What do you'all think the next frontier is for Lincoln colletors????

A while back during our show I made the statement that after varieties I believe the next frontier (not counting this years new designs) for collecting Lincoln Cents has to be obtaining gem memorials. I few thought I was kidding but I am not.
I have been thru. thousands of BU Lincoln Memorial rolls probably well over 10 thousand from every date, mint and some just do not come nice.
When I search a new box, say 2008-P for gem singles I end up with about 150 coins that I want to offer customers, that's right 150 out of 2500.
Now I am picky to say the least but my people come back time and time again to buy my coins so I must be doing something right.
**(And this is not any type of offer to sell anyone coins on here I only sell at my show)**
So with that said I want to start a new thread.

Question #1. do you think that spotless gem Lincoln memorials (I mean gems now, MS-66, and 67) are going to dramatically increase in value the next 2 years???
Question #2. what dates have you found gems in and what dates have you had a hard time finding gems.

Dates - my experience: That do come nice!
1959 to 1962 P&D
1964 P & D ,65, 67
1968-to 1972 P, D, & S
1974 to 76 P & D
1980 to 82 P & D (most all the 7 types in 82 except SMDT.zinc.)
1987 to 89 P & D.
1990 to date they can be found in gem some easier than others, (see below.)

Dates my experience: That do not come nice!
1963-D
1966
1973S & 74S
1977 to 79 P or D
1983 to 86 P & D, (sometimes you can find these nice but it is few and far between because of the plating problems and black spots or corrosion).
A little hard are 1993, 98, 99, 01, and 02 P & D.

This will be a lot of fun to get every-ones experience and a great learning tool for new persons so please contribute if you have searched these or had trouble finding any.

(Caveat) - I am not talking about third party graded coins, I'm talking about coins from BU memorial rolls.

Thanks in advance everyone!!!!!!!!!!!
Ben Peters

 

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I don't collect moderns, but if I did I would definitely look for very high grade coins. I don't know if many people are saving these, so they might be pretty scarce and desirable to a future generation of collectors.

 

I do not think they will dramatically do anything in the next couple years unless the world economy really tanks. There are too many rolls etc. out there for there to be any dramatic change.

I don't go for the moderns.

 

I really don't have a lot of experience searching rolls but I do pay attention to the coins I've seen in circulation and have probably searched around ten rolls of each date but very few from later years.

I've looked at a lot of mint sets and there's often a lot of correlation between quality in these and quality in rolls. Other times there is little correlation.

One of the toughest to find even half decent in mint sets is the '79-D. These are all scratched up. All the '68-P are spotted in sets. The '84 is usually corroded and usually has very poor surfaces. The '81-P is rarely gemmy but does come clean. These have rough uneven surfaces. The '72-D comes exceedingly PL and gemmy but strikes are never full. The '72-S is a little tougher but comes nicer. Some '88-D's in mint sets look like branch mint proofs. '89-D's have zinc exposed on the reverse where it was stripped off the side of the lettering in the strike.

In rolls I just don't have enough experience to feel competent to answer though would say I don't see any real problems with your list. The '78 and '74-S do come very nice in the sets but the '78 is scarce.

 

I've said for years that the old Lincolns would peak in the fall of 2008 because everyone knows the anniversary is coming. The memorials have huge room to grow because so few people collect them. There may be nearly a million collectors but very few are looking for the nice well made coins in circulation, searching varieties, or searching rolls and mint sets. There may not be much alternative to doing all these to assemble a really nice set. But in any case, the point is that they typical Lincoln memorial collector just sends in $19.95 for the complete set advertised in the back of the coin papers and never even looks at the coins. If they did they'd see that most of these are just straight out of rolls and look like junk. If they tried improving the set they'd find that some dates are really tough to find nice.

I personally believe collecting sets of moderns in nice near gem or better condition is a very enjoyable and worthwhile activity. Collectors will learn a lot about minting and distribution of coins and will be presented with a real challenge. By settling for near gems in the tough dates it keeps the expense quite low since certification isn't even needed. If you don't mind spending more money then try for gem and choice gem. A few of these will be found very cheap and none cost over about $30 I believe.

 

Thanks "clad" and posts before, I really think it is going boom!!

So far "thanks" you'all that's consistent with what I am trying to get at here. Many (as said) are very hard to find super nice even pulling them from mint sets is a challenge as I do that often also.
I have been hand picking sets and charging about $55 or $60 (not an offer to sell or buy here) for them for 104 coins. I think it is too cheap at that for hand picked coins averaging MS-66 RD.
For instance: to get (my kind of quality in 1986-P or D) if you bought 4 rolls at say $8 a roll, (and you can not get them for that generally) but for instance, that's $32 and you may (on a good day) get 20 nice coins out of those 200 you end up having over $1:50 in each coin. Then you are selling them for .65 cents each - I think you can easily see where this is going.. Now many will be cheaper to obtain but count your time finding, buying then sorting and 2x2's them, well,,,
To find and assemble problem free gem type coins I think a set of these should be about $125 and will be much more in as little as 2 years.
Everybody rolls their eyes when you mention BU memorials but given these parameters I think the future is wide open.
Ben Peters