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Message:: [QUOTE="Ardatirion, post: 287334, member: 9204"]I'm afraid we may have missed the point...  A better question to ask would be "what makes a 1909 S VDB more historical than a 1909 or a 1909 S indian?" You can't say rarity makes a difference - over 480 THOUSAND of these things were made. Compare that with ancients with a surviving number of perhaps five or six. And liberty and justice and all that are no more prevelant in a rare coin than in a common one. Rarity is also influenced by what most American collectors define as a collection. Whereas ancient collectors will patiently collect, say, sestertii of Antoninus Pius as they come, a US collector must go out and hunt down each and every date, mintmark, and die variety.  Face it - American coins ARE over-rated. So much so that I can't afford to collect most of them anymore even if I wanted to! It really is supply and demand, which has been partially skewed by investors.  And Jerome, if you have to knock an American coin, you probably picked the WORST when you chose the wire rimmed '07 double eagle. If there were ANY US coin that I'd choose over an Athenian tet, it'd be that one.  *If someone wants a real adventure, collect foreign coins by date, mintmark, and even die variety. Its like US coins, only a fraction of the price!*[/QUOTE]