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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 794447, member: 112&quot;]Folks the problem is that people tend to equate rarity with value, if a coin is valuable (meaning expensive) then that coin is called rare. The 1909-S VDB cent is expensive - in any grade. But when thousands and thousands of a coin exist - how can that possibly be thought of as being rare ?</p><p><br /></p><p>The two things - rarity &amp; expense -&nbsp; have nothing to do with each other. Sure there are examples of coins that really are rare - that are expensive. But there are even more examples of coins that are really rare - that are not expensive at all.</p><p><br /></p><p>For example, I used to own several coins where less than 5 are known to even exist, in any grade or condition - and I paid less $200 for some of them. </p><p><br /></p><p>So just because something is expensive, that doesn&#039;t mean it is rare. And just because something is rare, that doesn&#039;t mean it is expensive.</p><p><br /></p><p>Absolute rarity is determined by how many of a given coin exist - in any grade or condition.</p><p><br /></p><p>Conditional rarity is determined by how many of a given coin exist in a given grade - but only that grade. For example, there are coins that are graded as PO 1 that are far more rare in a conditional sense than those examples graded as MS. The reverse is also true.</p><p><br /></p><p>Value, or the price of the coin is determined by how many people want to own that coin. If there are more people who want to own it than there are examples to go around - then that coin is expensive. </p><p><br /></p><p>If there are fewer people who want own a coin than there are examples to go around - then that coin is inexpensive.</p><p><br /></p><p>And people become conditioned to believing things that are not true simply because they hear it and read it so much. Just like with the 1909-S VDB cent - the coin is not even close to being rare. It&#039;s not even scarce, it is very common in fact. But because every ad you see, every time somebody writes about in article or on a forum, the coin is refered to as rare. So people have become conditioned to thinking that the coin is rare. When in fact it isn&#039;t at all.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is where knowledge comes in. If you have the knowledge, then you KNOW the coin is not rare. If you do not have knowledge, then you believe what you hear and read that everybody else says.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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