What is Rare U.S. coin and why contest???

Okeh. I think I got it, each contestant must come up with a list of ten not the top ten contestants each with one. so here goes mine,

1. the 1916 standing liberty quarter
2. the 1914d lincoln penny, I have seen a few of these on line but it seems to me not as many as the 1909 s vdb
3.In nickels I would have used one of marks answers but since he already took it I will go with the 1880 shield nickel, I have seen some shield nickels out there, few in high grade but none of the 1880 mintage
4.the two cent bronze I have one of 1864 so the small motto may not qualify, being a variety, so I will say the 1872, it had mored than 60k minted but I do not see them at the stores, but I have not been looking real hard, when I visited some websites that sell rare coins, (golden eagle, jjtea, littleton, paradise, et al I have not found any of the 1872's.
5. I just picked up my first three cent nickle the other day, I heard that these coins were widely horded during and after the civil war, thus fractional currency, I would name the same year as the shield nickel, for this series, 1880.
6.On the buffalo nickle I would choose the 1913s, over 1 million were minted but I have not seen any at stores I go to, I have not got into collecting them so my memory might be faulty.
7. I have seen a few of these, but not many, the 1889-cc morgan dollar, my first impulse was to say the 1895 but since there were less than 15 thou minted it would not count. I have an 1895-s and have seen one or two on coin sites, tho none at local coin shops.
8.On the peace dollars, which since I have some interest in dollars, the one that I have rarely seen is not the 21 or 28 but the 34 s, with over a million made I should see them a lot more than the 28's which had about a third of the mintage, perhaps people stashed them away in the depression and they were lost.
9.The half dollars that I like are the capped busties, but the rules say nothing prior to 1840, so they are out, I have not gotten too much into other issues but from what I have observed here on coin talk and looking around I rarely see seated liberty halves, and I do not think I have seen any from 1841, tho the blue book (1965 ed) says that over 700thousand were minted at philadelpia and new orleans.
10. The final one is the 20 cent piece 1876 I have seen some of the 75s, in fact I have only seen 75s, according to the blue book (ibid) there were almost 26 thousand minted during the year, perhaps it was a hold over from civil war hoarding, I think that there must be old coin hoards all over that have yet to be discovered.

sources, coinsite, cointalk, coin collecting for dummies, the handbook of us coinage (to check mintage), limited and short personal experience.

 

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It's kind of tough - I was thinking of the first US bimetallic coin but that has partially gold in it and hence goes my idea of it being "rare".

 

FABULOUS, well thought out, on target, what we are looking for

FABULOUS, well thought out, on target, what we are looking for -the bar has been set!

 

GREAT, now we are getting someplace, great, thanks, good work!

GREAT, now we are getting someplace, great, thanks, good work!

 

1916 SLQ, a 1844 seated Dime, 1793 flowing hair cent, 1794 cap cent, and thats just off the top of my head

 

Only 2 qualify and there is no reasons for your selections??

Only 2 qualify and there is no reasons for your selections??

 

There are at least 169 coins within 24 series that I consider a "rare U.S. Coin"!

There are at least 169 coins within 24 series that I consider "rare U.S. Coins"! Many much more so than others but yes, that many within the original threads/contests criteria.

 

Top Ten... Hmm. OK, here's my shot. I'm going in denomination order, not necessarily a true "top ten". The "no gold" and "only one per series" is a killer, btw.

1. 1872 Two-cent (mintage 65,000) - You seldomly find one from the 1870s, and other than the proof-only 1873, none are harder to find. Although Heritage archives list over 200, this is the only copper that I believe is "rare" that meets the year/mintage criteria, so I included it purely as the only copper.

2. 1880 Shield nickel (non-proof) (mintage 16,000) - Last one Heritage sold was at a signature auction in 2007. Really. You can find more proofs (3955 mintage) at Heritage than circulation coins!

3. 1912S Liberty nickel (mintage 238,000) - One I'm looking for, and rarely find (and when I do, the grade/price are more than I can afford!) Not that rare, but I had to include at least three non-silver coins!

4. 1871CC Seated Liberty Dime (mintage 20,100) - Probably the hardest dime to find. Only 4 sold on Heritage in 2009, 2 in 2008, all in big/signature auctions.

5. 1901S Barber Quarter (mintage 72,664) - I've seen more 1913S (1) and 1896S (1) just at local shops!

6. 1916 SLQ (mintage 52,000) - I had to include this one. I've never personally seen one, although they show up occasionally on Heritage and Teletrade.

7. 1870CC Seated Liberty Half (mintage 54,617) - Just 10 sold on Heritage in 09, only one online.

8. 1854 Seated Liberty Dollar (mintage 33,140) - Try to find one, really.

9. 1878CC Trade Dollar (mintage 97,000) - Another one that shows up only at signature auctions.

10. 1893S Morgan Dollar (mintage 77,000) - The King of the highly collected Morgan series. Never saw one. Need I say more?

Most research done via coinfacts.com, the Redbook (for mintages), and Teletrade and Heritage auction archives/listings, along with my experience.

I soooo wanted to include the 1922 High Relief Peace, but I think that would fall in your "no varieties" part. If you allow the 1922 High Relief Peace dollar, I'd replace the 1912S Liberty nickel.

John

 

:rolling:I am bad at reading instructions, so I hope I do this right. I think the following coins may be hard to find at shows (I can't limit it to one series- that's too hard?):
1. High grade 1928 S Lincoln
2. MS 64+ 1926 S Lincoln
3. Ok, I give up. This is too hard. I bet Condor 101 or someone like that could do this in their sleep. Oh vey:rolling:

 

Here is the winner, well thought out and includes many truly rare coins

Here is the winner, John please pm me and I will send you the star note.
We had three good complete lists - I wish there were more but,

I was hoping to get folks out of most of the 1900's and the more popular coins.
Truly rare coins are the ones we don't see often and are not always popular by a long shot but they are rare.
As I said I quickly wrote down a total of 169 coins within 24 series of coins that I felt would qualify. Maybe it was a little too complicated but that's my fault. I counted a series as Liberty Nickels, Shield Nickels would be a different series and so on.
Seated dollars are one series that we overlook often IMO. Almost all are rare and when is the last time you saw a dealers caes full of them if ever???
So are dimes esp. from 1844 to the 1890's, quarters and halves also, I think very over looked all of them.
There are many within these that offer the smart researcher a chance to buy very, very rare coins that are still good bargins.
There was hardly any copper that I thought would qualify, (4-one cents and 1, 2-cent pcs.) and to me copper is king! Reason? - many, many numbers were minted and they are widely saved, collected, and sought after.

The whole point of this was to get folks thinking away from 09-S VDB's, 16-D dimes, and such as that - they are everywhere. They are nice, they are expensive, they are popular but they are not rare, at least not rare as so many others are and these others are overlooked and if your going to "get" this stuff and learn it then you will need to dig a little deeper. Again I ask you, as I always ask myself, what am I not seeing at this show, in this case, or at this store and why are those coins to, not here???
That was the whole point of this contest.
Thanks!!!

 

Thanks for the contest congratualtions to the winner

 

1893 S Morgan, especially in higher grades, 1889 CC Morgan. 15000 mintage makes, it tougher, coins like the 1870 Seated dollar are out there but with a mintage of 11,758 makes it hard to find. 1878 S Seated Quarter, again mintage around 12,000. I've never seen one, Can we count the Spanish Trail, and Hawaiian 50 cent Commemmoratives. Mintage around 10,000. Lots of fakes around this makes it hard to find. 1892 micro "O" Barber Half. Need one to complete a set, never found one. I was going to list 1877 Indian head, but you can find, at least one, at every show. 1871 CC Seated Dime, never seen one. 1916 Standing Liberty Quarter and 1901 S and 1913 S Barber Quarters. I don't know how many I listed but I'm sure a few more Seated Liberty dollars are darn near impossible to find also.

 

A rare US coin is a low minted one that a lot of people find hard to obtain.

 

Note always true if you look back to the original post - 1909 s vdb is only hard to obtain because of demand not rarity. Demand is what keeps the price up. The 1877 IHC is a little different no a real low mintage, but tough to find in higher grades. Seems like you can always find them ag to f, vf a little tougher, xf or better even tougher. At least in my opinion.

This would be a good post to debate in coin chat - that is if it has not already been done.

Congrats to the winner!

 

Right well that's true but mintage usually is the key from what I've learned

 

I thought I'd drop a note and let everyone know that I received the $2 star note and--WOW!--what a note! And between the holder and the multiple stiffeners used in the shipping, it was pristine and unmolested, even by our wonderful USPS people!

Thank you, Ben, for running this contest. You're an asset to CT!

John