I got a good deal on a handful of old Whitman folders, and I decided I'd start working on the Barber halves and a few others.
This made me curious: How do you fill an album? Do you very slowly fill it out with higher grades? Do you buy a bunch of culls and upgrade as you can? Do you shoot for a certain quality? Or, do you just go with whatever's available?
Not that there's a right or wrong answer, but as a newbie I'm curious about your methods!
There's no real right or wrong answer; it's dependent on the collector and their personal goals. Usually, a good piece of advice is to get some of the best examples you can get. However, since I don't have a job (I'm 17) and working on a set, I don't break the bank on PR-67 examples of a coin, when I love 65/66 coins with Cameo for a fraction of the price. Barber halves are a wonderful set; but they are challenging to put together in a high grade set given the sheer size of the series. Barber dimes are a more affordable counterpart. The one piece of advice I can impart is not to buy problem coins. They are never a good long-term store of value. Hope I helped!
It partly depends on your budget and your appreciation for any given series. If you a are a billionaire, for example, you could easily assemble high-grade sets effortlessly. On the other side, if you are a teenager such as Coinkid, it would not make sense to spend thousands of dollars on near-perfect examples, but rather aim for a lower grade set of said series. Of course, this does not mean you have to resort to buying damaged pieces because as Coinkid stated, they aren't good long-term investments. Two general pieces of advice are to be patient and to buy the best coin for the money you have.
I mostly do world sets, so I'm forced to get them in any condition at all: uncirculated world coins are usually vastly overpriced, because the sellers know that if you want them, there won't be others available for a long time.
On the other hand - yes, my budget is limited, so I try to buy all my silver at melt. I use some Canadian Warman folders, which have a "date" section (tails shows - and so does the date) and a "type" section (heads shows - by royal portrait and composition mark), so I try to fill the type section with pretty proofs and proof-likes while the date section is for coins I usually just find in circulation. Over time, though, I do upgrade - but it's not that important to me.
Using an album, I slowly accumulate high end examples. When filling folders, I use nice honest, circulated examples without problems (ie damage). Just because IMO folders are not the best place for nice coins.
I agree with Rario411, with a folder circulated examples are the choice. With Barber halves you have most all of them available in good or so condition. The higher grades should (as mentioned) be in an album rather than a folder.
Since the majority of my albums are Proof series, the coins in those are high grade. An album with circulated coins next to proofs would not look right.
Now, the Washington quarter album I just finished was a regular strike Dansco that does not include proofs. That one I di circulated.
My Walker Dansco is going to be XF and bettr for the second half and the earlier ones will be the best grade I can afford, expecially on the keys.
Like smoke I try and keep my albums consistent in either all high grade or all circulated. This creates can create a problem with some series like the Washington quarters. Most of the album is very reasonable then theres the first page which I really dont want to invest thousands into to keep it all uncirculated.
As far as a general strategy I try not to do the upgrade thing. You lose a bit on turning around things like that and once you start youll never be finish the album as youll always be upgrading. I go for something that I know Ill be happy with for the first time, if I cant find it I move onto a different date or a different album and just work on the parts that are currently available that I like and have the right price. If possible though I do try and start with the key dates since the common coins generally arent hard to find, but I wont pass them up if I find one I really like.
And to answer the original question, for me it depends on the collection I am trying to amass. I have a set of uncirculated (nearly all are, anyway) Lincoln cents 1909-now, and another set of circulated cents 1909-now which I pulled from circulation. In the circulated set, I put the nicest circulation example I can find for the Memorial cents, but for the wheats I have all matching circulated brown cents. In other collections (such as my nickel set when I started it) I was not concerned with condition, but decided after completing the set that I wanted BU. So now, I have two sets; one in BU and one in average circulated condition. I think if you do the "hole filler" bit, that's fine if you're planning to upgrade later, but one thing I learned was that if you are looking at a hole filler, but the one you want is not too much more in cost, be patient and get the good one.
Thanks for the tips everyone. I didn't think about the differentiation in purpose between the folders and the albums. Based on your advice, I'll try to focus a little less on filling and a little more on grade. Sometimes, I see all the empty spots, and I want to at least get a few going on each page!
Quote: I got a good deal on a handful of old Whitman folders, and I decided I'd start working on the Barber halves and a few others.
Folders are not the same as Albums.
Quote: How do you fill an album?
Not sure if you mean you have Folders or Albums. Makes a big difference. Whitman Folders are notorious for messing up coins if left in them to long and any moisture gets to them. Even moist air. Espeically the older ones. A Folder you only see the front of the coin. An Album allows you to see the front and back. IF at all possible, don't use the Folders. IF necessary and only thing available, guess you should use what you have. always remember though not to put valuaable coins in Folders. As to a method of how to fill, eveyone is different. If you have access to valuable coins, then of course start with them. IF not, put whatever you can in whatever you have.
On Barber halves focus on primarily on the better dates. Dates that are common you should be looking at a grade of a minimum of VG and no problems (cleaned, rim dings, off color etc). Why? Most of the common dates in G-VG are junk plus silver in that trade a premium to the spot price. You don't have to worry about the spot price affecting the value of your Barber halves on any that grade at least F-12 or are a scarce to rare date.
Quote: On Barber halves focus on primarily on the better dates. Dates that are common you should be looking at a grade of a minimum of VG and no problems (cleaned, rim dings, off color etc). Why? Most of the common dates in G-VG are junk plus silver in that trade a premium to the spot price. You don't have to worry about the spot price affecting the value of your Barber halves on any that grade at least F-12 or are a scarce to rare date.
Thanks for the advice. So many of the Barber halves seem to be junk quality. I know this is a rather vague question, but how much would you spend on a common date Barber half that grades F-12?
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Posted 07/31/2013 03:56 am
