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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Publius2, post: 8173948, member: 105571&quot;]To one of your points first:&nbsp; I don&#039;t think either type of coin, business strike or proof, is going to be an &quot;investment&quot; in the grades and rarities your price points are pointing to.&nbsp; So, I would just stop thinking about this aspect of your choice except that you should seek out the very best coin of whatever type you settle on that you can afford.&nbsp; In this regard, it may be worth your while to &quot;stretch&quot; to achieve a better coin.&nbsp; No one ever regretted buying the better coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>To your other question:&nbsp; Why are proofs of Liberty Seated coinage not as popular as business strikes?&nbsp; There are many answers to this question that for an individual collector may operate alone or in concert with other reasons.&nbsp; That said, here&#039;s my speculation on the reasons, understanding that I can&#039;t see into the motives of other collectors and that most collectors have multiple, sometimes conflicting, motives.</p><p><br /></p><p>1)&nbsp; Collectors of type sets, date/MM sets, and registry sets often desire to have the coins reflect a degree of similarity.&nbsp; For some, that similarity is with regard to grade; for others, it is similarity in toning; or a common TPG, or other reasons.&nbsp; So, since proofs are not available in all years and certainly not all MMs and certainly not in circulated grades (with exceptions), the collecting community generally eschews proofs when &quot;similarity&quot; is a collecting criterion.</p><p><br /></p><p>2)&nbsp; Proofs are generally easier to find in high grades than high-grade business strikes because the proofs were almost always held in collectors&#039; hands from the time of purchase from the mint.&nbsp; So, it is a greater challenge for the collector to achieve a high-grade collection in business strike than in proof.&nbsp; This could be called &quot;The hunt is the purpose&quot; reason.</p><p><br /></p><p>3)&nbsp; For die variety collectors, there are usually far fewer and less challenging die varieties with the proof coins.&nbsp; There is not much point in collecting die varieties in proofs when the business strikes are so much more interesting.</p><p><br /></p><p>I am sure there are other reasons as well as nuances to the ones I&#039;ve offered but I&#039;ll leave it to others to explore further.&nbsp; Good luck in your hunt.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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