Anyone here started a $5 Indian Head Gold collection Yet?

I am considering starting a $5 Gold IndianHead Collection. I have done alot of research on this over the years and I know the set will be expensive in nothing less than a 62-63 grade!
any experienced folks here have such a set, I would appreciate any
"key info" you may pass on to me.

Thanks...

RickieB

 

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Get ready to open your wallet wide. I started with a 1909 that I got for $290. Then anything pleasing jumped to well over $300 so I just have the one coin.

 

HI Victor...LOL yea, I expected that.
Not that much of a problem. I am involved in high grade notes as well and some of those run into the thousands!

Thanks for the post!


RickieB

 

Well it is a nice way to store wealth [the coins]. But there are so many fakes it may be wise to go with slabbed only. And the way it looks now it's going to take over $400 per coin to get above AU-58.

 

:secret: But Victor, you should see his wife's monthly spending budget for her only

 

Of course your wallet strongly influences the nature of your collection.

Consider this.
I and some others in here consider the grades of MS-60, -61 and -62 to not be particularly desireable.
This is because there is something significantly wrong with an Unc coin to grade that low.
Preferences tend to be MS-63 or better OR AU-55 or -58.
And the AU coins would certainly ease the pressure on the wallet.

The one I have for my type set is only XF-45, and for now that's good enough.
If a bargain AU-55 or -58 came along I would certainly consider the upgrade.
But an MS-63 is pretty much out.

 

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

I wish I had the cash to do a compete set.but my 1909-D MS-62 is all that I have now I sold the 1909-D Au 58 last week

 

OK could we ask what price it sold for? I see graded AU-58 coins available.
Just wondering how much it takes to obtain one. With a mintage of over 3 million it looks to be the highest mintage of the series.
Redbook lists it in AU-55 at $400.

 

I've been looking to buy a common date MS 2.50 indian head. A set of those might be a little better on the wallet.

 

Right. I picked up a couple at $190 and $215, raw ungraded.

 

Cool. Thats not to bad. I will just blow off the legacy set from the mint and I will be half way there.

 

The TPGs are more inconsistent on these gold Indian $2.5s and $5s than any other series I have checked out. In particular, they are all over the place on the pricey MINT STATE coins.

I've seen coins in MS64 slabs with glaring gashes that should have dropped it down to MS61 or 60. I was saying "How did they miss that ?"

Let's look at a common date - 1909-D. According to the PCGS price guide, an MS60 goes for $455... an MS64 sells for ten times that.

That's an expensive overgrade !

On my wife's very first visit to a coin show, I handed her a stack of MS61 Indian $2.5s and a loupe. The quality difference between those coins was obvious, and she had never graded a coin in her life.

 

There are many cleaned ones, so be careful.

 

My main advice would be to learn to grade them. I would advise buying only slabbed coins, as I imagine you were planning to do anyway. But like others have said, the TPGs get them wrong all the time. I think that most collectors find this series hard to grade since they are incuse coins.

 

I'm not sure it is possble to grade them, certainly not the duce and a halves..

Ruben

 

If you plan to buy $2 1/2 or $5 Indians raw you must learn how to authenticate them. There are LOTS and LOTS of counterfeit Indians out there. And MANY of them are VERY deceptive.

 

Kanga - do you consider this 61 to be undesireable? I am curious if you see something significantly wrong - it would be educational for me (pics aren't the sharpest):

 

Personally, no, I can't see whatever the TPG saw that would make this coin only a -61.
But there are several reasons for that:
1. Incused Indian gold coins are notoriously difficult to grade for the average collector, like me.
2. I would need the coin in-hand (vs. your images) so that I could tilt and turn it.
3. I can't see the edge. Maybe part of the lower grade comes from there(?)
4. The reverse looks a bit baggy, but to my eye not enough to take it down to a -61.

Too many things I can't see/do to tell you why it's only a -61 and not a -63.

My 1921 Peace dollar is a -62 and a learning coin for me. By looking at it and noting the problems, I get an idea of what to look for.
My 1928 Peace dollar is also a -62, but more difficult for me to see why.
And I've got both of these coins in-hand.
That's why it's said to learn grading you have to look at hundreds of coins from an issue.
Unfortunately I don't have that opportunity.

 

Key Dates?

The entire set is a giant key.