Under-Rated US Coinage

Many people don't consider monderns worht collecting and to some extent, I have to agree. I don't think Roosevelts will be especially valuable in my lifetime, but I am putting them away for my kids not myself. Maybe the original question had more to do with coins that could be collected and their value increased in the oringinal collector's life.

 

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half cents

 

Silver Roosevelts aren't really moderns. If one must call them moderns then there's
still a more important dividing line right at 1965 where the coins were no longer sil-
ver. Indeed this might be one of the most dramatic dividing lines in the history of nu-
mismatics. One of the things that sets the coins apart besides the metal content is
that people didn't save the newer coins. Where all the older dimes can still be found
in rolls with some effort most of the clad ones will prove virtually impossible even though
there is nearly no demand.

Not only does this mean most of the clads are scarcer in unc but almost all are tougher
in nice choice condition. More importantly perhaps it also means the varieties tend to
be very scarce or rare in unc.

Coincidentally many of the clads and later date dimes are among the rarest of all US
coins.

If you just assume that all the later coins are common then you may be in for a big sur-
prise. It was this assumption that the coins would be common that caused them not to
be saved in the first place.

I agree though that all the Roosevelts are underrated. Many old timers won't touch
them since they are so small and because of the perception they are common. Some
of the silver coins were poorly made as well (early '50's S mint for instance) and a little
demand could make a big difference in price. With so many young strong eyes joining
the hobby there just might be some demand for these.

 

That is true, it would probably be harder to find a roll of 1972 dimes than about any silver issue. The mint sets are the source, and there are only so many left.

 

I consider any design that is still being circulated to be modern. But that is just me. Others might draw the line someplace else. I wouldn't consider Franklins to be modern because they were replaced by Kennedys. You can still find them in circulation sometimes but they are rare. The Roosevelts have had pretty much the same design since they were introduced in 1946. The metal composition changed but the design didn't. Modern nickels changed designs but the size and reverse are really the same. It's just my line in the sand.

 

the 1913 s barber dime is my personal favorite for undervalued. Five years ago I'd have said the 1899 morgan because of its mintge and thats why I purchaed a WHOLE ROLL of them (woo-hoo!!!). But now I'd say the 96-w dime is currently undervalued as well

 

Franklins

I'm going to defend Phoenix on this one.

I'm approacting this as a collector who after several years is just now starting to think about actually spending money on coins.

1. Awesome obverse. Franklin looks like all the aging hippies I see at Walmart!
2. What can beat the cracked Liberty Bell on the reverse. Double Awesome.
3. Pretty easy to grade for new collectors
4. It's a good old fashioned hefty coin like our grandfathers and uncles used to give us.
5. It's silver - so it's exotic
6. It does NOT take a king's ransom to collect. Yes Virginia, there is something else besides Morgan dollars!
7. It does NOT have the Eagle or Lady Liberty on it. That, in itself, is pretty darned rare.

Franklins ROCK and RULE!

BTW, I also agree about the Roosevelts - they really are boring.

and as a newbie question, what is up with 1982-83 washington quarters? Why are they rarer?

Thanks

 

oops

Eeeerrrrr. You got me on that one. Ummm, would you believe mine are so worn, that I couldn't see it? Or let's see,.... you do kinda, hafta squint to see it....

 

How about the early commemorative coins. Some of these coins have low mintages like the 1936 Cincinnati Music Center commemorative with a mintage of just 5,000 coins or the 1939 Arkansas Centennial commemorative with a mintage of 2,100. Just take a look at the price of these commemoratives against a 1909 S VDB cent mintage 484.000 or a 1916 D Mercury dime mintage 264,000.

Lou

 

cwtokenman,

Are there any online dealers that you would recommend as a source for Civil War tokens? I rarely see them available for purchase other than on ebay.

 

I would have to guess most people would promote what they collect and/or have the most to sell. In my case it would be 1965, 1966 & 1967 deep cameo SMS coins.

 

I love proof coins/sets. Anything from 1964 and older. It's the sets from 36-42 which will break the bank, if i had one. I was able to purchase a NGC graded 1942 one cent PR63 red for $37.50. There were only 32,600 of these made and there seems to be plenty of trading going on with them. I wish I had the money to buy them all...now.

With business strike coinage I try and collect only BU examples. I'd rather have a few near perfect examples then dozens of well circulated ones. There are early years sets 30's-40's that I would like to build, but the prices of the BU coins, mostly the half's, seem to raise every year now. Making them hard to put together when you're on a budget. And with the price of silver climbing, it doesn't help me. I have the 50's and 60's about covered. These BU sets seem to sell very well in todays market. I believe a lot of it has to do with the increase in collectors from the new mint products. Even though I don't sell I like to watch the trading.

 

A lot of people don't realize that the '82 and '83 Washintons were saved in much
larger numbers than other clads from that era. Everyone knew that there would
be no mint sets so set aside rolls. Incredibly this amounted to something in the
neighborhood of about 1,200 rolls. There was also at least one bag saved and there
were around 30,000 mint sets in aggregate of each date from various sources. This
means around 80,000 for the '83-P which might be the absolute lowest for these dates.
People weren't saving the clad so there were even fewer of the '81 coins saved. The
other dates are available in mint sets so there is no demand for the other rolls which
is just as well since there is almost no supply.

This is a shame that there's no supply or demand though since there are some great
varieties from this era which don't appear in the mint sets. The most interesting (other
than the OMM '80-D dime) are the small motto quarters. These start at 1977 as very
scarce issues and get progressively more common until 1984. Remarkably they are
all scarce in unc except for the '81-P which shows up in about every 160th 1981 mint
set. The '77 and '78-D probably don't exist in unc at all. These coins were saved by
only a very few sources and spot checks show no small mottos from them.

Even the '84-P sm motto which was distressingly common (~25% of mintage) is exceed-
ingly difficult to find in unc, AU or even nice XF because people didn't save them and still
aren't. There may be as few as four or five thousand nice XF+ in existence.

Even those coins that do appear in mint sets can be surprisingly tough in nice choice con-
dition because some of the mint set dates were very poorly made. Some coins (like the '82-P
quarter) were very poorly made and very few were saved meaning choice examples are
not only scarce but can be rare.