Numismedia lists the 50-S as $24.30 in MS-60, and the 49-S as $16 something. However the 49-S is supposed to be the key date.
That may be true. But like I said, the 49-S is supposed to be THE key date of the silver Roosevelt series, but has a lower price in MS-60 than the 50-S.
The book doesn't sell them for that price. You get them for what you can get them for when you buy it. The dealer may not care and sell much less than "book" because he knows it has been sitting on his shelf since 1999.... I don't go off of "book" prices much anymore. If I like the coin and the price is what I'm willing to pay I buy it.
Consulting my latest Redbook (15th edition, 1962), I see the price for a 1949-S (UNC; no MS grades back then) was $7.50 ($57 in today's dollars); the 1950-S was $6.50 ($49 in today's dollars) and the 1951-S was $5.00 ($38 in today's dollars). There was an asterisk by these amounts indicating "speculative". I'm really glad I didn't speculate back then.
Personally, I love the RedBook. I don't believe that it has accurate market values, and I understand the book doesn't sell coins. More importantly, even if the prices were coincidentally accurate (hey, even a broken clock is right twice a day), it doesn't include spread (the difference between bid/ask, or in laymans terms, price/value), let alone transaction costs (shipping, packaging, markup due to ebay fees, etc.) Having said all that, it's a great, quick resource for determing relative value (scarce, key dates, condition rarity) and is just so darn handy. I manage my collection using the RedBook (and other things) but acutally buy/sell based on actual market values.
So, what you are asking is for us to post copywrited information on the site so you don't have to pay for it. Why don't you just make the $15 investment so you can see all the prices whenever you want?
Really? I think it depends on the coin. Some prices at Numismedia seem too high like the prices for seated coins and v nickels. Some Redbook prices seem to high. I think it is better to look at both but these are only guides. I think that guides give you perspective on what coins are higher than others. As far as roosies are concerned, there is not much difference. 49s is not much higher, maybe 2x the rest.
How ironic that the guy who has repeatedly recommended the redbook to "newbies" does not even own one. Possibly even more ironic is after all his blustering about not using its unrealistic values, now he wants to know them. Didn't he recently post complaints about not wanting to pay retail premiums? Could it be that someone is looking to sell? Detecto, I am quite sure that if you follow your own advice, you could easily come up with reasonable and realistic sales numbers for the listed dates.
A dollar or two over melt would be all that I would spend on ANY lower MS Roosevelt. The key here is patience.
By 1965, the speculation had been replaced by cold, hard facts -- or, at least, there was no more asterisk. 1949-S: 15.00 1950-S: 12.25 1951-S: 11.75 The 2008 edition doesn't list MS-60, only MS-63: 1949-S: 40.00 1950-S: 35.00 1951-S: 12.00 Remember this the next time you're wondering "why coin prices always go up each year". Sometimes they stop, and sometimes they go back down.