Featured A Brief Essay on the 1907 High Relief $20 Gold

That particular seller is a well-known dealer. Do have to be careful with individual selles with spotty records on lower-priced coins.

Less likely to find a scamster selling high-priced stuff, IMO.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

For coins like this, I would just call up the dealer and get the substantially reduced price, plus the experience of personally dealing with the seller

 

I've always felt the same. Not because it lacks a cool story or artistic merit, but because the market has already fully factored that in.

I could get multiole US Phillipine proof pesos for the same price, and those seem to have more appreciation potential, IMO.

 

I'm curious why you guys think that the 1907 High Relief is not worth the money.

It IS a pricey coin, based on total population, but the condition of the coins ranges up to Gem and Superb Gem.

Plus....there just aren't that many mass-issued high relief coins that were as well-struck and had a beautiful reverse and obverse as the 1907 High Relief.

Would you guys show buying interest if the coins were 20% less in price ? 50% less ? 75% ?

You're not implying these coins should mostly go for hundreds of dollars each, are you ?

 

The whole concept of "this coin isn't worth its market price" puzzles me.

If the coin is selling at that price each time it comes up, that's what it's worth.

If the coin isn't worth that much to you, isn't that just a short way of saying "I won't own this coin"? You won't pay the market price to get one, and if you had one, you'd sell it for the market price.

 

Jeff, I've seen posts like this before and I think it has to do with paying 5-figures for a coin that is NOT very rare, IMO.

There are close to 8,000 of the High Reliefs I believe. I've always wondered how many are held by folks who have no interest in coin collecting but merely inherited them from a parent or grandparent who was the original owner.

Ironically, the TPGs might be able to provide a guestimate on that number.....they could determine how many coins were graded by folks who never submitted any other coins, an indiciation that the 1907 HR is their only coin (as opposed to collectors and dealers who regularly submit).

 

1924's @ Great Collections: 2 high-end 1924's sold last night after active auctions.

Both were MS-66+ CAC. They went for $4,615 ($5,191 w/bp) and $4,650 ($5,231). Looks like they went about 20% of the way from a regular MS-66 to the coveted MS-67 where the price takes a quantum jump.

 

1928 MS-66 Saint for $3,800 ?

This is a nice-looking 1928, but it's a common year. I thought the price was a bit high, thoughts ?

https://www.greatcollections.com/Coin/919514/1928-Saint-Gaudens-Gold-Double-Eagle-PCGS-MS-66

While researching comps, I then found this one. I've heard about buying the coin and not the label, but I think here someone just went nuts over the OGH.

https://coins.ha.com/itm/saint-gaud...9-3468.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

I know MS-67's are 5-figures, but that coin isn't a "+" or CAC. Thoughts ?

 

Nice article on what to look for in buying an MCMVII High Relief by Doug Winters:

https://raregoldcoins.com/blog/2022...an-uncirculated-1907-high-relief-double-eagle

Bookmark his blog, he has lots of other good articles especially if you are into Carson City gold, Liberty DEs, and small denomination gold coins pre-1900. He doesn't write as much on Saints but does every now and then.

 

IMO, the actual number of these coins with totally original luster and surfaces (no rub - Mint State, contact marks don't count here) over their entire surface including the high points are WORTH EVERY SINGLE DOLLAR SPENT.

They are out there. I've seen a few over the years.

 

My relatives should have foretold my birth 55 years later and put a few away for me, but no,....also, they missed the disbursement of the GSA CC morgans too......

 

Insider, what was DW talking about here with this tip for determining luster on high-grade MCMVII HR's:

"...The luster on a coin in the MS63 to MS65 should be excellent. Here’s a trick I use to determine if the luster is original or not: look at the inner border on the reverse which is very open but which is hard for a coin doctor to reach. If the texture in this region matches the texture on the rest of the reverse, then the chances are strong that the coin in question has not been tampered with."

Do you know what inner border he is talking about here ?

 

It is self-explanatory. He uses the rim but any place on a coin where its field and relief meet produces an area right next to the raised part that is at an angle from ninety degrees (Mostly Pre-1907) to approx. forty-five degrees. Any mechanical cleaning does not normally touch that area and usually produces a "halo" of different color and surface texture that is visible to the naked eye.

 

It is easy to see on this whizzed coin.

 

Insider, thanks for the pics....please bear with me as grading subtleties aren't my strength....the pics you posted above are showing a break in luster, right ?

So the diffference in the "dirty" black grimy raised devices and the shiny gold is what you and the article are referencing, right ?

 

You actually SHOULDN'T see bag marks on MCMVII High Reliefs since they weren't bagged, right, Insider ?

Most marks are probably from personal handling as they were treated as souvirners and most preserved in one form or another.

 

I was an active collector when the government was selling the GSA Morgan Dollars. They generated a lot of interest, and they received a great deal of publicity, but many collectors did not view them as “must have bargains.” The GSA held auctions for some of them, and there were super bargains for a small number of the circulated grade pieces where buyers “got lucky.” By in large, however, the coins sold for prices that reflected the market at the time.

The GSA plastic holders didn’t get much respect for collectors for a number of years. I remember witnessing crack outs by dealers and collectors on several occasions. It was only perhaps 20 years after the GSA sales that the coins in the holders got very much respect.

 

not a huge Morgan collector, but now, when I buy CC Morgans, I only buy in original GSA holders....how times have changed!

 

That is my recollection as well. I wasn't especially interested in Morgans, and they were expensive, at least to my budget. In hindsight, I wish I had picked up a couple.

 

The picture is of a cent; however the poit I was making is this:

Where surfaces meet at an angle, there is a point at that spot that is harder to reach by "mechanical" means. On the cent you can see a difference in color where the whizzing wheel did not touch as much. Take a new BU nickel in your hand and rub your finger over it in on direction. the grease on your finger will not reach into the area next to and inside the recess of the letters! It leaves a "halo" of different color around the relief. That's what Winters was writing about.

Any contact mark on a coin after it was struck except for gouges, and scratches is usually called a bag mark. HR coins have contact marks. If they did not, they would all be graded MS-70.