I have an appointment next week with a gentleman to look over his large collection of Liberty half dollars. This coin is one that I do not have a lot of experience with and am looking for some help as to what are the better years, mint marks, etc. Which ones would you buy? Thanks
If you pickup the official red book A guide book of US coins by R.S. Yeoman that will help you in identifying which coins are the ones to keep your eye's open for. about $15.00 John
What I consider to be the four key dates, because they are all listed at over 100 bucks even in G-4, are the 1916-S, 1921, 1921-D, and 1938-D. In the higher grades things get a little bit different.
Just out of curiosity, why are you looking over his collection while you apparently don't know much of anything about the coins?
Liberty It is the Liberty series I have never collected. This is an opportunity to look them over before the auction two week hence. I would simply like to pick up a few, or a whole bunch. I do have a new Red Book but wanted some unvarnished opinions also. I do appreciate the input.
Howdy, Hardly a liberty expert, but it's a beautiful coin. Most of the early stuff, all the '16s, 17's with obv mint marks, all the '19s, all the 21s, generally the early and even late S mints, the 27's, 28's and 29's. All great coins. 38d is the later key coin as mentioned. You'll probably see a lot of the stuff from 41 on, so again, high end S mints and 46 and 46 D mints in higher grades. In these later years, look for original BU's. So much of the market has been dipped XF and AU stuff. Nice BU's that are original are great stuff. Other's have mentioned the keys. good luck, rono
1921 and 1921-D The 1921 and 1921D are very expensive coins even in low grades. My collection is complete except for these two. And having looked at maybe 50 of these buggers; I have not yet found the ones I want to fork over hundreds of dollars to obtain. The price keeps going up and the quality goes down. So I must say if you can pick up these two stoppers you will have a great start.
Rono made a good point that I didn't think to mention. Be very aware of coins that have been dipped. Don't get fooled by what looks like nice luster, because ALOT of these coins have been dipped to look pretty, but actually have wear on the design.
I don't know if this is to buy for collecting or investing, but there is also the "short" set which only includes the later dates and is obviously much easier/cheaper to collect. In my limited experience with lower grade silver coins, the Walker is the one you see the most often cleaned/polished/dipped.
Way to many things to consider. For one thing what are the possible grades of these coins? Are they dented, dinged, scratched, etc? What are the possible asking prices for those coins? You need an appoitment to see them? Why? What is this some kind of super, special person or place? Why have you been selected for this personal, private showing? Are there more than one of each? Why is this person selling them? Is this a buisness type situation of the seller or just someone that is liquidating those coins? Just to many questions. There are as noted already many of these that are considered rare of just key dates. Thier values are excessive lately only due to the newer coin collectors created by the introduction of the state quarters and baby sized dollars from the Mint. This is a modern coin collecting craze similar to the Beanie Babies, Hot Wheel Cars, Baseball/Football cards. It will eventually slow down and return to normal pricing. Right now there are a fantastic amount of interest in coinage. We have well over 3 coin shows a month in my state alone. Coin stores, coin web sites, TV coin commercials, etc. poping up and creating a overpriced market. My suggestion is to first know what you are doing with prices of any coins. Get a few books as noted already and know what you are doing. Acquire price guides such as the Red Book, Grey Sheet and also go to such coin web sites as Coin World Magazine or PCGS and check out thier prices of coins.
