How Nuclear Would You Go To Complete A Set?

The first of the coins - the semi-key in PCGS XF-40 - went up for auction on April 7th at Heritage's Tuesday/Sunday Internet auction.

These are interesting sales. Mostly mid-priced items - there were a couple that sold for $2 or $3 (plus $15 minimum bidders premium) - one lot at $17, two at $18, five lots at 2K+, 1 @ 3290 and 1 @ 4700.

When you watch the live auction, HA replays the prebids and then pauses seeing if there is phone/internet interest. Some lots sell with no further bids, many attract several bids. Above $100, they allow a cut-bid (half increment) once per bidder per auction.

What I've observed is that if there is more than minimal interest, the lot usually sells above the final pre-bid and so I decided not to put in a nuclear prebid and watch the sale.

The live platform gives you a lot of information, including the bid, next bid, a cut button (if available) count downs, when the lot is closing and sold. There's no audio or video, so sometimes it feels like a early 90s web page where somebody just found out about font colors and the <BLINK> tag.

HA gives you a lot of data on the listing page including good photos, population and several price guides... quoting:

Price Guide*

Grade Coin World (Coin Values) | Numismedia Retail | Numismedia Wholesale | Heritage Value Index | NGC Price Guide | NGC+ | PCGS Price Guide | PCGS+ | CCE SS/SU
35 --- $153 $128 $95-$125 --- --- $125 --- $100/$35
40 $200 $192 $160 $130-$165 $180 $202 $200 --- $145/$40
45 --- $217 $181 $145-$190 --- --- $240 $245 $155/$60

*All information listed is intended to be as accurate as possible, but errors are possible. No item may be returned or refused based on this information which is provided as a service to our customers. You should contact each pricing source directly to determine the accuracy of this information.

So I guess you could say FMV for me as a retail buyer was 190-200$ 130$ would be a steal.

You can gauge interest by the # of bidders and views:

Item Activity: 5 Internet/mail bidders
96 page views

From the giant sided photos it looks like a good solid strike (rare for this coin) with a small scuff on the slab. i.e. pretty desirable.

The leading prebid was 180 (IIRC 150, 160, 170 and 180 were the bids show during the auction).

At 180, the increment is $10.
Somebody cut bid to 185 and was quickly overbid to 190

As I was waiting for the clock to count down to 5s, somebody bid 200. Increments are now $20. I quickly cut bid and then time ran out...


I never saw the end-of-sale page, it blinked right over to the next lot...

I flipped to the listing page which told me nothing. Oh think I - refresh. So I refreshed and there are the magic words: "You won this lot for $210.00 ($246.75 w/Buyer's Premium), with a secret maximum bid of $210."

If you've stuck with me this long, then you now have more than enough information to figure out what coin's I'm talking about...


The second coin, the key in NGC XF went up for sale @ David Lawrence last night (12April). David Lawrence's auctions are a little more sedate than Heritage. There is a count down clock, a box with the current bid, and a box to place a bid.

The opening bid was $230, and I bid 255.01 on 1April. I then sat and watched the daily emails, where I was the leading bidder each night. Friday night somebody bid 240, so my 250 was still leading. And there it sat. With about 5m to go I panicked and put in a higher bid. And watched the clock. At the end of the auction, a page displayed with what looked like a winning bid $1 over my limit.


To say I was less than pleased was an understatement.


It must have been a glitch, or still showing the bid at least number, because when I checked the auction, the final bid was $250 - and that's what DLRC put in the email.



So there's the quest...


1851 - 1862/1 3 Cent Silver in XF.


Now there are only about 6-7 DDOs RPDs etc. that NGC/PCGS recognize. And about 20 more in "The Authoritative Reference on Three Cent Silver Coins" by Kevin Flynn and Winston Zack. And the 1863-1872s which were minted in only trivial numbers of business strikes and largely melted in 1873. Which is why officially my set cuts off at 1862.