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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 1215105, member: 112&quot;]While I understand what you are trying to ask, it is a pointless question in most cases because it can never be answered. There are however some coins where an actual approximate answer can be given. That answer is known as the condition census. But in all but very few cases, the 1804 dollars is an example with 15 known, that census will be stated in a format something like - 35 to 40 known. Or 125 to 150 known.</p><p><br /></p><p>Typically the only reason that anybody would even ask the question of &quot;how many left&quot; is so they can try to estimate the value of the given coin. But the value of basically all coins, all but the very rarest anyway, is always pretty much known at any given time. The market establishes value. And the market establishes value based on supply and demand. But rarity alone does not establish value. There has to be demand to go with that rarity or there will be little if any value. There is a paradox.</p><p><br /></p><p>There are plenty of coins where less than 50 were ever even made. But those coins have no value to speak of because nobody wants them. And the reason nobody wants them is because there are not enough of them. Now to many people that doesn&#039;t seem to make sense. But that is the paradox. You see, for a coin to have significant value there has to be enough of them to go around. There has to be enough of them for people to collect. There has to be enough of them to make a market in that particular coin. And if there is not, then that coin will have no value to speak of.</p><p><br /></p><p>There are of course exceptions to this rule. But they are exceptions, not the rule. And that is another reason that original question is pointless. For these exceptions are very well known in the market and thus they have their own particular market where an entirely different set of rules are applied. They also have a very specific and limited market for only a very few collectors could ever even afford them.</p><p><br /></p><p>Then you have the other side of the value paradox. You have those examples of coins where a huge number of them are known to exist, but yet the coins are by any definition - expensive. Coins like the 1909-S VDB. These coins not rare by any stretch of the imagination, but yet they are very expensive even in low grades. And the reason they are expensive is because everybody wants one - demand. There is a huge supply, you can go out buy 10 of them in virtually any grade you want on virtually any day of the week, every day of the week for that matter. </p><p><br /></p><p>Again - a paradox. But that&#039;s the way the market is because that&#039;s how people are. As long as everybody else wants one, they do too. And they will pay to get it. But if nobody else wants it, they could care less. You can&#039;t give them away, even of there are only 15 known to exist. There are 15 1804 dollars known to exist, they sell for millions each. And they are not even legitimate coins. And at the same time there are other examples of coins where only 15, or less, are known to exist and they sell for bullion content.</p><p><br /></p><p>Go figure.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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