WoW!!! Would you pay this much for a Memorial????

Answer to the question NO. I might pay a dime.
This coin is rare why? Oh yeah, slabbing fees.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Although the cent is nice, the PCGS name is most likely driving the price up. I doubt it would go for that much if you saw NNC or ICG or one of the other lower end TPGs names attached to it. Like I say all the time, The Escalade is just an Chevy Tahoe with the Cadalac name stuck on it. I'll stick with the Chevy.

 

Registry Fever strikes again

 

That's cause a penny cost them $80.00 and they (coin collectors who pay outrageous amounts for memorial cents entombed in a piece of plastic) can't afford skivvies. :goof:

Ribbit

 

You don't think they'd pay as much for the same penny (cent) if it was a in a SGS slab and graded MS-70?

Ribbit :headbang:

 

You might be close.

SGS MS-70 = PCGS MS-64

Heck, at least they have two of the four letters in common - might count for something. :whistle:

 

In point of fact he got a steal on the coin. It lists for $250 in the PCGS price guide. Even Coin World which tends to be pretty conservative with moderns lists it at $100. If you think this coin is so easy then why aren't you out there selling? Let me answer it for you; you don't have a clue where to find such coins and don't want to learn. You don't even consider these real coins since they didn't make any real coins after 1964. And of course you don't know anyone who set them aside and even if you did there's about zero chance that they tried to save only nice examples.

When you ask questions like this you are essentially saying that moderns are beneath collecting. You are saying that no one would have any desire for it if it weren't in the slab. Well, you couldn't be more wrong. There are people who collect moderns and they aren't going to stop because you think they're nuts or their coins are worthless. The simple fact is that a memorial that sells for the same price as a wheatie is probably about twenty times scarcer because no one wants to collect junk.

 

Sure if I were working on them. Maybe not this coin.
They were saying the same about wheat cents years ago.

 

I collect memorials as well, and understand the difficulty of putting together a set of true gems, but remember, registry fever has placed a , in my opinion, silly premium on plastic holders and inserts with numbers on them.

wasn't it just a week ago that a 2008 Lincoln sold for $350

 

Surprisingly most moderns are not available in rolls. There are a few of all of them but you can't just open up the latest issue of Coin World and order a roll of 1972 quarters from anyone. You could write to all the advertisers in Coin World and not fiind a roll as well. If you did by chance find one it would only be because there is virtually no demand so it's still available for you.

Pennies are the exception. There are substantial numbers of every date of Lincoln memorial cents available. This means about 750,000 at a minimum with many being as high as 10 million for the early issues and five million for the post '64 issues. (a few may be higher)

The 1979 is one of the most common. Probably about the seventh most common post-'64 issue.

But don't be expecting rolls of high grade coins coming on the market. People didn't care about memorial pennies in 1979 and they were saved only for investment. People didn't seek out the finest examples and protect them against decay. They went to the bank and lugged home a bag or two of these as an investment and tossed them in the basement. Had they cared they might have looked at a few of the coins and seen they were all of horrid quality. They would have started a set of cents and sought the nicest examples.

THIS DID NOT HAPPEN.

Today these would be almost impossible were it not for the existence of mint sets. About 1% of the '79-P's are gem in the sets. Find 100 rolls and you'll have a gem. Find a hundred sets and you'll have a gem. Find a few gems and you'll find an MS-66.

People have collected the old coins for decades. If you want to worry about hoards of gems surfacing well, guess what they'll be... ...old coins.

MS-67's are harder.

 

People actually started collecting high grade moderns back in the early '80's... ...long before the registries and the grading companies.

 

Again, it's a free country. You can go out and slab these coins yourself and make a killing.

 

Cladking
What is the scarcest "gem" of the memorial series?

I have never really put much attention to it untill the last conversation we had about these, and I am finding out how really tough some of these are....

BUT, I still consider it "silly" to pay $350 for a coin only into it's 3rd month of production

 

It is not all that uncommon for memorials to go for over $100 - for every mint and date. I would not even consider it rare for one to go over $1000 although not for every year. Just as a for instance, 1969- went for $3450 and it was MS-67.

 

Perhaps you're right. I don't think so but that's just my opinion. But look at it this way, if $84 is enough to compete in the registry than this is a bargain. Common date silver quarters go for $10,000 in high grade now days. Many of the recent coins are far scarcer by any measure and in any grade (above F). Most of these guys compete for the fun. Many don't even consider it true competition and spend a lot of time helping one another. But if you had to be in the registry would you rather buy $84 coins or $10,000 coins?

 

I don't buy or collect in coins less than three years old. It takes this long for them to rotate out of FED storage. I do set aside a few brand new coins if I think they are being overlooked.

Paying anything for new coins is very risky. Of course it's risky for the seller too since the coin might be quite rare. After three years the market starts giving signs of what's easy and what's tough and you don't have to worry about a lot coming out of storage.

 

Of course I collect Memorials. I have a complete roll set of BU memorials and I paid $40 for a few of the rolls in my set. And some of the cheaper rolls were very very difficult to find. I also collect the gems for my personal collection. Most of my gems came from auctions that were an assortment of Singles from mint sets. People buy mint sets and cut out the halves, Quarters, Dimes, and Nickels for their sets. But alot of people dont bother with the cents and list em on Ebay as an assortment. Ill pay a few bucks and get a small pile of SMS memorials. And those are usually all gems and many would grade MS67. So, in my opinion, Id rather buy SMS coins for cheap money and get just as nice a coin. The money that guy spent on that coin, he could have bought a few mint set, then sent all the cents in to be slabbed, odds are pretty good he would get atleast one MS67 back, then he has a few to sell or keep, not to mention the other coins from the mint set. I dont know, to each his own.

 

I don't have a lot of experience for every date. I do collect these so do have a little feel for them.

What's tough depends somewhat on how you grade and how important you consider a good strike by good dies. It also depends on how tolerant you are of spotting. I suspect true pristine gem '68-P's are far more difficult than people realize. Every single one in mint sets has carbon spots now. There are plenty of roll coins that are pristine but finding these with good strikes isn't easy.

The '79-D is a bear in mint sets but roll coins actually contain a few high grade examples. The '69 is tough if you like them clean. '78-D is tough in the mint set as are the '73's. The '84-D is vastly underrated in the highest grades. A lot of the later dates come extremely nice and this applies to almost all the zinc issues. It's probably possible to almost complete a "branch mint proof" zinc set but a few will prove impossible probably. The '72-D is underrated. It's considered quite common in 67 but that's because the services allow weak strikes. Like the quarter this is almost impossible with a 100% strike.

The '70-S sm dt is getting quite tough. It's been picked out of all the mint sets and the few left tend to be ghastly. Of course the ones already picked out are often tarnished now as well. While this used to be common in gem, it's been years since I've seen a nice gem. Higher grade pieces were always a little elusive. They come up to about MS-68 with a few vaguely PL.

 

Whoa, Whoa Cladking! Take it easy. Wow, those are fightin' words.

I like your enthusiasm! :thumb:

Its like my friend who not too long ago bought a Mercedes for $120K. Would I love to own one - hell ya. Am I ever going to pay that - hell, no. Doesn't necessarily mean I wouldn't like to own one or can't afford one - just think it is crazy to spend that kind of money on a vehicle. Of course if I were a die-hard Mercedes collector/driver like my friend is, then I probably would buy one.

David Bowers made an interesting statement in the latest issue of CW. I know I am going to mess this up, but I will try to paraphrase his story without getting my butt up to go look at it. He used the 1893 Columbian Comem coin as an example - but this could apply to any coin. He said, would you pay $14,000 for a MS67 or $800 for a MS65. He basically said that he would buy the MS 65 and spend the money on other coins. He went on to say that as far as the visual difference goes, very few people can tell the difference between a 67 and 65 and that grading is a matter of opinion and that goes for the PCGS people as well.

To the many of us, that is a lot of money to be spent on a Memorial cent, but to the obvious enthusiast such as yourself, you find that to be a great deal worth investing in. Not condemning you for your love of the coin - its just a lot of money for a coin that IMO is going for that much because of the name. What would that same graded coin go for if it were slabbed ICG or SGS? Its the same opinion of the SGS grader so does that mean it should go for the same price? Probably not - why? Because of the slab its in. Just my two cents - doesn't change the fact that I would love to have the coin.