The value of a name

I understand the lure of owing a coin that Eliasberg owned but I think the premium here exceeds the trading range for similar coins.

 

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agreed.

 

I will not be buy this sir..
.

 

That's like owning a binion dollar and swearing you got something extremely rare...

 

Way too high a premium for a name

 

I agree.

 

Yep

 

I hear a rumor at the Baltimore show last week that before the Binion hoard was certified, the family bought and became majority shareholder of NGC. And that's why you see MS62 Morgan's in MS64 and 65 holders. Say it ain't so!

 

There are folks out there putting type sets of these together. Someone may be willing to pay the price. I would love to own it. Nice coin but not at that price.

The owner may have just listed it at that price to get folks to look at his other auctions. Just a thought.

 

Relatively inexpensive coins that have famous pedigrees often are the pieces that see a substantial percentage bump in their prices offered. In the case of this Liberty nickel, I believe there were quite a few of the same date certified as Eliasberg and they come up fairly frequently.

 

Heck no, I wouldn't pay for that label. I'm surprised he had a 64, thought he'd have one of the 67s. I wonder if there's a BUDDY E. label? I'd like that.

 

Googling Eliasberg...

 

Nonetheless, I do think a pedigree can add a minor premium to a coin (I do stress the word, "minor" here). It depends on the series and the intent of the collector. For example, I bought a Canadian 1970 VIP specimen set (about 100 were made) because that was my birth year - but I paid extra, to get John J. Pittman's set. I would not do so, in pursuit of a registry set upgrade...

 

The seller will be thrilled, as I'm sure he cherishes his feedback rating.

 

I agree. I even knew of a couple of dealers who specialized in this, buying up group lots of coins from famous collections just to resell for the "pedigree bump". Its not limited to modern coins at all, there were some famous ancient collections that were marked and they sell for substantial premiums over similar coins.

To me its very similar to "sunken treasure" pieces. Would most people pay those crazy prices for salt water damaged coins if they were not associated with a famous wreck?

In both cases, the premium as a percentage is most extreme for the cheaper specimens, and less percentage wise for more expensive coins. Its almost like the premium is a fixed dollar value above the market price for the coin.

 

I am happy to own a 1/2 dozen of E.P. Newman coins. I paid a large premium for one of them, but the others were added at FMV or a small premium. For me, it depends on the pedigree. I wouldn't mind adding a Pogue collection coin, but I'm afraid they're likely out of my reach. I own a Binnion coin too, but didn't buy it for the pedigree. I bought it for the toning. I also own some of Stack's 57th Hoard coins, but again, I bought them for the coin only. I was not willing to pay a premium for this hoard.

 

I've got one of his coins:

 

True there were a few rolls of these No Cent nickels in the Eliasberg sale. They were bought and then individually slabbed with the pedigree.


I have two Elasberg pedigreed coins, but they were from his foreign gold collection and they were the first NGC photocertificates. NGC did not extend their guarantee to those photocertificates, but the buyers could resubmit the coin with the certificate after the sale and NGC would then slab the coin and cover it with the guarantee. Only around 700 certificates were produced, and a large percentage of them were resubmitted. They are seldom seen today.

 

I bought 3 Eliasberg NGC large cents for $100, but the highest graded one was VF30. I did get an 1857. I had a dealer offer me $150 for it. They offered me $40-$50 for the F15 1844. He said he just wanted to own the name and didnt have any Eliasberg. I passed at the time, not knowing if it would carry any premium. When I bought them, I didn't even know who Eliasberg was. It's just something neat to have.

 

I have one myself. I paid around a 17% premium but I liked the toning and thought that the toning helped explain some of the price.