Terry8835, most of mine are in the 64-65 range. My Lafayette is at ANACS right now, and will probably come back as AU55 or AU58 (or at least I hope it will). I just picked up my Hawaiian the other day, and it's graded as UNC Details - Improper Cleaning (see my GTG on the Hawaiian for pics), but it isn't harshly cleaned or anything, and 99% of people won't even notice it's cleaned. So I have some as low as the Mid-High AU, up to MS66 CAC.
I really think all of the early commems are easy to get, it all depends on your budget. If you have the $$$, and you're not picky, you can get the coin. I think if I had to say which is the most difficult to get, it might be the Spanish Trail, especially with clean surfaces, etc. Believe it or not, the Columbian, which is available everywhere, was a difficult on for me to find with a look I wanted/liked. I just got one from another member in MS64, and I'm pretty sure it will fit into my set nicely.
I (and others) strongly believe ANY of the Early Silver Commemoratives is a good investment right now. Prices on them were at their lowest (in decades) about a year ago, and there has been a slight increase in the set's value in the last 12 months. It's probably the most under-valued set out there at the moment. The moderns seem to have caused the early's to take a hit, because the modern are cheap and easy to get. IMO, the moderns can't hold my interest, and much like all the 'modern' coins, millions were minted of each. It's difficult for me to believe that something there are millions of will have a high value in my lifetime. However, when we look at the early silvers, almost all of the mintages were less then 1 million, and a huge number were less then 100,000, and some as low as 6,000! Think about that vs a 1909-S VDB with a mintage of 484,000, and I can't see how the scarcity (and value) won't be recognized again.
As for finding them in AU, they can be found, but for some you may have to wait. Someone either on this forum or another, did a grade set from PO-1 to AU-58 of one of the coins, (can't remember which it was), and it took him about 5 years to build it, but they're out there in all grades. You just have to wait for that coin. I just passed on an Antietam in VF/AU at a coin show (they also wanted way too much for it), but they're out there. One of my Grant's is in low AU (raw), but it was also cheap enough to justify buying it.
If you're going to build the 50 type set, I would suggest not following in my footsteps. I have multiple copies of some of them, simply because I thought another wouldn't come along, and then when it did, I had to have the better grade, or the slabbed coin. Decide what you want before you start - slabbed (highly recommended) or raw, blast white or with toning, grade you're comfortable with (and can afford), and then start the search. For coins like the Hawaiian, Hudson, Spanish Trail, that are in the upper price range, I personally don't see much wrong with 'settling' for a lower grade because it's affordable. I did it with the Hawaiian, and I'm very happy with it.
Here is my "Digital Album" of my set as of this moment (including 2 coins I've purchased but haven't arrived yet). There are a couple that are there only because I haven't updated the photo of the newer coin (the Pilgrim is one of them), but it gives you a good idea of what my set looks like, and what it's comprised of.
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Posted 10/23/2017 10:31 pm
MS-64
