What Makes One Coin More Valuable Than Another?

Two factors: age and the amount of MS-63 pieces made that year.

Classic US coins carry a large premium. I recently traded an 1805 Bust dime in AG condition for a certified XF 8 Reales Bolivia. Check eBay/Heritage on any given day for an 1805 Bust Dime and several examples of all grades come up. Search for a 1782 Bolivia 8 Reales of any grade and one will be waiting for quite a while for the next one to come around.

Another example, most Morgan dollars in any grade under MS66, even CC issues are not at all hard to find, but the market rate on them can be steep sometimes. Look at the population reports of certified Morgan dollars to see just how incredibly abundant they are, yet they go for relatively big money compared to anything else with tens of thousands of certified examples.

Supply and Demand can be a really wacky thing.

Fundamentally for a coin to be considered valuable it has to be something that people want.

You can break it down to a whole bunch of factors but in the end it's about supply and demand.

That sounds right for the MS70, but there is a single 1793 1C in MS-69 from PCGS. You have to go all the way to 1861 though to find even a MS 68 1C of any kind from them. 1919 is the next MS 69

I love this. This is why I joined this forum. I have been collecting coins off and on for nearly forty years. In all that time I have rarely had anyone I could carry on an in depth conversation with about the hobby. There are times that it strikes me, we have a strange passion. We collect little discs of metal with some allegorical or homage image on it then we want more of them when the only difference is some small change in the number representing the year.

I proposed the original question with the intent to explore the idea of why do we select one coin as desirable and another coin as something to by pass. I was rather tired when I formulated this original post, so maybe I did not select the best coins to compare. Let's say we compare the Kennedy half dollar to the Statue of Liberty commemorative half. Why would most collectors select one of these coins as being more desirable? Is it the "coolness" factor that was briefly mentioned before or is it something else? By and large President Kennedy is admired by the baby boomer generation which I assume most of the members of this forum are a part of. Why is this particular series of coins not as popular as another series of coins?

I selected the KHD as an example, we could explore any other series of coins with the same question. I happen to be partial to the Jefferson nickel series right now, but my preferences change with time. There was a time when I could not get enough Eisenhower dollars, now I rarely look at my set (sorry Jbuck). Why do l happen to like the Jefferson nickel? I'm not completely sure. I think my answer to that would be long and complicated.

Does anyone have insight into why we do what we do? What makes us want a particular coin to the expense of most others? I suppose if we had a good answer to that we would all own piles of gold coins!

I've heard many call the Barbers ugly and boring but they are my favorites. Its all personal preference. I think that's what most people like about numismatics, there is a wide variety of choices and you can go between them whenever you want.

I don't mind the design of the Jefferson nickels from 2006 to present. I do prefer the older design, in fact I prefer the look of all coins that were made before the mint started lazer engraving the designs. The coins look mechanical now.

In general I like the designs of all 19th century and early 20th century coins, I just can't afford very many of them. I think the Barber design is a great looking coin and I own a few of them, but I have never recovered from the first good look I got of a Walking Liberty half.