I'm looking at a new area of collecting, US Classic Head Half Cents (1809-1836). My rules: - I ignore 1831 and 1836 (you can probably guess why). - I want to get them by Cohen varieties. That means there are 25 coins that I'll be after. The good news is that I already have 16 of them. The best news is that I have both of the 1811 Cohen varieties. I have Manley's book so I have the rarity numbers for all varieties as of the date of its publication (1998). Now the tough part. Catalog values that I have access to are by date only. Most coins, even those slabbed, are not identified by the Cohen number. Assumption: Catalog values are for the most common variety for each date. Question: Is there any reasonable method that would take into consideration Date, Grade, Condition, Variety and Rarity and come up with a value for the less common varieties?
Do the EAC guys still put out their CQR (Copper Quotes by Robinson)? It's been a few years since I tried to find a copy.
Heritage auction archives. It's not always successful but you can find most varieties listed in their records. Same thing for other major auction house archives. I don't always recommend auction archives just because I know they provide the the most accurate real world values for coins, but also because they provide the most specialized information when you need it. In other words, they are the best source/resource for quite a few reasons. But it does require some effort on your part to use them effectively.
I don't think there is, other than current auction results for the same variety. Even that, changes based on who is at the auction and how much they really want/need the same variety. It's always changing. I gave up trying to track the values of scarce or rare varieties in my collection.
The difficulty with putting accurate values on rare varieties is precisely because they are rare! If a variety only comes up to auction once every few years, it is very hard to put an accurate value on that. Looking at the Heritage archives is going to be your best bet, although there isn't really a formula. This R5 variety might go for quite a bit more than that R5, simply because two collectors both needed it at the same time and had a good fight over it.
Thanks for the responses. Pretty much as I thought but was hoping someone more experienced might know something easier. I went through this when I did my 1831-1838 quarter set/all varieties. (Well, most all of them. Two I still don't have and a third I have a DETAILS coin.)
The Red Book Mega Red 1st edition has a few listings for pricing of different Cohen numbers. Mostly for the early dates. You might be able to find a book by Bowers on early copper with some values for rarer varieties. All my other references for early copper have no values in them at all. In a Penny-Wise issue, I have found Copper Quotes by Robinson(CQR) as @okbustchaser mentioned. His first edition with half-cents came out in 1985. His last edition(11th) came out in 1992. I have quite a few more issues of Penny-Wise, I'll look through them and see if I can find some other references.
I looked at what's up for auction on Heritage and all the half cents I'm interested in are slabbed with the Cohen variety. So that part will be easier. Still have to figure out a reasonable price. Now I'll look at their auction archive. That should put me in the ballpark. I've liked Heritage for quite a while. Now I'm liking them even more as a pricing resource.
