Post Your Lowball Coins!

Here's mine

Very much a pocket (or bag) piece.





Cost me £6 a little while ago.

I really want to get some lowballs of older classic coins. I keep my eyes peeled on ebay for some. I missed an auction where someone got an AG seated liberty half for $3! Here's one I've been eyeing, description says "date barely visible" but I can't even see ANYTHING that resembles the date. I'll bid really low on it...just for that chance that no one wants it!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/31148219242...RK:MEBIDX:IT

Both great threads.

I just went digging through my collection for some lowballs. I know some of them are damaged or are not quite lowballs, but they're all very low grade coins.

Scotland- 1678 Charles II sixpence.





1798 large cent, style 2 hair.





1800 Half Cent.





1812 large cent.





1819 large cent, heavily polished, altered surfaces.





1835 Capped Bust quarter. The grade is not as low as the others, but that scratch... ouch.





1853 seated half.





1867 2c piece.





1876 seated half.





1892 Barber quarter.





1895-O Barber half.





Then there's this. The grade's not as bad, but this thing is just destroyed.

It would be remiss of me to not comment in this thread ... I am a dedicated lowball collector and thoroughly enjoy pursuing and promoting this under-appreciated aspect of the hobby.

If you forgive my soapbox for just a moment ... the following must be said ...

There is a significant numismatic difference between a well worn coin and a collectable lowball coin.

I am in pursuit of collectable lowballs across four USA series ... and in my judgment the standard is coins certifiable by a TPG as PO01 ... the ultimate lowball grade.

To qualify as a collectable lowball ... not a simply well worn coin ... the coin needs to meet each of the following requirements:

1. Must be positively identifiable by type.
2. Must be positively identifiable by date and mint mark. Exceptions occur here for single year type coin such as the 1921 Peace dollar which can be identified by experts without the date visible.
3. The coin must have honest, original surfaces without prior cleaning.
4. The coin must be undamaged, i.e., no graffiti, significant rim hits, scratches, etc.
5. The coin must be worn to PO01 state ... and not lower!

All that said ... I currently have 27 PCGS certified PO01 coins ... honest lowballs.

I won't bore you with all of them. One example from each of my four series of interest:

1918-S Walking Liberty half dollar - PCGS PO01

This is the only PO01 Walker ever certified by PCGS. Look up the population report ... the only one in over 370,000 certified Walkers.



1893 Columbian Exposition Half Dollar - PCGS PO01

We had great fun here at the CCF discussing the date on this coin ... jbuck remembers contributing to that.



1921 Peace dollar - PCGS PO01

Refer to my comments above about single year type coins. I currently have 9 Peace dollars as PO01 ... a diabolically difficult set to assemble.



1893-S Barber half dollar - PCGS PO01

Key date ... Pop 1/0. I have 15 of the 22 total PCGS certified PO01 Barber halves ...



Whatever your lowball interest is ... I certainly encourage more folks to embrace this still sidebar aspect of the hobby.

Hopeful to see many more well worn coins in this thread ... they do not by any means need to be certified PO01 .... simply show us the lowest that you have and are proud of.

David

I'd love to see some more.

Those have seen better days, for coins mostly only about 40 years old.

The only problem I could see at this point is a PO-01 Buff. Considering the dates wear off so quickly, it would be pretty much impossible to find a lowball with a date. I suppose there is a solution though- a 1913 Buff on the mound would probably be identifiable.

Darn, I forgot there were two Buff holes.