Variety Rarity Questions

pick up a 1916-D Winged Liberty Dime and you have one of the most sought after rarities of the 20th century.

One source is the books written to help identify the die varieties. I have Penny Whimsy by Sheldon (Large Cents 1793 - 1814) and Early Half Dollar Die Varieties of 1794-1836 by Parsley.

Both have the rarity scales with minor differences. I'm sure they are also on web sites - here's the scale from Penny Whimsy

R-8 = (Nearly unique 1-3 known)
R-7 = (Extremely Rare 4-12)
R-6 = (Very Rare13-30)
R-5 = (Rare 31-75)
R-4 = (Very Scarce 76-200)
R-3 = Scarce
R-2 = (Not So Common)
R-1 = (Common)

Sought after? Yes. Rare? Not really. You can find several for sale at most coin shows. Try finding an 1885 3 cent nickle business strike though.

When dealing with large cents and I believe capped bust halves as well, usually there is no premium below R-4 and many R-4 coins have on;y a slight premium. In general it has to be R-5 to have a significant premium over type coin money. I think the same holds for most 19th century series.

There are always exceptions though. One of the last Draped bust cent I need is an extremely popular variety from 1803. The rarity is down to around an R-4- now but it is still over $5K in G-4. The 1839 N-1 the 9/6 is only an R-3 or 3+ but it will cost you hundreds of dollars in Good. Compare those prices to type coin money for those dates.