steel pennies

As I mentioned in another thread - the value of a coin does not always equate to its rarity.

As an example - the 1909-S VDB may arguably be the most well known of the Lincoln cents - and in some grades it is the most valuable. But because it was hoarded in huge numbers when it was issued - in higher grades its value and its rarity is surpassed by several other dates.

I'm using Coin World's Coin Values here for comparison purposes only.

In MS60 -

1909-S VDB - $1200

1914-D - $1400

1917 doubled die - $1500

1922-D - missing D die pair 2 - $5500

There are many other years in even higher grades and in Proof examples as well that far surpass the S VDB in value. These are but a few examples.

 

I understand what you mean mercury - but your question, as chevy said, is a bit tricky.

You see - just about everybody has a different definition of rare. In my opinion the word is used way too much when people talk about coins. Seems like everybody says this is rare or that is rare. But what exactly is rare ? How would you define it ?

Is a coin with 5 examples known rare ? Is one with 25 rare ? How about one with 3000 examples known - is that rare too ? And then it depends on several other things as well - like how many were originally minted and how many survive today. See what I mean - it's not always easy to define the term.

Collectors have struggled with this for a long time. And over the years there have been developed what are known as rarity scales. But there are a great many rarity scales - some apply to only US coinage. Others apply to the coinage of Great Britain or France. They even have rarity scales for tokens. So first of all you have to limit what you are talking about. But in this case I'll assume you are talking about US coins.

This is the rarity scale developed by Sidney Sheldon - the same man who developed the modern grading process and scale.

R8 = 1-3 known (estimated), "Unique or Nearly Unique"
R7 = 4-12 known, "Extremely Rare"
R6 = 13-30 known, "Very Rare"
R5 = 31-75 known, "Rare"
R4 = 76-200 known, "Very Scarce"
R3 = 201-500 known, "Scarce"
R2 = 501-1250 known, "Uncommon"
R1 = over 1251 known, "Common"

This is the Universal Rarity Scale which was actuall developed by a group of well known collectors & dealers but is generally attributed to Q. David Bowers.

URS-0 None known
URS-1 1 known, unique
URS-2 2 known
URS-3 3 or 4 known
URS-4 5 to 8 known
URS-5 9 to 16 known
URS-6 17 to 32 known
URS-7 33 to 64 known
URS-8 65 to 125 known
URS-9 126 to 250 known
URS-10 251 to 500 known
URS-11 501 to 1,000 known
URS-12 1,001 to 2,000 known
URS-13 2,001 to 4,000 known
URS-14 4,001 to 8,000 known
URS-15 8,001 to 16,000 known
URS-16 16,001 to 32,000 known
URS-17 32,001 to 65,000 known
URS-18 65,001 to 125,000 known
URS-19 125,001 to 250,000 known
URS-20 250,001 to 500,000 known

As you can see - there is quite a difference. But to get more to the point of answering your question - when talking about US coins - if the coin is even scarce - it will usually cost quite a bit. This is because collecting in the US quite popular - there are a great many collectors and just about all of them want the scarce or rare examples. And just about anybody who has a computer or cares to visit the library can find out what the key coins ( most scarce ) are for any series. Just like you're trying to do now. So the end result is that - no - there are no rare US coins that don't cost much.

Now if you were to venture into world coinage - this is not always the case. As I have mentioned before on this Forum - I own a particular 4 reale coin minted in 1769 at Mexico City and there are only 4 known to exist. I call that rare. But that particular coin only cost me a bit over $300. I managed to get such a deal because I study coins and read every book about them I can my hands on. So I knew what the coin was when I saw it - nobody else did. I bought the coin on ebay.

Just last week - I purchased from a dealer friend of mine a coin that is so rare it is not even listed in the books. At least no book I have been able to find. The coin is a 1782 ducat minted at the Salzburg mint in Germany to commemorate the 1200 anniversary of the Salzburg Bishopric. But this particular coin was struck in silver. The regular coin of the same date and design - that is in the books - was struck in gold. That's what makes this coin so rare - it is what is called an off metal strike. The coin is listed in several auction catalogs going back over several decades - so I know it is genuine. But to the best of my knowledge nobody knows how many were struck or even exist today. There may be 50 - there may only be 1. But there are certainly not very many or it would be listed in the coin books.

The best part is - this coin cost me $125. Now that is what I call an example of coins that are more rare but don't cost much.