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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Tom B, post: 892800, member: 11854&quot;]Thank you for asking the question since what I wrote was likely unclear for others, too. My response was a general response for some series, but also a specific response for other series. The comment about avoiding coins that grade less than G4 was more specific to the Barber series. The reasons that I believe one should generally avoid these AG3 Barber coins follows.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The first is that the average grade of surviving Barber coinage is likely more or less G4 so when one buys an AG3 Barber half dollar they are actually buying a coin that might be slightly worse than the mean for a series that saw heavy circulation. Also, most of these coins in this range hover around <i>Greysheet </i>value and the <i>Greysheet </i>does not list AG3 prices. Therefore, when you buy these coins from dealers you are likely to pay closer to G4 money, and will rationalize that this is okay, but when you sell you are likely to get 50% or so of G4 money because Barber coins in this grade are <i>relatively </i>common. Additionally, there is severe price compression down at AG3 and G4 on many of these issues because of the bullion value baseline floor and this means that the step up difference between acquiring an AG3 vs. acquiring a G4 is for many coins not all that much money. Lastly, most collectors who put sets of these coins together would like to buy coins with complete rims and complete rims for these can be found on G4, but are not required until G6. These points together mean that if you were to assemble an AG3 set that you might not be into the set for all that much less money than a full-rim G4/G6 set, but upon resale the AG3 set will be much less liquid and might suffer from a larger discount.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Your comment about the AG3 1921-D WLH would receive a slightly different answer from me based upon your goals. The 1921-D WLH is nearly universally recognized as being among the pantheon of key date 20th century coinage. It sits within a group that includes the 1901-S Barber quarter, 1909-S VDB Lincoln cent, 1916-D Merc, 1916 SLQ and 1932-D WQ. Of course, the 1901-S Barber quarter is the true <i>beast </i>of the group while the 1921-D WLH is the only remaining member that can be truly difficult to find in mid-grades or higher. Therefore, the coin has <i>tremendous collector pressure </i>by those who want &quot;cool&quot; coins, those who concentrate on key dates and those who are building WLH date and mintmark sets. This means that many of these are already certified and also means that many of the raw pieces that are offered as legitimate 1921-D WLHs might not be what they claim. If an AG3 of this date works for you under this scenario then that is fine. If, however, someone were to come to me asking my advice on the coin then I would tell them to attempt to buy a high end VG10 or, if they are really lucky, get a high end F12. Yes, these will cost more money, but it is my opinion that those grades have more value. Others might not agree.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I hope this answered your comment.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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