Curious About How Coins Are Valued?

thanks for the responses. I was just curious why two coins from the same year that may have had a slight difference would be priced differently when a book would list both mintages as unknown. I'munfamiliar with heritage auction but ive heard it mentioned several times, I guess ill check into it to see. while I'mnot terribly interested in turning a profit I want to know I'mgetting a decent deal if its not something I'mparticularly looking for to fill a set

Numismedia is the best of them, I agree. Heritage is a huge auction house with a database of coin sales going back 25 years, and access is free. All you have to do is register. If their kind of coins (basically slabbed, $100 & up) are your interest, no better place to see what your competition is willing to pay.

You may be seeing a case of grade rarity. For example the 1884 S Morgan dollar, in grades of Xf and below it is easy to find examples, But when you try an find an AU coin they are a LOT harder to find and MS coins are very difficult so that slight differnce in grade from AU to MS results in a big change in value. Not how do the dealers and collectors know about this? Experience over the years seeing how often the coins come along. Then dealers and collectors are willing to pay more for those coins in the grades where they are seldom seen. The price guide then pick up on this as well and it gets reported as higher price jumps in those grades.

I find that if you are seeking a seldom seen coin, or a coin in a seldom seen condition, the price guides become less relevent. I am very fussy about eye appeal, and am willing to pay a bit over listed values. The dealers know when they have a difficult to find coin, and they hold out for guys like me. This is not meant to imply that I ignore listed values, but I recognize that they are average prices, and should be viewed in that light. Also,some coins, such as business strike Civil War silver dollars, trade so infrequently that the price guides are not as relevent.

thanks for the replies guys some good info. while I understand something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, its still difficult for me to realize something value to avoid being ripped off either in buying or selling. for instance I looked up a 1940 dime I have that seems absolutely flawless to me (would upload pic if I had a camera) and was thinking of trading it in for something else. I went to heritage's site to compare values on some of the higher end and noticed two of the exact same coins going for different values.

http://coins.ha.com/itm/mercury-dim...a/388-1165.s

http://coins.ha.com/itm/mercury-dim.../a/402-481.s

i know these are pre 2008 sales and even if my coin was this grade it probably wouldnt be worth that but these coins look the same to me and sold within half a year of each other. yet one is twice the price as the other. hows it even possible to "get an idea" when it seems like the value of these are left to the gamble of a bidding war? or do you just look at all sold recently and take an average?

Ben89, those are a good example of some of the complexities of buying coins. They share a major auction house, similar transactions chronologically, and we can stipulate they're not tied to the price of silver.

The PCGS coin benefited from two major advantages. First, the "PCGS Premium" due to market perception. Second, a major live sale where the winner could physically view the coin, and the deep pockets came out to play. The NGC coin was an Internet-only auction in the early days of Internet-only auctions. It got 4 bidders and a lot of views, but not many people interested in writing the check.

Note I never even looked at the coins. The NGC coin might have been superior, and could have been snagged and crossed into PCGS. Which is where the complexities come in - prices are only consistent to the extent that you, the collector, are able to leverage your knowledge to vary those prices at the times which benefit you. The better you get, the less those prices matter because you're going to confidently spend what you think the coin is worth and if you don't get that one you'll just await the next.

Stick around. This is what we teach here.

Sometimes, what you might see in an auction result is a savvy collector reaching a little higher for a coin they know to be a perfect fit. "I like it" is a perfectly good reason to spend too much on a coin, within reason. Other times, someone new to the game bids beyond their head (and reason) leading to an outlier sale.

A big breaking news story at the wrong moment can blow an auction by distracting bidders.

There are two skills to be learned here, in order to make best use of all this information. First, of course, grading. Second and most importantly, grading from images and evaluating the images themselves. Numismatics has always been a hobby of knowledge and never has it been more vital or more available. We live in interesting times.

Absolutely true.