why is the 1914-D cent considered a "Key date" while the 1931-s wheat cent, which only had roughly HALF the number of the 1914-d is considered "semi-key" ? (according to Coinfacts that is) thanks
Well, for one thing look at the dates one is 17 years older. A wll know fact about the 31-S, is that it was hoarded plenty and as a result there have been lots of nice coins around that came into both circulation and dealer's hands later! I believe the mintage on the 14-D was around 1.1 million and the 31-S was arou;nd 866,000 so it's not half as many!!
Magman: The answer is relative simple, if not strange. The 1914 D was ignored when it was released. With a mintage of 1,193,000 is was not a very low mintage, and nothing unusual. Remember the year before the Barber Half dollar had a mintage of 188,000 and that year (1914) the half had only 124,320 minted. Additionally, in 1913 San Francisco minted a whopping 40,000 quarters. So, A mintage of over 1 million was no big deal. However, in 1931 the 866,000 was noticed and (even during the Depression) everyone saved them, to the point that they are probably more available in unc than in circulated grades. So, lesson learned: mintage isn't everything. As they say: that is the rest of the story.
A slight aside for the 31-S. There were 2 collectors in the Pittsburgh, Pa. area who heard that there were few cents minted in SF. They wrote around to all of the Fed. Res. banks and finally located 2 bags at the Seattle bank and bought both. 2 bags may not sound like much today, but that is over 1% of the total production. I met one of them ~1970 (sorry, don't remember the name). He told me that they sold a few rolls early on at $1.00 per roll. By the mid 40's, they were getting $1.00 per coin when they needed some cash. I do not have the proof, but my assumption is that is the main reason that the 31-S unc is comparably cheap. Anyway, that resulted is at least 10,000 unc 31-S out there while NGC and PCGS has onlu graded less than 5,000 TOTAL 1914-D's in any grade.
What everybody said about the "hoarding" is right on. For comparitive coins look at the 1931-S Buffalo Nickel and 1950D Jefferson Nickel. People kept em so they don't move up as fast. I was thrilled to find an ANACS F15 1914-D way under bid. Bought it and really don't even collect them.
clembo mentioned the 1950 D nickel, as a matter of fact, hoarding was so extreme that today circulated coins are far scarcer than uncs!
Plus que ca change.... It makes one wonder what which of today's coins will be "rare" 50 years from now....... How about CIRCULATED washington or adams dollars? (Or sac or SBA's, for that matter)? Will CladKing be proven right and all our clad coins turn to crud after several years, thus making pristine copies of these overlooked coins very valuable? Novelty Coins? Based on this thread, anything that was NOT saved for investment or saved because it "will be worth something someday" will probably be what people hunt down 50 years from now. Today's Junk is Tomorrow's Treasure...
Another coin in this catagory of Unc's VS Circ's is the 1955 Franklin half, they will buy an UNC at $16. and I've seen ads for circ's at $17. I have a nice roll of UNC's and I thought I really had some gems but they were also hoarded heavily!!
