I love collecting Pedigree's but this one seems off . The vdb on the reverse is weak. But no signs of wear. Are there any die pairs with weak vdb's? Is there a book that details the die pairs?
Aside the utter crud one can often find in the Stack's 57th Street slabs, no real reason to worry about authenticity. Anything from die wear to polishing can make the VDB "weak," and it isn't a point of concern. 28 million of these were struck, so exploring die pairs would be a pretty big job.
The Stack's Hoard amounted to a million coins, in the hands of people who apparently wanted to convert them to cash so quickly they chose quantity over quality. Imagine poor NGC, being deluged by what amounts to almost a year's full business all at once.... Some of these are actually "graded" - in my experience, graded by throwing darts at a board blindfolded without care for PVC plasticizer infestation or verdigris - and some just got thrown through the system with generic labels to get them onto the market faster in the fashion of television slab coins.
I have two Stack's hoard coins and both are fine. But I have noticed what you said about the overall quality: gunky looking specimens and questionable grades out there.
Common to find with a weak VDB, it gets polished away and, because the die is so shallow there, it fills with grease and crud.
That hoard is one of the few where you are probably better off getting it reholdered with a fresh label not mentioning the hoard.
This hoard is the ultimate buy the coin not the holder. Especially in my fav series, the 3c silver, there are a small # of correctly graded coins I've seen, but most got a 1-2 grade gift.
Not really given the rarity. The type 1s and the 1857-1861s are common in garbage condition, but very uncommon in decent XF & up. The type 2s are much less commom. And the 1863+ business strikes are downright rare.
First of all, some VDBs and S-VDBs do have weak VDBs, this was caused when the mint tried to grind off the VDBs, but they were still slightly there. Second of all, the Stack's 57th hoard is the ultimate "buy the coin not the slab". Mostly overgraded, some coins have damage that would have warranted a details grade if not from this hoard. But of course, there are exceptions, and you see the occasional platinum statue sitting above the garbage that is most of the Stack's W 57th hoard... Third of all, three cent silvers (3CS) are definitely undervalued. They are actually much rarer than their price suggests, but the ultimate undervalued is the three cent nickel (3CN). Look at the 1909-S VDB cent's mintage and then its value. Then, look at the 1888 three cent nickel's mintage and then its value. Coin/ Mintage/ Survival (PCGS)/ Value (XF-40) 1909-S VDB 1c / 484000/ 50000/ $1150 1888 3CN / 36501/ 1500/ $90 Notice anything?
It tickles me to see the Redfield hoard called a "collection." The old tax-dodging bastard threw them by the sack full down a coal chute into his basement.
Perhaps one reason the 3c is "undervalued" is because demand for the 1909-s VDB swamps the demand for the 3c piece.
Demand overvalues some coins and undervalues others. There was demand for the 09-S VDB since day one of its mintage, and that empty hole stared back at kids' eyes. Thus it sells for a very high price.
Not sure I agree. The Type 2s and 3s 3cs didn't circulate as much and were aggressively melted by the mint in 1873 along with all other obsolete silver coinage. So they are rarer than the pure mintage figures indicates... However, it's true that for both series the later coins - 1863++ for 3cs and 1883-1885 for the 3cn - were only a few thousand.
