My rarest is an R5 Connecticut copper, Miller 37.8-HH, with an estimated surviving population of 31 - 75 pieces. It's in a problem free VG10 PCGS slab to boot.
Not expensive but some low mintages: Bahamas 1 cent 1974 KM59 11,000 mintage Bahamas 1 cent 1975FM(U) KM59 3,545 mintage Belize 5 cents 1977FM(P) KM47b 2,107 mintage Belize 5 cents 1978FM(U) KM47b 25,000 mintage Danish West Indies 2 cents 1905 KM76 150,000 mintage France 2 Centimes 1920 KM841 598,000 mintage Mexico 2 Centavos 1929 KM419 250,000 mintage
Mine is this Gold Coast 1 Ackey Mintage: 1085. Gold Coast coins are often thought of as the holy grail of British colonial coins there aren't many more coins from an interesting area with a great design and a low Mintage. I would think personally off the top of my head the only other coin I would say is better is the New Zealand 1 crown Waitingi. I adore it !!
My answer to your question is that it is a throwback to the time when most collections were put together out of circulation or bank roll searching. For those who were looking for this coin or other "key" dates such as the 1931-S cent (which is actually practically as common as dirt), they would have been "rare" because the chances were very low that anyone would ever find it. Additionally, in the pre-internet age, it would have been a lot harder to buy depending where you lived because most dealers may not have had it in inventory.
Many of the coins in the series I collect are scarce or rare, but I don't know the mintages of most of them and no one knows how many exist now either. From the mintage, I own a 1944 and 1946 SA 3D and farthing, both with 150. The Bolivia 1893 proof 5c might have a lower mintage than 150 but it is unrecorded in Krause.
There may not be as many collectors of proof sets by date as there used to be, at least that is the impression I have from "old time" collectors. I also doubt there are as many proof set collectors of the entire date run as there are for business strikes. Never heard that from anyone. If this is true, the mintage of these early modern sets isn't really that low. There are plenty of 1916 and earlier proof sets whose mintages are much lower but where the price of individual coins is much cheaper for the mintage than the 1936-1942. Many of these coins are also mediocre looking and aren't in demand under today's quality standards.
I don't w Own any more coins gave everything away, had to reboot my life Sent from my C6740N using Tapatalk
From the ORIGINAL Confederacy... Marsic Confederation SOCIAL WAR - Rome vs. the Marsic Confederation (Italia) AR Denarius. Corfinium mint (Capital of the Marsic Confederation), 89 BC. 3.60g, 20mm, 8h Obv: Laureate head of Italia right, wearing pearl necklace; ITALIA behind, X (mark of value) below chin Rev: Italia, seated left on shields, holding sceptre in right hand and sword in left, being crowned with wreath by Victory who stands behind; retrograde B(?) in exergue. Ref: Campana 105 (same obverse die); HN Italy 412a Comments: Cleaning marks to rev. Very Rare. The Social War, or Bellum Sociale, was a true Civil War based on a struggle of PEOPLES’ beliefs and ideals. This is opposed to most of the later Roman Civil Wars where various Imperators, Usurpers, Caesars/Augusti were fighting for THEIR personal share of power. Rome actually lost this war politically as she had to give up every concession to the Italians. However, they won the war militarily. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_War_(91–88_BC)
Another one from the past is one of 20 known to exist... India - Shakya Janapada AR 5-Shana 6th-5th Century BCE 25mm x 21mm, 7.05g Obv: Central Pentagonal punch plus several banker's marks Rev: Blank Ref: Hirano Type I.8.29 Coinage from the Ghaghara Gandak River region. This the Buddha Coin - struck during his lifetime and from the Janapada that he was Prince before becoming the Enlightened One. Rare - Less than 20 known. At this time, any of the 16 "Janapada" was defined as a tribe, country, kingdom, or a republic in northern India. Shakya was a Republic (ah, I love the Republics!), in northern India near present day Nepal.
1878-O Morgan....super rare, since they didn't actually start minting them in N.O. until 1879. Maybe this is a 'prototype', as they were just getting the mint ready to produce coins again, ha ha.