Will Ours Be Worth Anything?

@cladking I'm curious as well, I love clad coins too.

A 1965 dime?

Yowzers! That's an extremely tough question since there are different kinds of "unappreciated" and coins of each type of unappreciated vary a lot. It simply depends on what coins collectors in the future want to have. They might concentrate on types, varieties, keys, or almost anything. I believe one thing is certain and there will be demand for every date and mintmark though this demand might not be equal. I also think collectors are going to demand nice choice problem free BU coins. This means well- struck by decent dies or MS-63/4. Some willwant higher grades but there will be a lot of attention on nice specimens simply because so many of the coins are just awful. If this is true the most underappreciated modern would probably be the '82-P quarter. You can pick these up for $10 pretty easily but finding one with a nice strike by goosd dies is tough. I also like the '69 quarter quite a lot.

Nice gemmy nickels are hard to find. The toughies are the '82 and '83 but really nice coins of most dates are scarce. Ikes are elusive in nice near gem. Something like an MS-64+ '76 type I will be found in only about every 25th mint set and rolls are hard to find and poor quality. It might sound funny but choice gen bicentennial quarters are underrated. These are common enough in gem but as you go up the scale their availability plummets and this goes double for "Full Drum" specimens. I like varieties as a group. The mint set coins are common enough to be widely collected and the circulation strikes are mostly all scarce to rare.

I believe the demand will occur across a broad spectrum of the moderns so almost anything might be consiodered "underappreciated". Common coins will probably always be common but this has never really applied to coins less than a few years old. The '69 quarter was common in 1972 but it isn't today, at least in nice condition. Indeed, it's not even common in XF. This doesn't mean one should seek out XF's and save them necessarily since with less effort and little more money one can still locate a gem. But the XF's will have their day as well.

This isn't to say there are no bargains in the proofs, bullion, and commems but I'm less familiar with these and their fate is far more difficult to predict since collectors, at least historically, have primarily focused on circulation issues. This could change since we all like silver and gold as well as very high quality and shiny coins but it probably won't. Many collectors of coins made in their lifetimes just long for coins of the past and these are the ones in circulation. More than two generations have used nothing but clad in their entire lifetimes now and each year that goes by increases their aggregate nostalgia for the "good old days". While some demand will manifest in the various other coins most will likely be in circulation issues.

It would never expect that a 1969 quarter would be tough. I see 60s quarters in change all the time, but do I ever see a nice '69? Well, I guess probably not. Quarters circulate like crazy, and any more than a couple years old are always beat... I don't collect them, so I have no idea what's hard to find. I see plenty of '65 and '66 dimes, but obviously they're all low grade and poorly struck.

I think most serious coin collectors have some feel for the key dates, and maybe even the semi-key dates in any of the popular series, even if it's not a series they collect. But you have to have some dedication to a series to pick out the sleeper dates, and the condition rarities and strike rarities and underrated varieties. Certain modern series are so unpopular, that all the coins that will eventually be keys are currently just sleepers. Who's passionate about clad FDR dimes?

I think you make a good point about the distinction between mint "uncirculated" sets and actually circulation issues. Uncirculated sets have really become a kind of quasi-proof. If you look at the coins from a recent mint set and actual uncirculated coins, they look completely different. And certainly the doubled dies and other varieties are going to be different, and the ones from circulation are going to be scarce or unavailable in the gem+ grades.

I marveled that a 2010-D cent in MS66RD sold for over $400 on ebay. I was dumbstruck; I've bought a number of MS66FB and even MS67FB Mercury dimes for a lot lot less! I had just seen an MS67RD 1995 doubled die sell for $75, and even MS68RD examples of that variety don't approach $400! But the mint sets in 2010 were satin finish, and this was a non-satin-finish coin. And every uncirculated shield cent I've seen, even from original rolls, has been spotty from whatever rinse they're using these days. Indeed, the PCGS population is 36 in MS66RD, zero finer.

Are 2005-2010 non-satin-finish coins (the most common of pocket change) going to be desired rarities in gem condition years down the road? Is this already happening?

So was the buyer.



Which means the day a 67 is found, it becomes the $800 finest known, and they all drop to $300.

Ppl playing the "goodest gnome" game are cruisin' for a bruisin'.

Not true. I remember collecting back then and lots of us did.
And I predict that some day a 1964 Jefferson nickel will be worth a real lot of money as first in the Billions minted coins. All clad coins will also be a novelty since they will all have long ago vanished from normal wear. No not in the distant future but in a very short time.

cladking, I tried to send you a PM yesterday, but it came back undeliverable. I am looking for some "modern" advice and you seem extremely knowledgeable. If you are interested in doing some teaching please send me a PM. Thanks.

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