My old Walking Liberty half collection (Dansco #7160 album; mostly F-VF)

This was a very modest, semi-casual Walking Liberty half collection in a Dansco #7160 album, collected in seven months between December of 2011 and July of 2012.

The goal here was pretty simple: to collect a well-matched set of original grey coins with decent eye appeal, ideally in the F-VF range, but focusing more on nice original pieces with "The Look" than technical grade.

Additionally, I was trying to obtain the more common-date pieces at or near melt value. In other words, this set was mostly just a fun way to set aside a little bit of bullion for a little while, but to try to build a coherent collection at the same time. Obviously the key- and semi-key dates were not to be obtainable at bullion prices, but I figured a large portion of the set should be.

Below you will see how far I got in those seven months before, as so often happens with me, I sold the set and moved onto something else. Though this was a short-lived, "sideline" collection, I did have fun with it, and as I bought most of the common coins near melt value, I did OK when I sold them.

"CU" in the provenance notes refers to the Collectors Universe site. Images were mostly done on my old flatbed scanner, which actually did a mostly decent job on grey circulated silver like this.

 

Page 1 of the album

1916-P
Mintage 608,000. Ex-"2underparchris" (eBay)
(Lg. obv. pic) ~ (Lg. rev. pic).


1916-D
Mintage 1,014,000. Ex- "guitarwes" (CU).
(Lg. obv. pic) ~ (Lg. rev. pic).


1916-S
Mintage 508,000.

1917-P
Mintage 12,292,000. Ex- "guitarwes" (CU).


1917-D (obverse mintmark)
Mintage 765,400.

1917-D (reverse mintmark)
Mintage 1,940,000.

1917-S (obverse mintmark)
Mintage 952,000. Ex-"Walkerguy21D" (CU).


1917-S (reverse mintmark)
Mintage 5,554,000.

1918-P
Mintage 6,634,000.

1918-D
Mintage 3,853,040.

1918-S
Mintage 10,282,000.

1919-P
Mintage 962,000.

1919-D
Mintage 1,165,000.

1919-S
Mintage 1,552,000.

1920-P
Mintage 6,372,000.

1920-D
Mintage 1,551,000.

1920-S
Mintage 4,624,000.

1921-P
Mintage 246,000.

1921-D
Mintage 208,000.

1921-S
Mintage 548,000. Purchased in an ANACS F12 slab. Ex- "midway1912" (eBay). This and the 1938-D were the only better dates I bought for this short-lived collection.
(Lg. obv. pic) ~ (Lg. rev. pic) ~ (CU commentary thread).

 

Page 2 of the album

1923-S
Mintage 2,178,000.

1927-S
Mintage 2,392,000. Ex-"Tdec1000" (CU).


1928-S
Mintage 1,940,000.

1929-D
Mintage 1,001,200. Provenance forgotten- maybe "guitarwes" (CU).


1929-S
Mintage 1,902,000.

1933-S
Mintage 1,786,000. Ex- "Walkerguy21D" (CU).


1934-P
Mintage 6,964,000. Ex- "guitarwes" (CU).


1934-D
Mintage 2,361,000. Ex- "Walkerguy21D" (CU).


1934-S
Mintage 3,652,000. Ex- "Walkerguy21D" (CU).


1935-P
Mintage 9,162,000.

1935-D
Mintage 3,003,800. Ex- "guitarwes" (CU).


1935-S
Mintage 3,854,000.

1936-P
Mintage 12,614,000. Ex- "guitarwes" (CU).


1936-D
Mintage 4,252,400.

1936-S
Mintage 3,884,000.

1937-P
Mintage 9,522,000.

1937-D
Mintage 1,676,000.

1937-S
Mintage 2,090,000. Ex- "jayPem" (CU).


1938-P
Mintage 4,110,000. Ex- "guitarwes" (CU).


1938-D
Mintage 491,600. Ex-"Walkerguy21D" (CU).

 

Page 3 of the album

1939-P
Mintage 6,812,000. Ex- "guitarwes" (CU).


1939-D
Mintage 4,267,800.

1939-S
Mintage 2,552,000. Ex-"2272davidg" (CU).


1940-P
Mintage 9,156,000.

1940-S
Mintage 4,550,000.

1941-P
Mintage 24,192,000.

1941-D
Mintage 11,248,400.

1941-S
Mintage 8,098,000. Ex- "jayPem" (CU).


1942-P
Mintage 47,818,000.

1942-D
Mintage 10,973,800.

1942-S
Mintage 12,708,000. Ex- "jayPem" (CU).


1943-P
Mintage 53,190,000. Ex- "guitarwes" (CU).


1943-D
Mintage 11,346,000.

1943-S
Mintage 13,450,000. Ex- "guitarwes" (CU).


1944-P
Mintage 28,206,000.

1944-D
Mintage 9,769,000. Ex- "jayPem" (CU).


1944-S
Mintage 8,904,000.

1945-P
Mintage 31,502,000.

1945-D
Mintage 9,966,800.

1945-S
Mintage 10,156,000. Ex- "jayPem" (CU).

 

Page 4 of the album

1946-P
Mintage 12,118,000.

1946-D
Mintage 2,151,000.


1946-S
Mintage 3,724,000. Ex- "jayPem" (CU).


1947-P
Mintage 4,094,000.

1947-D
Mintage 3,900,600. Ex- "jayPem" (CU).


(The remainder of Page 4 of a Dansco 7160 Walker half album has blank ports.)

 

So why did I just bother reformatting and reposting an incomplete collection of mostly lower-priced coins I sold five years ago?

Eh, I dunno. I guess I just felt like it. Maybe someone else who is working on a similar album might like to look at this stuff. (Worst case scenario, I've got the pictures to use in the "Coin Uno/Follow the Leader" game threads.)

This is what you could get mostly near melt at the time.

As I recall, bullion was higher then. Melt was like twelve bucks a coin if I remember correctly. As I type this, the melt value of a Walking Liberty half is $6.07. Maybe I did well to sell it when I did, huh? LOL. Seriously, though, this was a (relatively) inexpensive and fun collection.

I think I would get bored with being strictly a "stacker" accumulating silver bullion in random "junk" bags or ingots/bars, etc. Personally, I find I have to have some numismatic element to keep things interesting. But picking and choosing to create a nice looking "mostly-near-melt" collection is a fun way to collect and be a "stacker" at the same time.

I did shell out a few more bucks to buy the 1921-S and 1938-D and some of tbe toughish early dates, obviously. Never cracked the 1921-S out of the ANACS slab I bought it in, so I was able to sell that separately when I decided to sell the collection - well, accumulation - and move on.

No regrets. Though short-lived, this collection was fun and educational.

 

Very nice coins . . . I especially like the hi-lighted look of the '35-D, 38 & 39.

 

Indeed. That is "The Look".

And I was happy to also get "The Look" on that 1921-S, it being one of the key dates and all.

 

As flatbed scanners went, that old HP I had (still have- the cats sleep on it now) was a very good one. Cost me over a hundred bucks new. I'd swap it to somebody for a coin or two.

 

That's the problem even with well-matched date sets. That "sameness".

To me, a type set is much more interesting to look at than a date set, and one doesn't have to fight other collectors tooth and claw over the key dates that way.

On the other hand ... yeah. It was kind of fun to have a go at a traditional date-and-mint collection, and fill holes in an old-fashioned album, and not worry about slabs...