Would You Rather...

Whatever is rarer.

Interesting question in that, had you asked me 8 or 5 years ago I'd probably have answered the rarity.

When I first started I wanted to collect an example of each main variety and was all for 'filling gaps'. However I have gradually come to realise that I just get more enjoyment from nicer condition coins.

OK, I do still keep an eye out for rarities. Such as my most recent purchase which, though not a US coin, is quite rare (and not in an ebay way; there are ten known examples and two of those are in the British Museum). But if someone offered me the right price for it I would not be sad to let it go if I could buy a coin I prefer the look of with the proceeds!

In the end (IMHO) a collection should be for enjoyment. And if you don't get pleasure from it, why bother, eh?

I'm a sucker for rarity so I would take the rare variety in low condition. Higher grade common coins are always available so whenever I want one I can get it, it's just a matter of money. But it doesn't matter if you have the money, that rare variety is exactly that, rare. You just have to hope you are in the right place at the right time with the money when one happens to become available. If you miss it it may be years before you ever have another chance.

Well, there are of course conditional rarities, which is more what I had in mind.

In other words, coins that you can find any day on ebay but that, for whatever reason (age, method of manufacture etc) are inevitably worn and knocked about and a true challenge to find in the better grades.

In some ways it's more difficult to gauge just how scarce these are than the rare varieties, just that after a while you start to realise that you've never seen a really nice one and a little light goes on!



Those are the ones I particularly look out for!

I would certainly go for the rarer year, but the only reason I say this is that I'm not particularly fond of super high grade coins, I collect coins for the history, so I like my coins worn, but with details visible. My favorite grade for a coin is probably VF-20.

I'd rather have a rare coin to complete my set, than a empty hole.

To me it's almost the same in principle, but the specific figures are different; I don't really care much about differences in grades above AU-50 or so - they're all "uncirculated" to me (if anything, the low MS grades are worse).
[I also have nowhere to store high-grade coins, but that goes hand in hand with not having that kind of money anyway.]
My favorite grade for a coin is probably around XF-40 (though I'd probably still prefer a coin in AU over the same coin in XF if the monetary value was similar).

So out of the OP's coins, I'd rather take the rarity, but if I really had that sort of money, I'd much rather buy an AU-58 (or AU-55) 1838 for $1000 (or slightly less), and spend the remaining $5000 on several thousand other cool coins

Yep, rarer coin for sure because the opportunities are rarer too.