low mintage of high grade?

I'm really curious guys,what do you generally prefer when building your collections, common coins in high grades or rarer pieces ,but lower grades? Obviously assuming that the prices are similar in both cases. I really want to know what do you consider to be the smarter way to collect, long term and without a huge budget! Personally, i prefer rarity in lower grades even if the coin sometimes carries mount marks for example!
Many thanks!!

 

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That's all a personal way to collect. Each person is different in their ways of collecting coins. After 20 years of collecting I would prefer rarer coins in low grade. I am guessing you are talking about U.S.A coins ? Now for World coins I prefer Higher grades and save up money for a better grade. Why you ask ? Because down the road you will maybe want to upgrade your coins grades higher. This all depends on your budget for coins too.

 

If you go after a lower-grade problem coin because that is all your budget will allow, you'll have to accept the consequences if and when you decide to sell for an upgrade. Coins in lower grades rarely hold value unless they are very rare.

Chris

 

By low grade i mean no less than vf and the damage,if there is any has to be minimum, otherwise i'll say no,unless extremely rare maybe.I've spent around 5300£ on coins this year and most of them are high grades and carry no damage.As a rule i won't buy a coin unless i'm sure i'll be able to sell it tomorrow for at least 30% profit and everytime i decided to sell a coin i made a good profit.I generally collect thalers and based on my observation,150£ is the lowest limit for a decent piece though i've bought for 50£ coins that are worth 20 times more!

 

Note to self: If buying from this person, be sure to offer 40% less than what he is asking.

Chris

 

I absolutely won't buy a damaged coin unless it is literally irreplaceable. Very few coins count as such.

If I'm collecting a set, I try to get nicely matched coins - even for the rarities. And yes, I have several coins with less than 5 known in the world.

 

You caught me on this one))

 

Depends on what you're collecting!Many 16-18 century, rare, large coins have mount marks and are still in high demand!I'll give you an example!Recently Kunker sold an extremley rare 1566 Pfalz-Zweibrucken taler,vf, for 9500 euros before premium. Same coin,vf, with a mount and small obv. graffiti was sold on ebay for aprox 500 euro!Do you think i made a good deal not bidding for it, because i see it as a major failure?

 

I can only tell you how I would approach it: I would never consider buying a mounted coin with graffiti. I don't care what the price was. It's a damaged coin.

The *only* time I would buy it was if it was literally the only one in existence. If there are others, I would either save my money and buy another one, or reconsider if this set might be outside of my budget and move to something else. There are so many coins in the world that I just cannot justify buying problem coins.

But, that's how I approach it. Your approach and your collection may be different. You have to choose what is important to you, and follow your own set of guidelines when building your collection.

 

I like Gems in any condition but especially in BU.

I mean I like well made coins either free of marks in high grade BU or with nice even wear and no major scratches or dents.

Obviously as a collector I'm not as interested in common dates or common coins unless they are needed to complete a set. In order to get scarcer coins in high grade I seek modern US and world coins and I collect some older coins (like British pennies) as circulated Gems.

 

Eye appeal. I have a few MS65 coins that are ugly, and a few in Fine that are beautiful.

Not hard to guess which I want to get rid of first.

 

Back when I had my training wheels on, or did I only have one of them on, I unknowingly bought a few problem coins. Though I didn't know any better at the time, I completely regret them because they won't grade straight (which tends to affect sales possibilities) and I know my naive self paid too much for them. As others have said, I would now buy a known problem coin only if it has known and established excessive rarity. I would avoid anything else damaged.

 

I think chasing after low mintage coins is a trap. You do it because of the feeling of exclusivity, or you want to impress someone that you have a coin they don't. So if you feel like you need to complete a set or you want to show off, then it makes sense to pursue low mintage coins. If there's a coin that you love regardless and it happens to be low mintage then you still want to have one. Otherwise, I'd rather have a nice example of a more common coin if it's a coin I like. That being said, coins are historical artifacts and unless you're talking about a coin just made for collectors, they were meant to be used, so I don't mind a coin that has seen some use as long as it's not in too bad of shape.

 

I have bough coin with holes in them because they happen to be very rare.
So, damaged is acceptable (to me) if the rarity, and/or the historical appeal of the coin warrants it.

 

While many collectors focus on a specific region,or theme like Mansfeld thalers(St.George),Brunswick(Wildman),city view(Regensburg,Nurnberg,Basel,Zurich,Augsburg,Munster,Koln,etc),i'm more into particular designs,certain mints,historical events,some habsburg emperors, or some german states.Impressing with my coins is simply out of order because some of the members posting here(Talerman for example) have some outrageous pieces,like a few leagues above me,plus there's collectors with much more experience and knowledge.My sole goal is to constantly improve and learn as much as i can and it's been a very bumpy road considering i had no guidance and been constantly discouraged by friends and close ones.I forgot to mention that i subscribe to everything you've said!

 

It's a hobby so you can do what you like and no one else can tell you what to do. And odds are you will re-evaluate some things as you go on and change your mind. I started trying to collect one of everything - completing the entire date series for all the coins I could find. Then I got to the point where I was looking at paying big money just to get those key date, low mintage coins so I could fill a hole and say it was done. I decided that was a waste of money and I switched to more of a type collector than someone who wanted everything. That means I buy a lot fewer coins now and my collection is actually shrinking as I sell coins I decided I no longer need. That's OK because it's my hobby and I can do what I want with it.

 

@PaulTudor: I started with talers about 15 years ago and I "cut my teeth" in the same way you did. I have made my share of regrettable purchases but it is all part of the learning experience. You don't often see that side of things on these internet forums, but I know we have all been there and done that. Opinions are cheap and if you are on the fence on a purchase, reach out to a forum member via a PM to ask what they think. A response might take a few days, but they might see something that you are blinded to. I built some very trusted allies that way.
Regarding the scarcity vs quality argument, I am drifting more to the latter the longer I am in the hobby. There is nothing wrong with a mid or lower grade scarce coin. In fact, I have a NGC F-15 taler that is still a favorite. However, I personally avoid problem coins (tooling, mounts, scratches, polishing, etc). If there are known issues with the coin, I know my eye will go straight to the problem whenever I look at it and it thereby distracts too much from the enjoyment of owning it. A coin will never "grow out of" the problem, so the chances are the audience for resale is much smaller.
One way to train your eye for better pieces is simply through volume. The more you can see (in person or online), the more working knowledge you gradually accumulate with regards to eye appeal, availability, typical grades, typical problems, etc. If you are debating a particular coin, use the archives of the major auction houses or www.acsearch.info to compare against other examples that have sold to get a better feel for price, scarcity, appearance, etc.

 

@wcg Until now i used to find acceptable if one in five coins had a small issue,but now i might rethink my strategy.The reality is that i'm spending many hours researching the average value(past sales) for every grade of a particular coin before buying or bidding and acsearch is one of my resources, so i'm trying to make sure i'm not paying more than its value, a lot less actually is what i almost always manage to do. Same applies if i decide to buy a rare coin with damage.For example the 1/2 Liechtenstein taler,with obv brooch marks and cleaned, that i've posted on here, it was bought for 55£. Same grade,without marks was generally sold between 1200-1500 euros before premium so it's not like i've spent too much on a damaged coin.Contacting someone with more experience sounds like a great idea too to be honest!Also please forgive me for not mentioning your awesome sede vacante collection, i do admire it,as i previously mentioned it on a different forum some time ago!

 

For common coins in my sets, I try to get examples that are a condition rarity. For rare coins, I try to get the highest grade uncirculated example I can afford, provided the eye appeal is there. For extremely rare coins where I am lucky to find any example at all, I go for eye appeal. In some cases of those coins I have circulated examples, in some I have UNC Details or AU Details coins.

 

Depends on the coin. As a general rule, I want higher quality when it is affordable.

So I have a few Saint-Gaudens and they are all at MS 65. Now...if I ever went for a High Relief I would probably have to settle for AU 58 (or lower).

If somebody gave me $20,000...I'd probably buy 3 or 4 high-quality rare Saints. I wouldn't buy 10-12 common dates even in good condition.