What makes a coin rare? I thought if it was difficult to locate, dealers don't regularly have them, this would make something rare! Every dealer at a coin show has several 1950D 5c, 1939D 5c, all the War silver 5c and these are called rare. But ask to see other "common date" nickels and they may have a few if they have any at all! Just wondering! Same thing when asking about any other modern series, everyone has several of the "rarities" or key dates which in commen sense means they are not rare.
I personally think a coin is rare based on the number known to exist. Even if some coins are nearly unique, they may not carry much value.
my plan is to first win the lotto and the buy every one of the most common penny there is (a nice 2000d maybe). and since no one will be able to find or get them its price will go through the roof. :bow:
I think it has more to do with the total known. Lots of the dealers focus on coins that are a little more rare. So, if there are 10 out of a known 750 of a certain coin issue at a show, but only 7 1999 pennies, I think it's probably because the dealers know that the first coin is in high demand, so they want to have some available to sell. We all know there's tons of 1999 pennies, so they're not in as high of demand. The 10 of the 750 coins is much more rare as a whole. Of course, if for some reason, everybody at the show just had to have a 1999 penny all of a sudden, the price could drastically rise because of the limited supply at the show.
Supply vs. Demand. So in other words there maybe a lot of coin x, but a larger demand, it makes it rare, but then there maybe a few of coin z, but little or no demand.
Some of this common current stuff ie state quarters, westward nickels are commanding hugh premiums and are being labeled as rare all over the place. I know Speedy will say HYPE, but are new collectors this blind about coinage populations and all. When the "Hype" bubble burst what happens to the rest of the market? I have some certain varieties I am searching for which I consider rare. Maybe only one or two dealers at a show would have them and places like teletrade and ebay may occassionally have one which is making them difficult to obtain at the price I know I can get them for. Just waiting to be at the right place at the right time. This means rare to me!
I don't know if it's so much a supply and demand issue, or more of a qualitative term in relation to other things. a 2005 D Kansas Quarter in About Good condition can be considered rare, even if there is no demand - because there aren't many to be had in relation to the Uncirculated examples found in the market. What makes a coin rare? Surviving population - straight forward. For many coins a rare date still means several thousand, or in some types, several hundred thousand, were originally issued. So if you go to a larger coin show, you are sure to see many examples of these coins if you take the time to look at several tables. How does that make sense? The answer to that IS supply and demand. Larger premiums can be attached to Key Dates, or relatively rarer coins of a type. Sellers know that buyers are there to purchase - and they want to sell what people are looking for. In an isolated location of a coin show, it may even appear that a 1909 VDB penny is more common than a '44 P if you count the examples on the tables without looking at the pricetag.
I think it is pure supply and demand, and doubt much that there is any bubble to burst due to things like the high prices of the recent buffalo nickels 'errors' and state quarters. In fact, I think that these are driving such unusual prices (compared to rarity) because they have created a market in and of themselves that is much larger than the general coin trading market, therefore the same mechanics that would generally set the price on an old rarity don't work for the new state quarter, which there are countlessly more of, but also a specifically much larger market for, creating demand to draw up prices. There are millions of collectors of these new coins, who may never move beyond completing their westward nickel set, or state quarter set. I think of those coin buyers as a huge, but seperate, market force. These millions of buyers of inlfated priced quarters are not going to try to dump them back on the market someday for profit. Now, long time collectors jumping onto this as a 'profit' strategy are nuts, and will lose their pants... but that is why it is not advisable to buy on trends if you are looking for returns. True rarity, not relative (to market size) will drive long term gains.
What anything is worth??, its what someones willing to pay for it.........as far as coins, its mintage, survival of know coins,strike of that coin of that low mintage, grade condition of that coin, EYE appeal , market supply& demand for that mintage of coins in that series,whats hot in the market.these are just the key factors, other things and events are also added to the story.
Primarily already stated supply and demand. Note that as the population of the Earth increases, so dose the amount of coin collectors. Most young collectors start with pennies because of the cost. If the mint makes 100,000,000 pennies of certain year but there are 200,000,000 penny collectors out there, then the price goes up for one of them. If it is known that certain coins are required for buisnesses, such as quarters for vending machines, then more get damaged and again the price goes up. When the mint makes the stupid little dollars that no one wants, the price just dose nothing regardless of the quantity made.
There are lots of coins which simply don't have much demand so people don't know they're tough. I know several collectors who have been looking for some nice choice or gem clad quarters which are supposed to be dirt common but can't find them. Even the '83-P which lists for a "high" price of about $40 in gem is simply unobtainable raw or slabbed. Choice coins list in some publications as low as $8 but these can be very tough as well. Incidentally while they list at $8, they wholesale at $25!!! Many of the moderns are like this. I used to get a kick out of coin shows because almost any larger show will have multiple examples of gem '09-S vdb cents available for sale but you couldn't find something like a '72-S even in MS-60. While this coin is extremely common in MS-60 it is probably as scarce as the '09-S vdb in nice gem. The big difference was in the price. The old coin cost many hundreds (now many thousands) and the later coin would cost 2c if you could find it (now several hundred). Prices are determined largely by demand. Even common coins can command high prices while rarities sell for a song. If you're concerned about resale value then the most important consideration is to be on the proper side of the change in demand. Coins with growing demand increase in price and large increases in de- mand can translate into large increases in price. This is where many of the later dates have the greatest opportunity; there is still very little demand for the '72-S.
In my opinion the problem is the word itself - it is not used properly. Or to be more precise, it is not properly understood, especially when talking about coins. These are the 3 standard definitions for the word - 1 - Infrequently occurring; uncommon: a rare event; a plant that is rare in this region. 2 - Excellent; extraordinary: a rare sense of honor. 3 - Thin in density: rarefied: rare air. Now when talking about coins, the first two of those definitions could apply, and be accurate. Trouble is, when people read the word as part of a description about a coin - they normally think of defintion number 1 and forget all about defintion number 2. And when people think of definition #1 they automatically assume that uncommon means very few of them exist. So while a coin might honestly be described as excellent or extraoridnary - that does not necessarily mean that it is uncommon. For example, a Morgan dollar - how many descriptions for Morgan dollars have you read that use the word rare ? Even if the description were for an 1893-S, the so called rarest of the business strike Morgans - is it really rare ? Well, assuming you have the money, on any day you choose you can go out and buy at least a dozen of them. I don't know about you, but to me something so easily obtained is not rare. To me, if a coin is described as rare - it means there are fewer than 10 known to exist. But then that's why coin collectors developed rarity scales. There are several, and they all define different degrees of rarity. Then of course there are different "types" of rarity as well. There is absolute rarity which might be defined as the number of a given item that currently exist. And then there is conditional rarity which may be defined as the number of items that exist in a given condition. Which of course when talking about coins means their grade. And these two different types of rarity can be in direct conflict with one another. For example, there may be well over 5 billion 2001-D cents that exist - certainly not rare by any description. But how many have you ever seen graded as MS69 ? So you can see how easy it is for the word, rare, to be misused, and more importantly - misunderstood. Now, nickelman, I have a question for you. Did you ask the wrong question ? Did you really mean to ask - what makes a coin valuable ?
Surviving population period. Demand has nothing to do with it. If the demand for a coin rises or falls it's price can rise or fall and it may alter how many appear on the market place but it doen't change the number that have survived. I think many of the people here have confused rarity with price or value. GDJMSP says that to him a coin described as rare means 10 or fewer exist. I'm not that extreme. I use the Sheldon rarity scale so for me a coin is rare if there are less than 75 pieces known (R-5). Doesn't mean that they are expensive, I own several R-5 pieces that I paid $30 or less for.
