Looking through my bluebook. 1878 S silver half in G-4 is worth $7,500. Only 12,000 minted. However 1879 Half dollar, ONLY 4,800 Minted, worth $90 in G-4 with a max of $550 in proof. Why the heck is the 1878S worth more but the 1879 has fewer minted?
One of the things that happens with lower mintage coins is they are hoarded early, so there are more of them in higher grades sometimes than the coins that were placed into circulation in greater amounts. Fewer high grades of those coins are found, making them rarer than the lesser minted ones. It took me a while to begin to understand it when Doug explained it months ago, but it makes sense. The ones nobody cared much about are now very scarce in top grades. Prices are all about demand. gary
Value is not based on how many were minted. It is based on the number that survived. (That's the simple explanation. Obviously the formula is more complicated than that.)
Another factor here is that in 1878 coin collectors primarily collected coins by date only. It was not until about 1893 that collectors started collecting coins by mintmark. Most of the collectors in 1878 may have lived back east and were satisfied to collect their 1878 Halves from the Philadelphia Mint. Fifteen years later, when collecting also by mintmark became all the rage, it was too late to obtain many mint state 1878 Halves from the San Francisco Mint and those in circulation had 15 years worth of circulation wear. That's just a theory but it sounds good to me.
Just because the a coin has a high ORIGINAL mintage, doesn't mean that it's worth less than a coin with a lower original mintage. This thread is a perfect example. Just like stated above, it's the survival rate that counts. Just because there were 12,000 of them minted, DOES NOT mean that all 12,000 exist today. Same thing with the 4,800 mintage, more were saved, so more of them exist today. Again, it's how many are surviving today.
Hobo you are just about right except that the collecting by date and mintmark really didn't begin until around 1909 and didn't really take off until close to the 1930's when the coin boards and folders came out. The 1893 date is from when Heaton wrote his pamphlet identifying all the mintmarked issues. So in 1878 most people were happy with the 1878 Philadelphia coin (And in fact most serious collectors who could simply bought a proof form the mint) and all the 1878-S coins were worn down and eventually redeemed and recycled. The 1890 collactors bought proofs for their collections as well. Most of those proofs survived and today it is easier to find a proof than a circulation strike.
And perhaps more so on demand. Look at the 09 S VDB. Not rare by any standard, yet sells for more than truly rare coins with less than 1/10 the population.
