How do you define "RARE" in numismatics?

This why I used the word "dreck" in quotes. The point I was making is regardless of anyone's definition of "rare" or how many exist, it isn't equally relevant to all coins. In the example I used of AG-3, for most coins the existence is irrelevant to most collectors because they don't want them, whether they can't afford a better specimen or not. This also true for practically all of the coins I collect. The 16-D dime is an exception as a "key" date.

On the rarity scales, The one for Bust Halves seems to be the same as the Judd scale for patterns However, all of them are still measuring relative rarity.

 

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1916 LSQ has mintage of 52,000. That is considered a rare coin for that set in any condition besides poor if you can read the date. Some other coin with same mintage is not considered rare or even scarce. Higher grade coins of some higher mintage coins are rare like a 1919-D LWH dollar in MS63 is rare.

 

Yes, most collectors probably hold the opinion you described because this is what they have been conditioned to believe or don't want to admit the coins they collect are common. It certainly isn't remotely supported by actual observable evidence.

I can go out and buy every single coin which fits the criteria you describe on demand or on short notice, like in days or a week. Many times not just one of them, but in multiple depending upon grade or what other narrow criteria anyone chooses to arbitrarily apply.. What you are describing is a "key" or "semi key" date, not a rare coin. Mintage is only related to scarcity loosely especially for US coins because the survival rates on "low" mintage coins like the 1916 SLQ are usually high or very high, especially for coins dated after 1933 when folder collecting became a national pastime..

The perception of these coins is driven by previous limitations in communication during the "heyday" of set collecting out of pocket change up to maybe the late 1960's. Decades ago, collectors almost never found these coins in change. Far fewer collectors also paid significant premiums before coins were widely bought as “investments” so many local dealers probably didn’t have it because it was (far) above the price point of their buyers.

Most collectors probably never saw it, weren’t aware of its actual availability and concluded these (semi) "key" dates were “rare”, just like any number of other coins whose supposed “rarity” has since been invalidated first by the TPG population counts and subsequently by the internet. If collectors from the 50’s to the 70’s knew how common these coins actually were and could have bought them as easily as they can now, I don’t believe any of them ever would have sold for its prior price and wouldn’t remotely be worth its current value now. This should be especially evident since some of these "key" dates aren't even the scarcest in their series.

What I am describing, the perception of these coins has mostly survived to the present day and seems to be shared by most participants on coins forums too.

 

Tweaking an old thread, I wonder how many Alexandrian Tets were made during his lifetime and then afterwards...