Why is 1909S VDB more expensive than 1909S?

I see. You misread me. 09-'s is the plural of a 1909- non-VDB. It is not a 1909-S.

 

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Anything coming from you about cents is gospel. Man, I was getting stressed over what I was missing out on by not following coin prices. I was itching for Monday morning to come in order to buy a bunch of 09-S's.

 

Wow. That's one nick in the N from Condition Census.

 

Please do!!! Now that I have bought mine, go ahead and drive the mint state price up to 4x the 1909S VDB price. I would be very pleased. Pretty please?

 

Out of all the correct information you presented, the piece which stands out the most is "popular".

 

If we took the magic, excitement, and hopeful anticipation out of the hobby and went purely by the population charts, the life would be sucked out of collecting. Let's keep reaching for that dream - someday I'm going to have that S-VDB.

 

It arrived, and makes a companion to my other 1909.

And a couple of shots with different lighting.

 

Beautiful RB coins!

 

Why is the 1852-O half dime worth about 1/20 the price of the SVDB, despite the 1852-O being 200 times more rare?

Demand, of course. And demand is also the answer to this question.

Someday I'm going to have that 1846 half dime...

 

That is exactly correct. Demand is what drives it.

Numismatics is full of such oddities, including german numismatics. Plenty of extremely rare coins among german state issues which languish because nobody wants them (or even knows about them).

Coming back to the 1909-S VDB, I am glad I got mine 20+ years ago for $300.
I would never contemplate paying $1000+ for this coin nowadays.

Omegaraptor, the way you feel about the 1846 half dime, I feel about the 1838-O.
I have got to get me one of those. Another truly scarce coin.

 

If you are ready for profit-taking now, I could totally do $325, even $350 to take that off your hands.

It's a glorious, stately, distinguished looking coin.

 

It's simply a matter of mintage...ratio of 3.7 (09 S) to 1 (09 S-VDB)
You have a beautiful fist year Wheatie.

 

Very similar scenario with high grade Morgan dollars- vs- high grade Peace dollars. don't have time to post the numbers, but check it out sometime. You won't believe how few high grade Peace there are compared to high grade Morgan's.

John.

 

My thoughts exactly...the S-VDB was instant hype as people were lined up to buy these new pennies. Many managed to survive over the years which explains the higher pops. On the other hand, even though more S,s were struck, they worn,t saved. No one ever thought about pops. in those days so most were spent and lost in circulation. Now, we view a coin,s rarity in a more scientific manor, but the initial hype is still strong. I view the 09-S coins as very undervalued and a bargain at twice the price.

 

I completely understand your argument...and it has some validity...but the S-vdb is still a key issue (many would say the key issue) and sought after by anyone who is collecting Wheaties. The 1909 S does not make the key issue cut.
@RonSanderson

 

This thread is a good learning experience for yet another of the typical mistakes people make in assigning the TPGs as being the ultimate sources of factual knowledge in the hobby.

The data they list is definitely not a representative of the reality of how rare a coin is. Their data is merely a representation of how many of each of that coin the TPG has handled. What does the data tell us? ONLY that the TPG has been asked to grade more of one than another. It is data only relevant to their own system, not any reality that should be used to influence ideas on what actually exists in the real world.

Even if one TPG's data correlates with another, TPG's data, no more accuracy is gained about anything except what the TPGs have handles and not coin populations. The numbers also have a to do with psychology on two fronts. The numbers indicate the perception and actions taken by the masses concerning both dates. The numbers also influence people into mistaking the data as applicable to anything but the TPGs data bank itself.

There could be (and likely are from mintage records) many, many more 09-S pennies in high grade that TPGs have never seen. People have their own reasons for never wanting someone to pay someone else to grade their coins. in fact some of us still cannot understand why people see a need to pay someone else to grade their coin for them! Authenticity is a good argument until you see where there are slabbed fakes also.

To get an accurate grade accepted by "everyone" seems a plausible argument until you see that there can actually exist a business being paid to verify the TPGs did their job by affixing the green bean! And yet people still put their faith in TPGs!

New collectors - specially those online - get fed a false idea that TPGs are the main drive behind this hobby, when in fact, there are still many collectors out there who don't even have one slabbed coin - as a preference. In fact of the collectors I am associated with offline, IF they own a slabbed coin, they only got it b/c after comparing other coins in hand, the one in the plastic had more eye appeal to them.

 

what i'd like to know is why are 1909-S Lincoln's so hard to find with tremendous eye appeal. The VDB's seem to be so much more attractive. I bought a PCGS MS65BN green cac but dang it's homely. Looking at the photo, I would have guessed MS62BN. Where are all the eye appealing 1909-S's ... I can't find them. I've been trying to upgrade this (on an eye appeal level) for 3 years w no luck. Looking for a bit of color, gloss, and nice strike.

 

My guess is the VDB's came first and everyone saved them. By the time the non-VDB's came out, most collectors already had their 1909 and back them most collectors only collected one coin per year regardless of the mint or anything else.

 

You just might but it's going to cost you a lot of money.

 

I don't really understand.
1852-O half dime has a mintage of 260,000
1909-S VDB 484,000
Unless you are talking about "population". Or surviving coins.