Stupid Question (Capped Bust Halves)

CBH's are one of my top 3 designs/coins. My question is why are there so many raw capped bust halves available? I know it seems like a stupid question but I am perplexed by this. Were they mass produced and are just now comming out of the woodwork? Was there a spike in coinflation in the CBH department and people didn't want to get them slabbed prior because it wasn't economically viable? The sector in which I'm speaking of do not appear to be cleaned/altered, just a large portion of problem free raw CBH's. Futhermore the condition is ranging from VF-XF (old greyish look). Do you believe these coins to be a wise investment? How much would a bulk submission cost?

 

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Not everyone likes slabs. I would say 80% of my collection is raw and most have been freed from the tomb. The only ones I leave in the slabs are my proofs and OGH's. All Ngc's get cracked

 

All NGC~? ZOOKS Even FBLS? I suppose you have made up your mind that these will be your coins forever? Wish I had that mind-set. I view Slabs as museum capsuls for the coins? Just me.

 

the CBH series was kinda a sleeper 'till 3-4 years ago and prices had gone nowhere for a while. now it's getting popular but most of the series in mid-grade isn't worth slabbing because the price diff vs raw doesn't pay, so far. if you want to collect slabbed coins in mid-grade just get the slabbed ones that somebody else paid the fees for. I think they have good upside. I go for the AU ones for that reason.

 

CBH collectors prefer to examine the pieces in 'person'.

Most hate the tombs.

 

The better dates and higher grades are desirable to get certified; I don't know what value level would be right to automatically get slabbed, $400, $750, $1000 and above? The problem is when you go to sell and you offer to a dealer, in my experience he will undergrade and underprice the coin especially if it is not slabbed. If the coin is run on an auction site, slabbing is invaluable and mandatory. How else is value determined for prospective buyers?

 

I can't believe the opposition to slabs. How can additional authentication and a professional third party's opinion be negative? On top of this, you're not supposed to "handle" high quality coins anyway, unless you want to put more oils and dirt on the coin. If a non-collector gets a hold of your collection, it's more likely that they will clean loose coins out of slabs. Not to mention that somebody spent good money on the service.

IMO, there are coins that may not need to be in slabs. There are some that are common enough in high grades that they don't need to be in slabs while others are worn and low value enough that it probably doesn't matter either. The rest I would think it would be insane to ever crack them out. It only serves to hurt the value because people are afraid of buying fakes. I guess not everybody has gotten the memo.

 

different series of coins come in and out of favor over time. i think there is a lot more interest in CGHs now than there was years ago. this has been bringing prices up. somrtimes they overshoot just like the stock market pm or any market. then they readjust. capped bust halves in the higher grades I think are kinda scarce and have good upside. the vf-xf range maybe not.

 

I was at a coin show today and there were quite a few Bust halves on the Scranton bourse floor, but hardly any in mintstate.

I picked up a couple of Bust dimes from a dealer, much harder to find and low in pop. figures!

 

Good point! You go to a big show, Whitman, the ANA shows, etc. and what do you see predominantly on the bourse floor? Certified common coins, high end rarities, type coinage both raw and certified, risky raw coins that came back in a problem holder and the dealer cracked it. There does not seem a high correlation between what is seen at a show and certified populations because many coins are better sold one at a time by telemarketers or in auction venues.

Population figures for various series are available on the Heritage site for members as well as the NGC and PCGS sites for members.

NGC lists 5023 early dimes (1796-1837) in all certified grades.

NGC lists 34685 early halves in all grades.

To these numbers you can add many, many at other services and that are in collections and dealer inventories as raw coins.

 

Those slabs don't fit in my albums. I have cracked a few to put in my album - not many. Besides there are plenty of middle grade coins.

 

Good grief. It doesn't mean there's 26k for sale. And if they were that doesn't seem like a high number to me. That's low enough to where you could go to a small to midsized show and be lucky to find one for sale. And probably not the date you're looking for. That seems scarce enough to me. More than most.

 

Always remember too the point Doug made about these being in banks. I have heard credible stories that these were still in bank vaults, (BU), up into the 1860's and 1870's. A lot of the early collectors bought large numbers of these directly from these bank holdings. Also, when the banks released these later on, they were heavier than current halves, so most were saved by the public in high grade.

There just are a LOT of these coins around. I know for a fact a dealer I knew used to have a couple of thousand of these VF and up.

 

Another point is that they are neat coins to own especially in AU and BU condition; so with billions of people on planet earth, and many individuals with assets and inclination to collect nice coins, their value and desirability is assured. Those same people naturally want to have all the other neat coins with history and aesthetic qualities. So while not rare, though there are genuinely rare varieties, they are desirable.

 

I would call MS Morgans common. If theres only 30k or so CBHs graded au or better, I think that is relatively scarce. Again, we have to consider what percentage of them are actually for sale? The nice ones may be sitting in collections for 30+ years before they come on the market again. If 20% of them are for sale (graded) thats 6k. That numer is probably way high. Then hopefully no collectors want to buy 2 or 3 for themselves.

 

I think you are concentrating way too much on certified examples as well. Myself, I never collected slabbed coins but collected these when I was into US coins. I have about 60 of these AU up sitting in a SDB right now, all unslabbed. I imagine there are hundreds more like me.

All I know is higher grade capped bust halves are more common than any other half until WL. I do not knwo the percentage in slabs, nor do I care, but please do not assume they are all slabbed. I also have about 60 AU plus SL halves as well, also all unslabbed. The SL coins took me 4 times longer to find nice ones to buy than the CB ones did, the CB are just more numerous.

Your point about Morgans is fair, but you are assuming there is similar demand. Morgans are a weird US phenomenon, if it were any other world coin nearly every Morgan would be worth melt max, they are so ungodly common. CBH are also scarcer than lincoln pennies, also a bit of knowledge that does not match up demand versus supply. Every single ancient coin I collect, if it had similar demand to just CBH, (let alone morgans or lincolns), would be 100 times more expensive. That they aren't makes me happy.

 

Something about the coin. It has such a strong design and the time period was so important. The War of 1812, Steam Boats, Westward Expansion. Such a rich time of history in the U.S. I don't know why, but I prefer these pieces in the lower grade. I would rather have 3 VF than one AU. Each one is different.