Problem Coins

So there's two of us.

 

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So you remember the buffalo nickels, Mercury dimes, standing liberty quarters, walking liberty halves, and silver dollars.

 

Up to about '64 then everything disappeared . But mostly it was just Franklins , Washingtons , and Rosies . But I did have a neighbor whose dad got odd dollars in Silver .
I agree with you and Weasel that if I collected early copper and couldn't afford one with detail , I'd rather have a detailed coin where I could see the coin and like I said I do have detailed coins that I love , one an 1806 half that said improperly cleaned . I'll show a pic in a second .

 

Here's one , there's no hairlines and was most likely cleaned , but to me it looks better than 95% of the VF Draped bust coins I see .

 

I bought this coin with the expressed intention of cracking it out. To date, I haven't sacrificed it to the jaws of a vise. The intention was to make it a pocket piec and I picked it up for a 'song'.....

 

To me this question depends on the cleaning done to the coin. If it looked like Rusty's half - I might go for the cleaned coin. I think I have at least one crack out I added to my bust half album that was in slab that said cleaned. I try to avoid certain type of cleaned coins but not all of them.

 

This is the key. Determine what grade level is reasonable for you and find choice examples in that tier.

You keep using the word "defect" which is not really an accurate word to describe what you are talking about. The correct word is "damage." A defect would be something that lowers the grade...damage makes the coin ungradable. Coins that are harshly cleaned, corroded, or otherwise damaged outside of normal circulation wear are problem coins.

There is nothing wrong with collecting low grade coins, but I would really advise you to try and find nice examples at that grade level. You say you never want to sell them...but you should still invest your money into pieces that could be sold. If you decide in a few years you want to upgrade a few pieces for nicer examples or change collecting directions...it is much easier to do with choice coins...no matter what the grade is.

The bottom line is, collect what you enjoy. It's your money and it's what you like. If it makes you happy then do it. I would just try and keep in mind that you don't have to do it all at once. My experience has been that when you really seek out the choice pieces (even if they are G4 grades), you will be much happier with your collection in the long run. There is something special in looking at your collection and knowing that each piece was hand selected and that you took pride in doing so.

 

LoL. My focus now is to just leave the little 4 year old something to pay for her college, or a car when she inherits it. Hopefully she will be smart enough to choose well.

Getting back to the question, problem free is almost always preferable (bullion may be an exception as I have a bunch of jewelery pieces with soldered pins or bezels on them, but a few seconds with a torch and they are just a bullion piece. Still you won't see me buying many holed pieces or even bent ones. (Why someone would crease a $1, $5 or $10 gold coin is beyond me, but I have seen a few.)

For numismatic purposes the coin you buy should always be in the best condition you can afford. Yes, sometimes a coin at a lower grade has more eye appeal than the higher graded coin. We see that a lot with MS vs. PF, or XF vs. MS, but not so much at the lower grades. Still, yes, there are G4s we want, and G4s we don't want. Luster vs no luster, patina vs no patina, etc.