Back in May, I posted pictures of my raw 1793 Flowing Hair 1C and asked whether it was worth anything or even worth getting slabbed. There was great commentary and opinions, and I sincerely appreciated them. Recently, ANACS slabbed it for me and graded it "VF-20 Details - Heavily Corroded" as shown below. Well, ok, I get that heavily corroded part, if I was 230+ years old, I might be heavily corroded too. So, now the same question - what is a guess as to its worth on the open market or is its value only as a family heirloom in remembrance of the family patriarch? I don't have intention of selling it as it is indeed a remembrance piece, I am just curious as to what it might be worth now that it is authenticated. Many thanks!
Your coin is absolutely worth much more than mere nostalgia and family connection. The S-9 die variety has a rarity rating of 2 so it's actually fairly common but that doesn't mean it doesn't have real value - All 1793 large cents have real value and often more than you might expect. The problem coin market is much more variable with regard to price than the non-problem market. Your best bet as to current fair market value is to search auction results for VF-Details coins at Heritage and Stack's Bowers. Make sure you are comparing against S-9, R-2 coins and not against more rare die varieties. I did a quick search of Heritage and found some comparables from 1994 auctions in the neighborhood of $2300. That is by no means definitive for your coin but merely demonstrates that the value is not zero.
Worth? Absolutely. Monetarily and in terms of it being a family heirloom. BTW: This has always been a "bucket lister" for me as a detectorist.
Well it’s genuine and the slab shows that. As for value, it’s worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. I would suspect not less than a thousand dollars.
I don't know if this will help you as a comparison. This is graded FR02 BN. S-11 C. It is not a details piece and I paid a little less than $2,000 for it. It also has a green bean although I don't understand why.
Early copper is so desirable. Even the the TPG (correctly) tagged it as corroded, your cent still displays some nice detail in the devices. And yes, as others have said the piece will be worth what someone is willing to pay. The details label certainly adds some subjectivity to the value. I’ll just put it this way…. If it had an $1800.00 sticker on it, I would be an interested potential buyer if only because it represents an important historical step for the US mint.
@Publius2 @SensibleSal66 @Collecting Nut @Lon Chaney @Randy Abercrombie @Tall Paul ...Thank you for your thoughtful comments and kind direction. I really appreciate it. My brother is an early American history enthusiast, and it will soon be a gift for him in remembrance of our late parents. I just wanted to get an appreciation of its monetary worth, but I think it will be worth way more to him than that.
Agree that it shouldn't be less than $1,000. There are a lot of collectors who can't get this piece, and can't afford a straight G4 which could be 4 or 5 thousand. They would take a heavily corroded F-12 for a fair price (1200?). It would be a coin shop dealer who would offer 7 or 8 hundred, because he has to then sell it (1200?) and make his profit.
