Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cladking, post: 1344065, member: 68&quot;]I&#039;m not sure I believe they really paid that much.&nbsp; It&#039;s not impossible but it&#039;s far above wholesale and Littleton usually pays only about 25 to 50% above wholesale.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>True gem Ikes are actually quite scarce.&nbsp; What any given grader is calling &quot;MS-65&quot; at this time I don&#039;t know but if you&#039;re looking for a nice attractive wellmade coin with a minimum of marking, a gem, then you&#039;ll be looking for a while.&nbsp; I was watching the mint sets and never saw my first gem Ike until late in 1978; it was a &#039;77.&nbsp; 1977-P is the most common or second most common (&#039;78-D is about tied) of all the Ikes in gem but only about 1.5% of mint set coins are Gems.&nbsp; Of the &#039;76 type I&#039;s fewer than .2% are Gem.&nbsp; One can argu4e this makes them &quot;common&quot; due to huge mintage of mint sets but the fact is that these coins have suffered tremendous abuse and attrition over the decades because they are considered common.&nbsp; Many mint sets are just cut up and put in coin dealers&#039; cash registers.&nbsp; Mint set packaging is not stable and every year more of the survivors are corroded or damaged.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>These percentages will seem exceedingly low when the mint sets are tough to locate and collectors start wanting these coins.&nbsp; I wouldn&#039;t pay $69 for a common date gem Ike but there are only three common dates.&nbsp; Some MS-65&#039;s are special because they&#039;ll be PL or have booming luster or razor sharp strikes.&nbsp; As always collectors should buy the coin and not the story or the label.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in