I have this 1918D Walker Half with no designer initials on the reverse.I checked a Breen catalogue at my local dealers & it showed 4 to 6 known.I have seen this offered online but not at any particularly high premium.Once on fleabay for about about $10 with no takers.I bought this one with some other walkers for about 3 bucks each so it wasn't being passed off as anything special. Breen showed some other date walkers with the same missing initials so its not just this year.My question is whether anyone at the Forum is familiar with this variety or what they might think of the rarity as far as if I should have it slabbed. Just because Breen says there are only 6 it doesn't mean much if there are only 2 buyers.If you get my drift.I would appreciate any input & I hope the pic goes through OK & I included a pic of the location of the initials from another walker for reference.The coin appears to have been cleaned & there are some scratches & marks but it is still a very nice strike with a lot of detail & shows no appearance of the initials being removed. Thanks again & thanks for the forum,Bob.
That's the thing about a lot of rarities - if most folks don't know about it, nobody wants it. For a coin to be "rare" and valuable - it can't really be rare. It might be scarce, but not rare. Ya see there has to be a large enough number of a given coin available for a market in that coin to develop for it to become valuable. If the number is too small - it usually just doesn't happen. But that doesn't diminish the rarity of the coin. The exception to this is when a coin becomes very well known because lots of articles and stories about it are written - like the '13 Lib nickels or the '94-S dimes. For it is popularity that really makes a coin valueable - not rarity. Yeah I know - go figure.
Thanks GDJMSP for the reply.You are right in your assessment.But I am still wondering why the initials are missing. Were they left off the die or a filled die or what?Or has anyone seen this & knows the reason? I had to tell the dealer about it which goes right back to your point about if no one knows & wants it,it has no value even though its "rare". Thanks again,Bob.
Think about it Bob - if the coins were the result of a die that didn't get the initial engraved, there'd likely be a lot more than 6, or even a dozen, of them known. The number would probably be in the thousands. Unless of course that die shattered after striking only a few coins - possible but unlikely. So my guess would be they are the result of a filled die. Another reason they may be thought to be of no particular value.
