i own a 1931s certified by ngc as ms64 now its book value in that state is about 450 .. why is it worth so little when on 866000 were minted???
I presume you mean the 1931-S cent. Yes, there were only 866K of them minted, but the low mintage was publicized at that time, which led to the coins being saved by collectors etc. so that many many of them are in nicer condition than their contemporaries like the 1930 etc with much larger mintages. A lot of them were even saved in rolls. The few of them that actually circulated only saw light circulation before some collector got hold of them and save them from more wear down the years.
You don't say it, but you are talking Lincolns. Secondly, I don't know where you got your "book value", but they don't sell for that much anywhere I know. They go for between $200 and $275 on Heritage. As to why it is worth so little, I personally met someone who managed to get 2 bags of them, but that is peanuts compared to this story; http://www.valuable-coin-stories.com/1931-S.html. Why so little - because so many were saved.
In a lot of ways, it's like the 1950-D Jefferson Nickel. It was known to be a low mintage so everyone saved them in the hopes of making money.
Similarly the 1974-S mints were saved by a lot of people, the mint director at the time, Donna Pope even blamed collectors for creating penny shortages because they were saving the San Fran minted coins from circulation. I always have saved them, just a habit - and they still turn up regularly in box searches. As a result of people "hoarding" the S minted coins, the San Fran mint continued to mint coins, but without the mintmark. The following year saw the S minted cent as a proof only, which resulted in demand for it, I remember years ago they were upwards of $15-18 each and now they are about where the 1976s and other proof coins are price wise because there is no demand for them anymore. They are worth less now than they were 30 years ago.
I was just going to say the same thing. Coin collecting is nothing new and may have been even more popular with the general public in the past. The 1950-D nickel was the lowest minted of the entire series. Everybody knew it when they were coming out so they were all quickly pulled from circulation and saved by the rolls. They've been saved ever since so today there are many many high quality examples available and thus, they are very affordable. Just like the 31-S cent apparently. Higher mintages went unnoticed with less fanfare. As a result, much fewer people saved anything from them. Resulting in far less 'high quality' coins from many high mintage years. This is common with most series' of coins throughout U.S. history.
I just bought one today in VF for 62 bucks on ebay....i feel I got a smoking deal for the second lowest mintage Wheatie
As is this one for $106. I paid $30 for a 1931-D that was probably an XF, around 1966. It was by far my most valuable coin. A couple of years ago I paid $40 for one that was much nicer and beautifully toned. And don't forget the inflation in between then and now. I could only dream of having a 31-S when I was a teenager.
It's not so much as how many were struck (although that is a factor); it's how many still exist. Extreme example: 1933 Saint Gaudens Double Eagle. 445,500 struck which is a lot more than many other Saint Gaudens Double Eagles. Many other dates can be gotten in MS-63 for under $2000. There is only one 1933 Saint Gaudens Double Eagle available for private ownership. That one sold for about $7,600,000.
Another contributing factor that may be involved is that there are no new coin collectors searching for key date coins. In fact those that do collect coins are not buying anymore like they used to. Either way, the fetish may have worn off or it is becoming too challenging to inventory a large coin collection. If people aren’t buying, most likely the price will drop.
It may be the 2nd lowest minted wheatie next to the 1909 -S VDB, but there are other Lincoln cents that are rarer. 1955 doubled die 1922 no D 1969-S doubled die 1944 steel cent 1943 copper cent I did notice a couple of years ago very nice examples of the 31-S were being bought in EBay auctions in the $80-$99 range.