Susan B Anthony Question

I am putting together a simple year / mintmark set of SBAs. I'm not going too crazy into all the varieties, just getting a few of the more popular ones.

As far as varieties go, you mentioned some of the biggies already. There is also the "clear" and "blob" S mintmarks on some of the proofs. I also am aware of another variety called "full talon". From what I gather, the talons on the eagle on the reverse is not usually struck very well. Here is a site that depicts various strengths on the talons:
http://www.smalldollars.com/dollar/add017.html

Overall, I'm not terribly excited about the SBA series. IMHO, getting into variety collecting now with these coins could pay off, as many people don't seem to collect them.

My dealer told me you can get IKE's from the bank still. I checked but never luck. So even if IKE's get a demand they won't go up in value a lot. I think just the proofs and very high graded ones might. Just my opinions.

There has been a few questions asked here and let me try to answer them:

1: It is possible to find Ikes at the local banks but according to the Ike Group representative there are two options for getting them from the banks. First if you are lucky you can find small quatities depending upon how they are turned in. The second route is if you are a whale (large depositor) you bank should get them for you if they want to keep your business. However, from prior threads you may want to call around to the local armored car services to see if them have them and then see if they can get them to your bank if they can be persuaded to order them. These are most likely going to be one source that you can use. Usually you have to order in quantities of $1,000 to get them (almost like ordering Half dollars).

2: The sooner you start amassing a stash of either the Eisenhower or Susan B Anthoy dollars the better it would be for you when more VAM's may be written about.

3: From the presentation, the Ike group is putting together a verification program that is similiar to CAC called DIVA (Designated Ike VAriety) but first you have have a TPG graded coin in order to participate in this endeavor. I believe that the Ike group will be putting more information at a later time. The Ike group representative that spoke at our club meeting led us to believe that this program is almost ready to be rolled out and did not mention anything about confidentiality to the club members.

4: I did purchase a book (which I believe is Volume 2 of 4 volumes) that is entitled "Collectible Ike Varieties - Fact, Photos, and Theories". Other titles in the series is: Early 2012 Vol. 1 "An Ike series catalog - collecting Ikes in the internet Era. Late 2012 Vol 3: Design and Die-State Peg Leg Ikes, and Vol 4: Ikes for beginners which should be out in 2013 or 2014. Volume 2 came out in 2011. So as usual I am behind the curve on this series, but do plan on catching up.

5: From what little I've seen of the Vol 2 (not have had much time to look over the volume) there are plenty of picture associated with the VAMS as well as interesting sidelites about the series and individual coins. It does appear to be well annotated. I haven't done more than a quick skim but I do plan on going over all my coins to see what I have.

My final quesiton about this book is that given that none of my 300 coins are graded I think that if I find some interesting varieties I will have have to first send my coins to a TPG and then to the Ike group to have my coin get a dive status. From the speakers presentation I don't know if any of the TPG's either recognize the varieties or if it would be just cheaper to get the DIVA status from the Ike group than paying for an attribution fee to the TPG.

The presentation was well prepared and received and a number of club members had questions and the speakers did have a few of his personal attributed coins present for sort of a show and tell

For those of you who may want to inquire about the book I'm not sure of where you can get ahold of the book. But if Volumes 1 and 3 are like what volume 2 appears to be I will be looking foward to getting them from whatever source I can get them from.

By the way, I am not a member of the Ike group but do appreciate what appears to be well researched and prepared reference works. And no I am not a reviewer for them either.
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It was truly an entertianing talk that this member has put out

If Charles wants to put out more contact info I will be letting it up to him.

When I get a chance to compare my coins to this reference work I will be putting my findings out on this forum if you are interested in them.

But still my one question I have now is personal because I don't know if my coins are good enough to be graded. It's going to be an interesting endeavor on my part and it will definitely be a learning experience and I do hope that the value of some of my Ikes do increase in value because of this book, This is my personal thoughts.

I am definitely going to out there trying to increase my stash of both Ikes, Susan B's and the early Sacajewea coins.

CC99999: David Golsn is one of the authors of the volume that I purchased and I believe a number of his and other coins are pictured in the book. There are plenty of good illustrations showing just what the varieties look like. I only hope that my poor magnifying glass is up the task for my weary eyes.

@ghostrider- very cool summary of the proceedings. made me feel like I was almost there.

Several Ike varieties are attributable at different TPGs. NGC so far seems to be the most conservative followed by PCGS for number of attributable varieties- they follow the Cherrypickers Guide- which is a publication we constantly work with.

The reason more varieties aren't attributed by these two grading services has to do with the finite amount of space in the CPG and not due to the lack of great varieties. We have submitted nearly 20 new varieties for inclusion in the next edition.

Our DIVA program is designed to speed that process up and let Ike collectors know that a series expert from our group can vouch that the coin is in fact a variety we've identified.

We are currently hard at work on the next book. And once it's ready to go, I'll make an announcement. Know that it is being written for collectors at all skill levels- so it is approachable- but it has so much actionable information in it- that you WILL become an Ike nut after looking through this book. :)

Thanks for sharing your experience.


@solotime- Ikes in mint state are typically not available at banks and in Gem (MS-65) and above, Ikes are certainly worth much more than face value. Your dealer may have an anti-modern bias- I don't know where he gets his information.

@cc99999, he must of met non-ms one's I guess. I really didn't think of the grades they would be in. But I never got a roll so I don't think I would find one. He has different grades of IKE's. such as: MS-60 to MS-65.

I always see stories on here about people finding them but the only things I've had any success finding is a couple War Nickels and a buffalo every now and then. Ill ask when I go to the bank if they happen to have any but I'm way past the point of trying to hunt them down that way

Ive gotten a couple dateless and a 1937 for those. Nickels seem to be the only thing that havent been picked dry in this area, I really couldnt even find wheat pennies, I think I got 1 out of a couple thousand pennies