"UNC Details" Saint-Gaudens; scratched. How does this affect value?

Very common actually ma'am. Non-coin people almost always pay more for coins than coin collectors do. I have told the story here before, but my favorite dealer growing up always had a guy coming in for junk. Ben told me its a local auctioneer who every week buys one or two details gold coins, and a bunch of crappy morgans. Back then the $5 gold pieces went for $100, and crappy morgans went for $5. I went to the auction house, and the guy got at least $200 for every half eagle, and $20 or more for the morgans. He did this for YEARS, and people kept buying even though they could have bought all they wanted from the coin dealer for $5.

Ben just shook his head, keeping back anything better for real collectors, and letting the idiots buy the dreck.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I think that that auction was a good place for the gold coins. I stopped asking about coins at estate sales because the values they were getting surpassed the collectivity of the coin.
I am sure that the seller paid the auctioneer. And broke about even with the value given earlier in this thread.

 

Congratulations! I would be very happy with that.

 

I was neither seller nor buyer-- just a curious onlooker.

 

I see that all to often at antique auctions especially with gold. Common lower grade coins like baggy au/unc bringing full retail. A lot of people want gold in their safes or just like the look of the old coins. And a lot of gun lovers are coin lovers and vice versa. I know a lot of people like that. The old gold and silver dollars as well have a lot of allure with their link to history plus being a big old coin made of precious metal. These casual collectors don’t know the subtleties of the coin market or grading and have at best a red book for prices. On the positive side. I’ve seen a lot of these type collections where they bought them at old prices held on for a decade or two and did really well. On the positive note on sales like this I can usually sneak any better early silver and copper out for a decent price by knowing how to grade and rarity

 

Is there a discussion of details on the site? Something else to learn.

 

I'm confused....if a coin is Details, then it doesn't get a grade, right ?

If these scratches were normal wear & tear (and not cleaning or something nefarious), what caused it to not get a regular grade ?

 

I somewhat disagree with this, as I don't think the word "common" applies to this particular Saint the way it does with a 1924 or a 1927.

Let me explain why:

(1) This is a coin ($20 Saints) which has a HUGE following, probably the 2nd biggest behind MSDs (unless you want to count regular pennies, nickels, and dimes).

(2) It's a gold coin, from an era where we were on the gold standard. You get people who also want bullion exposure, though obviously more expensive Saints like the HR's are mostly numismatic value.

(3) The 1907 HR has artistic worth -- the High Relief art -- aside from just mint or condition rarity. This is the dream of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, unless you include the (pattern) of the very few Ultra-High Reliefs (< 20 available).

(4) Crossover appeal from many different coin collectors in both the U.S. AND globally.

The reason the coin sells for a steep premium over bullion is all of these factors, which makes it a pretty expensive coin in any condition. There are lots of Saint years.....mints....and conditions that one can go after. And while the 1907 HR isn't cheap as you go up in condition rarity, it's still affordable relative to super-rare Saints that go for 6 or 7-figures.

But if you don't go after the regular Saints, the High Relief is the one you target. Even if -- especially -- you don't want to collect a ton of them but just want one or a few that are memorable. And the 1907 HR is certainly up there, in whatever condition you can afford.

 

That's surprising, you wouldn't think a non-savvy population would pay a premium price (overpay ?) relative to well-informed coin collectors or those bidding via an auction house.

May have had some friends of the deceased who had some $$$ and were price-insensitive. Maybe he/she told people that the coins would make them some nice $$$ if they bid on his/her estate.

 

It wont get a numeric grade but if it's deemed to be uncirculated then they'll say that. If it was slightly circulated they could give it an AU details grade and so forth down the line.

 

AU-58's are about $15,000 give-or-take....figure a 30-40% discount for UNC.

I have to say, how did all of you know that the black scuffs were scratches (if not told) ? I was unaware that scratches had (black) coloration on gold coins.

 

What's the rationale for that ?

I can't think of another coin with that mintage number (and a high % of them accounted for and/or graded) selling for such a high price in AU (and below) and sub-GEM grades.

You wonder if a large % of the 1907 HRs are in non-collector family hand-me-downs and never trade, thus restricting available supply.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

 

That's something I have learned in recent years, GD, yup.

As long as there's a Return Policy, I'm not afraid of getting burned. But without that policy, I would never go much above $200 on a coin or bill. I've noticed and posted about a few MSDs that were super-frosty and super-white that for the grade I knew couldn't look that good in person (and didn't).