what is considered "rare" or an actual key date?

the "key" date of roosevelt dimes is the 1950 S but they are not selling for much more then any other dimes out there... they got a mintage of 2,040,000...so does that mean there are just too many of them to be a legitimate key date or is it from a lack of collectors for roosevelt dimes?

if by chance there are too many...what kind of mintage makes a key date worth $100 each?

also anyone been watching what 2009 d nickel rolls are selling for on e-bay?

Alex

 

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the mintage of 50-s 20,440,000 and actually the 49-s has less: 13,510,000. Maybe the 50-s is not as big of a key date as one may think?

no, I am not watching the 2009 D Nickels..I have a couple from the mint sets i purchased I dont need anymore.

 

Low mintage + demand makes key date.

 

The easy answer is, "It depends." If you look at Bust Dimes from 1837 versus 1836, you see a wide difference in mintage and no difference in price.

Once, I was putting coins in 2x2s and I wrote "16 million. Rare" and my daughter said, "Dad, nothing with 16 million can be rare."

 

Price is more of a function of availability than mintage. A coin might have a high mintage, but if a lot were melted or worn by circulation, the remaining MS coins will command a premium that might look out of line with the mintage.

 

I would say "rarity" is a function of demand versus available supply. Mintage can be deceiving. What is more deceiving is demand. US coinage has huge demand, much more than any other country on earth. This increases the newer the coin, so availability of 1909sVDB is MUCH higher than availability of a 1812 cent, but in circulated grades it is much more expensive. It all depends on how many people want them. I have coins that maybe 50 exist in the world, yet all of them are worth much less than a sVDB.

A key date is simply a date in an accepted series that is rarer than the others. A key date can have a mintage of 24 or 240,000,000, it just has to be the least available.