It depends greatly on what your budget is. And what you consider to be key dates. And whether you want your entire set to all match within one or two grades of each other. Give a little more detail about what you want to achieve and it will be easier to give an informed answer. Anything else would be just an uninformed opinion.
For me the key dates are 69/69, 69, 71, 72, 77, 1908s,1909s My collection is from G-4 thru AU-55 so it doesnt matter what grade.
In this case the red book would not help. Prices are not good. I would recommend using heritage and looking at prices. At that grade range they will vary greatly - the only thing I recall is a VF20 to VF35 1877 will run from 1700/1800 to upto 2300.
Granted the Red Book prices are not spot on but the "Kid" would get a good idea about the question he is asking. The 77 is the big ticket item here. He does not say if he wants both the bold and shallow N in the 71,72. Even so, he could with some searching at some coin shows find the rest under $100 in G-4.
doing them in F-vf seems reasonable if you have the "coin" to buy it. just list what you want and look at the prices, ask yourself..."Self, can I afford this ? " Kind of like buying a used car, do I have $3,000 for a 2002 Nissan Altima or $30,000 for a 2008 Corvette.
