unique or Nearly So (1,2 or 3)
Pardon me. but it looks like you're just trying to justify overpaying or overpricing coins. We've all done that. But the first step in your recovery is admitting you have the problem.
Neither. I just want documentation so that when I am gone my children won't be clueless as to values and rarity so an unscrupulous dealer doesn't rip them off. I'm fine with what I paid and do not plan on selling during my lifetime. Call it estate planning.
So what rarity would you assign to the 1880-S GSA in MS65? And how did you arrive at that? I find no place that says how many 1880-S MS65 GSA dollars exist in GSA slabs.
Who disturbs my slumber?! Anyway, there are R-numbers assigned to specific Morgan dollar varieties, but they need to be taken with a grain of salt. When the VAM book was first written, the scale was pretty much a log base 10 scale, where R-n meant less than 10^(9-n). Since obviously no dies made tens of millions of coins, R-1 was used for the generic 1921 variety. This is before the series was studied down to the every die for every date level of detail. Now your average VAM is probably R-4 or 5, when you consider attrition, if you use that scale. These numbers are estimates based on how likely it is that a coin with a given feature should have been noticed by now and, if the listing is for some sort of die damage, how long the die was probably in the condition it was in when the coin was struck. GSA Morgans in general don't have R-numbers, but the VAMs that show up in GSA holders do. A few are rare, most are not (given the definition or rare). The production numbers above are what you'd need to know when buying them. I rather dislike Bowers' URS scale, but that's a topic for (or from) a different thread.
I think what he's looking for is the third-party grading population report just for coins in slabs labeled GSA or in graded GSA slabs. I don't know if that exists.
