I never knew that a 1931-D Lincoln in MS Red condition is actually harder to find than a MS Red 1931-S. 866,000 1931-S pennies were minted (second lowest to the 1909-S VDB), but word got out quickly that these were rare, and many were hoarded. Matter of fact, it is rare to find a 1931-S in LESS than VF condition. 4,480,000 1931-D's were minted, but most were circulated. Matter of fact, many early depression era coins had both low mintage numbers and were circulated. Since 1 in 4 workers were unemployed, people were faced with either spending these new coins for food or the inevitable. With that in mind, finding red Lincolns during the early depression years are tough. A 1931-D in MS65 RD condition is actually worth more than the 1931-S in the same condition. Well, so much for the background. I was browsing Heritage and decided to snipe a 1931-D PCGS MS64RD and I won! I picked it up for less (including fees, S&H) than what I paid for a nice strike, B.U., RB 1931-D (raw) that I bought at the F.U.N. Show this past year. So like a proud Papa (I really need to get out more), here is my first true Red 1931-D in MS condition:
Fine looking penny That is real nice. See what I have been saying about Heritage. I'd like to comment again about PCGS vs NGC. There is a respected site which is offering a PCGS 1935-S $1 MS66 for $2137 and it has been 5% discounted as a direct sale price. I checked Heritage and found that it should be selling for a lot more. I magnified the coin and to tell the truth I have seen MS64's look better. Is this possible that PCGS could overrate a coin by so much? I buy MS64 Peace Dollars and the feathers of the MS66 were less well defined and it even looked to have been cleaned. It had black toning around the rim of the coin. I now know what this forum means about buying the coin and not the certifier. Old chinese saying, A long journey begins with the first step. Robert
It is not unheard of to find a dealer offering a given coin in a given grade for less than current market value. But it certainly doesn't happen every day. A word to the wise - when you DO see it happening every day - don't buy it. Wait - it'll be cheaper the next week. And cheaper yet the following month. Absolutely !! I have seen so many coins vastly overgraded by PCGS it would scare you to death. Granted - I have also seen coins overgraded by all of the major grading companies. But no where near as many as I see in PCGS slabs.
Not exactly sure... It seems that when I think I have a DDO, it is not...and sometimes a specimen is a DDO or DDR and, guess what?, I think it isn't. I'll let you know...
