Nice Ebay Collection Of Commemoratives!!

Good luck. If you do win I would love to see better photos of that Maryland Tercentenary and if it's F - XF and it's one you want to part with I may be interested.

Did anyone check out his other auctions.........holy cow

I caution a very good look at these coins before any of you get caught up in the euphoria of the 'instant-set'.

Hoping my credentials in this sub-forum have been established to the satisfaction of the regulars ... I have demonstrated over time the ability to authenticate and grade classic silver commemorative ... both circulated and MS.

I would willingly help anyone who is truly interested in chasing this set ... alas right now I am suffering from maybe 10 hours sleep total in the previous 72 hours ... way too much work as we try to launch a spacecraft.

Home again ... another quick glance makes it obvious to me that a less-experienced collector of classic silver commemorative will get burned if they chase this blindly.

Many of the coins are common (Columbian Half) and worth literally bullion value. My quick scan reveals several to be cleaned and again worthy of minimal numismatic premium above bullion (1915-S Pan-Pacific Half for example).

A few quick observations ...




It is AU55 or so ... a tougher circulated coin to find for sure ... but nowhere near your target grade.




It's indeed your money and not my place to tell you how to spend it. Are you really sure what you are buying for that money?




Way more (I hope) than any knowledgable CCF supported friend would pay.

I reinforce again what I said last night at 11pm or so on my way back to work ...

The only potential score in this 'collection' IMHO is the 1935 Spanish Trail. It appears to be a genuine circulated example from what I can see from here.

If you could get that coin into a PCGS AU53/AU55 holder ... then it is a $1000 coin ... and then you need to find a buyer!

Lastly ... please make note of the "No Returns" policy of the seller ... what are you going to do if some/many of the coins weigh 11.8g and are counterfeit?

Truly ... IMHO this 'set' is currently at $1800 priced way above the risk/reward level it deserves.

To each their own of course ... if you like it go for it ... just be sure you have done your homework supported by a basis of knowledge.

That is the reason the CCF exists ... knowledge sharing.

David

Thanks for the wonderful information nickel! I hope dsfreeworld takes your information into account.

@dsfreeworld: A wise decision -- especialy at your stage of information gathering re: the classic commem series. One nice thing about the US commemorative series is that the coins are always available -- no "once in a decade" coins in the series (unless you are seeking ultra grades for some of the less common pieces).

Take your time to learn the series -- quality coins at fair (not necesssarily cheap!) prices will always be out there for you!

Good luck!

Sold for $3579 with a total of 33 bidders.

IMHO there are two scenarios in play ...

The winning bidder is knowledgeable of the classic silver commemorative series ... took his/her time to review each of the 28 coins ... and decided they could use a few and flip the rest to make a profit.

That scenario is very unlikely.

Most likely ... someone with a genuine interest in the series saw an opportunity to quickly pick up some nice coins ... did so without the support of folks like us who could guide them ... and will place these in their collection without ever knowing that they paid well above fair price for coins they could have purchased individually over time with some patience.

That person will be very dissapointed if they submit to a top TPG and get the results back.

The Bay is what it is ... buyer beware.

Knowledge is your best friend.

David

It takes a lot of time. Commems has a post about a great book for the classic commems, looking at graded examples you know are real and studying them can be a good way to self teach too. Theres a number of threads on here too (especially for the classic commems) where people ask about if a coin is fake or not and a lot of great replies with what to look for on that particular series. PCGS and NGC sometimes have pretty good descriptions of coins on their website as well and usually a picture or two of the reals ones you can study or use as comparison