What is most under rated US coin?

What many people don't realize about the mint sets is twofold; more importantly is that there has been no demand so the sets build up in coin shop inventory and clutter the backroom until the owner is forced to ship them off to the wholesalers. Indeed, they have been so cheap for much of the time that it isn't worth the postage to ship most of them. The dealer ships off what has a premium and cuts up whatever is left. This is a continuing process in coin shops. The problem is that the bulk of the sets shipped to wholesalers are destroyed. They are cut up to make rolls and sets. Every year there are fewer sets of each date coming into the shops but this is largely unnoticed because there are more later date sets. Finding a quantity of something like 1969 sets would be almost impossible. Wholesalers might have a hundred or two hundred in stock but mostly what flows in gets destroyed. Once in a while stock will be sold and it will probably be cut up. These wholesalers are savvier than they were ten or twenty years ago and are aware that high grade coins are sought after. They also know what varities exist in sets. If someone wanted to do a promotion and buy 10,000 sets he would have to make a deal with all the wholesalers to buy their '69 sets at a very steep premium. Even then it could take some weeks to fill such an order. Meanwhile people need to keep in mind little facts like only one 1969 quarter in eight was even half decent the day it left the mint. Over the years cherry picking as knocked it down to maybe one in ten. Then add in the fact that half have suffered enviromental (pvc) damage and it's one in twenty. This is just a nice attractive MS-63+ I'm talking about. Gems are far far scarcer. If someone wanted a hundred Gems he'd quickly come to believe thay they don't exist in this quantity. Actually they do but with large percentages of the Gems having been released to circulation or suffered damage the survivors exist primarily in collections and numerous tiny hordes of 5 to 100 coin. None of these coins are for sale. It's not only a growing market but it's a young demographic. Of course price increases would not only dry up the supply entirely but would entice a few hoards to be sold.

The destruction of these sets is simply structural due to the low values. They are a consumable where even collectors are forced to cut sets for their collections but also to recover the face value of the set. Dealers, collectors, and wholesalers all cut them up and this is the most likely way to change hands. There are not many original owners of something like 1969 mint sets left. Even in aggregate the number of sets involves can't supply much of a market if only one set in eight is even "decent".

You can't get these coins except by hunting them down and it's really been this way all along. But each passing year makes it harder and harder to hunt them down. There are a lot of collectors who'd like to upgrade their '69-P quarter and this puts more stress on the availability of nice coins since they can head them off anywhere in the supply chain.

I believe that when the economy improves there will be a major choking of supplies as mint set owners gain income and security. The ones already on the market could dry up any time at all. Even twenty years ago the numbers available weren't substantially higher. There was a much larger flow into the coin shops but the toal available for sale was only double current numbers. When they disappear it will be like the music stopping and the few remaining sets are likely to be much more valued by owners.

Promoters don't want to risk it because the supply is too thin but eventually the low demand will simply overturn the supply. We'll run out. When you can't find a nice coin by looking in mint sets it's all over. But it takes work to chase these down and make a collection or take a position.

This leaves us where we are waiting for the inevitable that has been long overdue for decades. We have hundreds of people collecting these scarce and desirable coins while millions collect wheat cents or morgan dollars.

 

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This is also why I save any nice Kennedy I come across while roll-searching...and will continue to do so...

 

I don't know for sure, but I think in order to have a chance at being worth anything, the clads would have to be in nice uncirculated condition.

 

You'd be surprised what you can find...and yes, I try to keep my standards quite high for anything I save.

 

Despite popular belief the mint sets simply are not picked over to any substantial extent. People hear stories of collectors finding valuable high grade coins in sets and have visions of hundreds of picked over sets being generated but it just doesn't normally work this way. When sets are assembled into large numbers they tend to be destroyed and this is where most of the high grade coins are found. Of course collectors can check sets at any part of the supply stream but the stream usually ends up evaporating in the end.

They open up a mint set or two and see that almost all the coins are junk and the few that are decent aren't exceptional and assume it's because all the good sets are gone. No! This is the way the coins were made. Large nuumbers of the coins are substandard and most of the rest are unexceptional. About 2% of the coins in saets are exceptional so you need to look at fifty or a hundred coins to find one. If you're looking at one date then you might need to look at more because some dates are much scarcer than this in nice condition. Pick up two 1972 sets and you'll have at least one nice coin and perhaps several.

On Kennedy's you especially want to find coins that have a clean shield. On most dates these are far tougher than 2% though and they can be highly elusive. Nice attractive BU coins can be very much scarcer than most people realize due to the poor quality and poor survival of mint sets. Even in MS-63 there just aren't enough of many dates to supply a mass market. Rolls can border on being non-existent because few bothered. Even where rolls are common there can be no exceptional coins in them because roll quality tends to be substantially lower than mint set quality.

 

I have to agree with previous posts that the 3C nickel series is under rated. For example, the 1884 has a mintage of only 1700. PCGS has graded less than 40 coins and estimates there are only 150 still around. Despite this, you can get a nice VF example for ~$700. You put those mintages on a Morgan or Lincoln and the price would be astronomical. It's all based on demand and it's one series that gets overlooked compared to some of the more popular coin series.

 

IF you can find one, and even then don't be surprised if it costs a good deal more than that $700 figure.

It tends to be a lot easier and cheaper to just buy a proof one.

 

Yes, thanks for that insight. I was just basing the $700 off the latest price guide. You're right they may go for much more.

 

1/2 dimes, hands down. Some show up in the most unlikely places. I've found a few in yard sales, being sold as curiosities & priced
as such. I love the clashes they produce.

 

The "problem" with saying something is underrated and only looking at availability is missing the other half of the equation, Demand. Demand is what makes all US coins overpriced in comparison to any other coins on the planet.

You want scarce? Heck, I can find you ancient coins that maybe 20 exist of the entire TYPE in the world. Price? Maybe $100. What would the price of a US coin in which 20 of the entire TYPE exists?

So, I am guessing the OP is talking about a US coin where he believes the US demand will go up in the future the most, that would be the most underrated US coin.