Holy Grail of Desirable Coins

Picky. One little nick

 

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That is funny. When I first read this I was thinking the same thing.

 

The definition of the “holy grail” varies from collector to collector. One thing I would caution you about is getting hung up on the latest modern coin that is currently popular. There is a long list of modern coins, like the 1973-S silver Proof Ike Dollar, 1960 small cent and 1999-S silver Proof set which were very popular and expensive at one point and can now be had for much lower prices. It’s often best to look at older coins that interest you and wait on the current hot item until the dust has settled on it.

I started collecting in 1961 when I was 11 years old. In high school my “holy grail” was Indian cents and U.S. type coins (one coin of each design). The interest in the Indian cent waned, but the type coins stayed with me. I completed that set around 2012, 50 years later! Since then I have collected at least one coin for each British king and about 300 years of Roman emperors.

The hobby is vast, and you ultimately pick you shots if you become serious about it. What’s important is what makes you happy.

 

"What’s important is what makes you happy."
I agree!! For me, it's ANY Coin that's older than 1964 say for Silver, Any gold!(LOL) and Pre-1959 for copper cents.

 

Every collector has their own, but to take a small stab at what I think you are asking, a
quick offthetopofmyheadlist

1877 cent
1909 S vdb cent
1916 D merc dime
1937 D 3 legger nickel
1916 quarter
1815 bust half
1893 S Morgan
1921 Peace dollar

There's more of course...some of these are not too difficult in modest grades for collectors of modest means, but most are quite expensive in high grades...

 

DARN! I have none of these.

 

I do like the unusual, These "cancelled" confederate stuff.





and my 3-legged ones

Peculiar heh!!!

Jim

 

A number of years ago, I decided not to try and fill coin albums (mostly) and just collect what I like. Start off by collecting (United States) a half-cent, cent, two cent, three cent, half-dime, nickel, dime, twenty-cent, quarter, half-dollar and dollar. Then branch out by getting varieties of these.

 

If you wanted FIVE 3-leggers, wouldn't it have been cheaper to buy three 4-leggers and just one 3-legger?

 

That sounds sensible.

 

Love that brass CSA Bashlow... (or is it one of the 50 gold?) only 50 of those puppys ever made... very very sweet @desertgem

 

I went down that path too, rebelling at the "have to fill every whole someone else made" mentality. However, about 20 some years ago discovered no one made coin folders for ancients.

 

Given the vast nature of ancient coins, how could you design one with labeled holes? For imperial Roman coins alone, David Sear lists 21,669 varieties, and those five volumes only cover the highlights.

 

I’m thinking of the 1970D half dollar

 

You are definitely correct, I did not know what it is. But, thanks to you I do know now. I think the way "USA" is done looks great.

 

Great topic of discussion.
For every collector it’s going to be different.
If you generalize a list you could easily have 1000 different versions.
For me my top three are a 1955 DDO Lincoln cent, a flowing hair half dollar and a $10 no motto Indian in gem condition.
None of those coins are obscenely expensive, however they are not within my current coin budget so for me they are holy grails.

Also, welcome to the forum. I see you just joined a week ago. If you are serious about coins then definitely stick around. There are members here that many would consider experts.
I was in your shoes 12 years ago when I joined cointalk. I too felt a little overwhelmed. I had no idea what direction to go in.
Several pieces of advice I can give would be to read as much as you can about coins - this forum is a great resource, look at as many coins as you can - pictures are fine, in hand is best and again this forum is a great resource and lastly, don’t make any big purchases until you feel comfortable with your coin knowledge.
It’s ok to make mistakes along the way. That’s how we all learn. Small mistakes are easier to handle that big ones.
A US type set is a great place to start.

 

If there are so many, why are they so dang expensive...at least for the pretty ones.

 

The key words are, “the pretty ones.” There is a dealer at the FUN shoes in Florida who has cheap ones in trays. I don’t keep up with the prices, but they are low.

 

I saw that dealer. He was offering small bags, maybe 15 or 20 coins, of bronze Romans for about $15 IIRC. Had lots of other cheap ancients. They were not pretty. But if you like green, as in verdigris, they were great.

There was another dealer, I don't think it was Sedwick Cobs, that was offering a bunch of old cobs for very low prices. Had trays of them. Also not pretty.

 

This is a problem with this list. I am not a high end collector by any means, yet I own 2 coins on this list:
My 1909 S VDB


My 1921 Peace:


Bonus: My 1928 Peace cause it has a lower mintage than the 1921.



The 1937 D three legger isn't a rarity. Look at the pop reports, it isn't rare, it is inflated like most US coins, especially those that every other beginner sees in the Redbook and wishes they could find in a bank roll or in an Ebay roll here in 2023. It's not going to happen.

You want to see a true rarity? I own one. The problem with it, however, is that 99.99% of collectors don't even realize it exists. To understand this coin, there is only one printed reference for it. One specimen is in a museum in Delaware. I don't know where the second one is, but the third one is owned by me. Yeah there are only three known. And here is my one of 3:




It's crazy if you think about the so called rarity of US coins versus any other coin ever minted from any time throughout the rest of the world.

I can spend over a hundred dollars for a nice common date Morgan dollar but yet spend literally nothing for this very nice 1929 Vatican 5 Centimes. The difference? The Morgan dollar had millions minted in any given common year. This Vatican 5 Centimes only had 10,000 minted and I paid under $40 for it.




Holy Grail? There is only one Holy Grail. So if there must be a Holy Grail coin, there is only one option: