What Would You Buy For About $280?

From a stacker's point of view, any form of bullion would be a good choice. From a collector's point of view, Something early with a low survival rate. Perhaps something like a classic head large cent or a Twenty Cent Piece. I'd stay away from common date coins even in high grade as opposed to a lower grade key date with a low survival rating. Just my opinion.

Both of you, thank you, I'd completely forgotten about the Twenty Cent! Perhaps a good chance to spring for a nicer item indeed.

The PM store has a good chance of having a decent one, they sell nice examples of older coins singularly. Haven't actually seen one in person yet to be honest...

I found my XF 2 Cent there priced very fairly.

Perhaps consider a braided hair Half Cent. Many of these have a very low mintage to begin with and when you consider the survival rate in all grades, some may be under 1000 surviving. $280 should get one in XF-AU condition in a PCGS slab. These are absolute rarities.

These are some great replies, thank you.

Marve65, as much as I like those I don't have that type yet, it would be nice to start with a decent one!

MisterT, I managed to get a great deal on a VG 1828 Classic Head Half Cent a while back, while not a high grade, it's at least enjoyable, fully readable. It would be nice to get the next type. I'm really liking the idea of a Twenty Cent though, if I can find one that is!

So... Twenty Cent, Flying Eagle or Braided Hair 1/2c, and if they don't have any of those maybe some bullion and steak

I have the PCGS app on my phone, huge benefit to a novice (and the only coin app I use), it's saved me from overpaying before for sure.

I just flipped through and that is incredibly low! Looks more like the mintage for a small island, then factor in survival... You're making a very strong case

I know the goal here was quality over quantity, but factoring in what was available locally and coming in well under budget, I think I did pretty well attempting both (depending where you look), and the change went towards dinner with the family.

That was actually harder to spend on one coin staying local than I'd imagined, with a short list to buy from that is. I did manage to at least find a Twenty Cent! My camera certainly doesn't help its condition either, but a solid VG in person I think.




I've been sorting cents for months now but only just started my first book this past week, I picked up a P/D steel (had S) and some nice S mint Wheat cents I'm less likely to see in the wild. Didn't have the Indian Head dates.




I cannot resist cheap Roosevelts... The 1953 is outright bizarre, those are all die scratches, raised, not indented. Looks like FDR ran through a spider web.




Took the opportunity to buy my 1970-D, I'm now only missing the 1966 & 1967 Mint Sets, and the 1968-S & 1969-S Proofs...




Then on to the world coins! Here's about $2-3 in bulk bin grabs for some extra fun:




The German commemoratives are something else:




I was super excited about this one, as I'm now only missing the 50 Centavo for the year, not counting gold:




And last but definitely not the least; I was on the fence between this or a totem pole, and this one was just too clean to pass up.




Thanks for the replies, I hope you enjoy seeing the results! I'll have to post details separately elsewhere about a few of these in particular...

Nice purchases! Good job.

I collect across the whole range of numismatics.

If I had $280 to spend, I would go to a coin show, and inspect all dealers' inventories (ancient medieval or modern), then select the best value for money coin for purchase.
I would take advantage of more than 50 years of collecting experience in the process of selection.

Have using this process for many decades.