Help Defining my New Type Set

Pittman Act of 1918

 

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When comes to forming type sets, I rarely got hung up on dates. To me acquiring the most attractive coin was the objective. I'd open up the set to coins from the 1920s and worry about acquiring them all from the same date.

 

So now the fun part, figuring out what grades to go for. I would like them slabbed but don't want to break the bank.

 

I would go with the best coins you can afford. You need to go more slowly, buying the pieces you like, rather pushing things and filling holes all at once. Since you type set is within a narrow range of years, matching the grades to a point makes sense (I.e. you don’t want a Good next to an AU or Uncirculated.) If you get to the point where are collecting all or many of the types over 200+ years, the spread in grades can and will probably need to be wider. Dave Bowers had some good advice years ago when he recommended going for at least Find or better.

 

Time & Money
/1/ Whatever grade you select, pick a nice example for each coin. Say you decide MS65 - don't take an ugly terminally toned bleh just because it's a 65.

/2/ In MY world-view there are four choices

G-VG - affordable, but well worn - you won't see all the details of the design

XF - My personal choice - all of the design is there, the high points will have some wear, less expensive than AU

AU - if you focus on really nice AU55s and AU58s, they're expensive, but nicer than and cheaper than ugly 63s

MS - 63 or 65 - Daddy Bigbucks time


I'm just not a fan of F-VF


Now the $64,000 question: What is YOUR world view. After all, your set, your rules and bleep 'em if others don't agree...

 

Dup

 

XF/AU is a nice sweet spot when the budget is limited. That's my personal choice as well.

 

My main objective in all this is to really get a feel of all denominations and learn to grade them.

 

I bought a grading book with pictures of every coin in various grades, it gives you what the coin should look like in the grade and also what determines the grade (specific wear in certain places, etc.) To me, the real "art" is an eye for a coin, it goes beyond the grade, it's when one coin of two with equal grades is more appealing and its an acquired art. Some of the posters on this thread have exceptional talent for that, gained by years of experience.

 

You’d best get to reading then.

Knowledge of one particular series is one thing, when you start spanning dozens of series and types, it takes a lot of reading what the experts have to say and then looking at literally thousands of coins.

 

Exactly, this endeavor will take years. I have spent 3 years on Morgans and it's time for something else in the buffet.

 

Alright, I just made a command decision. I will start with a wheat cent, the Buffalo Nickel, Merc, SLQ, Walker, 1900+ Morgan, Peace, and 1900+ Gold. This was I get a flavor for them all and can avoid major expensive Keys.

 

Sounds about right.
I like those picks.
You can get high grade examples for a reasonable cost, yet they are obsolete and exotic looking.
Most have never seen them.
If I could afford gold, I like the incused Indians for its unusualness.

 

I've been slowly collecting 1921 coinage, as well as 1870, 1842 and 1949 (birth years for my father, grandfather, great-grandfather and me) both US and foreign, especially Norway. Had to stop with the foreign coins, at least for a while, as it was getting a little out-of-hand, and I was catching some grief from my wife because of all the manila envelopes arriving in the postbox.

Steve