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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Publius2, post: 26461550, member: 105571&quot;]I am looking to replace the Variety 2 With Drapery Half Dime (1840-1853) in my type set because I sent my raw coin off to NGC and it came back AU-Details-Whizzed (no surprise there).&nbsp; Photo of this coin below because no post is complete without a photo.</p><p><br /></p><p>I could easily get a common date MS or PR-65 or 66 replacement for well within my budget but I have recently started considering getting &quot;better date&quot; coins for this set.&nbsp; Even though I don&#039;t collect for investment purposes, I am not entirely deaf to the siren song of &quot;better appreciation for better coins.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>To that end, I am looking to fill this slot with either a 1853 No Arrows or a 1853-O No Arrows.&nbsp; While the mintages of these coins are similar, 135,000 and 160,000, respectively, the 53-O is much rarer and more expensive.&nbsp; These were minted to the old weight standard which was reduced on February 21.&nbsp; Why is the 53-O so much rarer?</p><p><br /></p><p>The 1853 was minted in two lots; 50,000 on February 19 and 85,000 on the 22nd.&nbsp; The 50,000 lot was most likely distributed to circulation.&nbsp; The 85,000 most likely went straight to the melting pot.</p><p><br /></p><p>The New Orleans mint did not distribute much of its coinage struck before February 21 and in the autumn sent over $1 million of various denominations to Philadelphia to be melted.&nbsp; It can be assumed that much of the 1853-O No Arrows half dime mintage was included in that shipment.&nbsp; Hence the much lower survivorship of the 53-O than the 53.</p><p><br /></p><p>As a result of this variance in survivorship and quoting the Red Book Quarterly price guide for retail prices, the 1853 can be had for $2,000 in MS-65.&nbsp; But the same money will only buy you a VF-25 or 30 in a 1853-O NA.&nbsp; And a 1853-O NA in MS-65 is $35,000.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, which coin do you think is &quot;better&quot;.&nbsp; I&#039;d appreciate your thoughts on this and note that this not a registry set so I don&#039;t care about &quot;points&quot; nor do I care overly much about having consistent grades (most of my LS coins in the set are about MS-63-66).</p><p><br /></p><p>And here&#039;s the whizzed coin that now gets no respect.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1687685[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1687686[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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