Holy Grail of Desirable Coins

Greetings, My Friends.

While I await my order of the 2023 edition of the Red Book to arrive, I've been perusing this site and online sources to learn more about coin collecting in general. Given the disparate pieces of information on certain coins scattered about in the ether which makes me a bit overwhelmed, I'm curious to hear your thoughts about certain desirable coins.

During the course of my recent readings, I've caught bits of information on rare coins such as the 1943 Lincoln Cent, Buffalo nickels, certain SBA coins, Lincoln Wheaties, quarters etc. So, I am very interested in learning more about your thoughts on a definite Holy Grail of Desirable Coins. Would it be possible to list them here so newly re-ignited collectors like me or others who are new to the collecting scene can refer to the list here? Perhaps list the top 25 highly desirable U.S. coins that every collector aspires to acquire.

Thanks!

CoinMagic

 

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Are you looking for Holy Grail coins that collectors dream about but will never acquire, or Holy Grail coins that are actually attainable?

 

A very important point to bear in mind. A lot of info on the web is written by people with little education in numismatics. Treat the articles with a pinch of salt until you can verify with experienced opinions of knowledgeable collectors. The same applies to click bait videos.

 

I assume that you mean desirable and "attainable"? And then, "affordable" for an average collector? So, a realistic list is not realistic without setting some limits and guidelines to follow, at least for me. I would love to have a decent 1790's Silver Dollar, but they are out of my collecting price range. Also, a type set of U.S. coins would be high on my "wants". Do you want to complete any series collections? Like Indian Head Cents? Then that is quite a list by itself. I'm not interested in "one of a kind", that's just not going to happen, so I don't think about it. I'd rather have more coins of a lessor grade than a "one coin collection". I didn't really help you any, but maybe it will create more questions for you to think about?

 

I had the same idea as you, I just got carried away "talking", lol.

 

Thanks for the input. It can't hurt to have two separate lists: 1-Desirable Coins-Attainable 2-Holy Grail of Dream Coins-Difficult to Acquire (don't want to say "never"...because never say never or never know). Play to your heart's content here...don't want to restrict your preferences. I'm here to learn from you guys.

Yes, I agree that one needs to be careful in reading articles on numismatics. As you all may agree, one can only learn to distinguish between genuine articles and those that are basically bullsh*t through time and effort. Allegedly it takes approximately 60,000 hours of reading to become an expert in a subject. Ah, I've got quite ways to go before reaching that level.

 

Its all dependent on what interest you. If you collect lincoln cents, your holy grail could be a 1943 copper or 1944 steel cent, then again it could be a 1955 doubled die, then again maybe you dislike such things and a AU set is your goal, so the 1914 D is your grail, (don't know market today, but the 1914 D in XF used to be slightly scarcer than the S VDB, ignoring the overpolished die 1922 plain).

Depends on your interest really. Thanks goodness everyone does not have the same holy grails, because then almost no one would own them. I usually run 4 or 5 at a time, when I obtain one I add another to the list of wishes.

 

LOTS of articles targeted at beginners or those who do not know the hobby and are basically clickbait. Hang around here, read posts here, and you start knowing much more than what those articles are written for. Also, start winnowing down sources, that will improve actual knowledge. Start seeking out numismatic sites that have good, valid info written in a entertaining manner. Maybe Coinweek. If you wish, subscribe to monthly publications like Coin World, Numismatic News, join ANA and get monthly magazine, etc. Then when you narrow down interests buy good books on a series. A good book is more than coin info, it talks history, background, etc making the coins more interesting. Even borrowing such books from library. Always remember to talk to a librarian, they can interlibrary loan you the book if they don't have it. I loan out some of my rarer books through libraries at times.

 

For your "Holy Grail" of coins, I think you should wait until you get a good understanding of coin productions and how things change ( due to mint preparation action) or due to manufacturing ( machine problem) . The first can be valuable whereas the machinery problems are not.
If possible, visit local coin clubs, My son is president of our county local club, and every month we drive 120 miles to and from the best coin store in San Diego area. The dealer loans him coins to auction off at the monthly meetings from a base cost with the overage going to the club. Often all are purchased. Actually seeing the coins help members and cookies are available. We meet in the evenings once a month.

Jim

 

A PF-69 MCMVII Ultra High Relief is up for auction from the Bass Collection at HA....latest I saw was bidding at about $1.7 MM and expected to go closer to $5 MM in a few weeks.

https://coins.ha.com/itm/proof-high...3-9082.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

Get your bids in !!

 

Yeah.... The holy grail coin will be different for everyone. Ever since I was a kid with my first Redbook, my holy grail coin was the 1785 Bar copper.... And heck, most folks wouldn't even know what that one is!

 

I was very fortunate. My wife (wife #1) was the secretary for the Director of Library Services when I was in college. I got a job at the library checking in and out the library books. Each evening, I would take a few coin home and go through them while I continued to study. Minimum wage was about $2 and hour. I worked about 20 hours a week. I got paid every 2 weeks for net $150 per month. I also had the G.I. Bill. Being married with 2 children, I got about $400 a month for a total of $550 net. With my wife's salary of a$450 a month. We rented a duplex for $125 a month. Childcare was about $140 a month. We were very lucky with everything we had each month. While at the library, I would find a desk to study when I caught up a book on coin collecting. Although I wasn't a collector at that time, I learned a great deal about coins. I started to look at all the coins my wife got for her change. I got hooked, but only as much as I could find. That was about 1975. In 1996, my father passed due to a car accident. That was when I found his collection that was to be divided between my brother and by. However, my mother did not want to go through his collection until she passed. It wasn't until my mother passed that my brother and I finally got a chance to look at them. Few of them were pristine condition, and even less were really collectable condition. We decided to take inventory and divide them. It was hard to do because my brother lives in L.A., California and I live about 60 miles from Raleigh, North Carolina. Anyway, he sent be a list of the coins and when I was through with looking over the list, I prepared to lists...A and B. I told him to decide which list he wanted. Neither of us knew anything about coins, so he picked one list and I took the other list. He put all of his coins in pickle jar and he gave me the coins from the other list. I went over the list and realized I had no clue what I was doing. I did find out that Morgan dollar coins were desirable, so, I decided to look up Morgan dollar coins. I was watching a show where "Mike" was selling 3 Morgan dollar coins. I liked them, so I bought the a set of three Morgan dollar coins...The 3 coin set were named "The Wild West Collection". The three Morgans are a 1882CC, 1883CC, and an 1884CC. They cost me $1,500 and were graded MS65 each. Since then, I have bee collecting anything that needed a friend.
I liked them so good, that I bought a tube of 20 Morgans that looked like good medicine. The all looked nice. They were not graded, but I bought them anyway for $500. They all looked good with only a few scratches.
That is my story of coin collecting. Not all of my coins were as nice as those that sold me my first coins.
Best of Luck to all you lucky collectors. I am now 75 and am awaiting news from my doctors.

 

I think everyone, including myself, has a "holy grail"of coin(s). It can be because of cost, availability, or whatever. It can be an upgrade coin in a collector's existing condition. To me I like to know what collectors enjoy collecting and condition{s) they are okay with. I am refering to coins they have or are actively pursuing some goal concerning certain coins.


Many people here at CT a coin or type of coin they really like can often be determined by what their avatar is or their CT name. If you read posts here you easily can determine what coins they really like due to the knowledge they have about a coin or just what they say. An exception to the last one can be someone who was or is a coin dealer for many years, there are a lot of people here that know a lot about a lot of different coins.

I also enjoy reading what their final goal is to do with their collection

I will say few if any collector only likes and collects one or two types of coins. I would think it would be fun sometimes to have a thread on what members here have accomplished with their collection and what their current future goals are.

I bet we all have a "Holy Grail" or two that no longer has that status because it has been acquired over the years. It would also be interesting how different or much the same they would be here.

 

1916D Merc

 

I wish @Collecting Nut would join in. There’s got to be at lease one coin that nut doesn’t have. Curious

 

$50 gold owl Octagon I believe is CNs current white whale
My holy grail is a Proof 1895 morgan hehe...
What I could afford is this and it still takes pride of place among my morgans right beside the f12 93o lol

 

I consider that just as valid. Given x financial limits, you can still have holy grails. Examples would be you can only afford a vg 1916d dime, but your goal is one with a strong date and mintmark yet still within the VG price range. You might go through 40 coins until you find it.

Anyone can buy almost everything with an unlimited budget. That does not make a collector, knowing what they want and why, then pursuing, makes them a collector.

My avatar is an example. I saw many of the type but with weak mottos, weak faces, graffiti, etc until I found one I liked that was not $10k. I also had a budget I was working within, and wanted the perfect coin within that budget. The coin is important to me because I named my daughter Irene.

 

Off hand I can’t think of one.

 

My holy grail would be a nice Pillar Dollar,I've been getting hooked into Spanish colonial coinage lately,saving up for another big one(working on a set) Spanish coinage was still widely used in the early continental U.S.

 

Yeah I had to get at least one for my "colonial" set and I can blame you for that lol