PCGS Rarity Ratings ?!? - Coin Community Forum

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Author	Replies: 5 / Views: 1,400
Bababooey Valued Member United States 374 Posts	Posted 09/04/2013 04:45 am Sorry if this has been asked, but what is the deal with the rarity rating on the coin facts from PCGS? I was looking at Barber halves on ebay and a seller had rarity rating on the 2x2s. There were not the traditional rarity ratings. I figured out, after a while, it was the ones listed on PCGS Coin Facts. Why he put them down, I don't really know. I guess to make his (mostly low quality ) coins seem rare. For example on PCGS coin facts, they list a 1912-S Barber Half as having less than 3500 existing in all grades. Is this even possible? There was a mintage of over a million. 99.6 % of them disappeared? Did they all get melted for the silver? Are there that few collectors of Barber halves around? Because I picked up a 1912 S in the local coin shop for $12-$15. It does not seem such a rare coin would be so low priced (not that I am complaining ). And there are over 200 on ebay right now! I can see some of their figures being correct from something like the Shield nickels, which is a much older series and has many coin with lower mintage. However to be the Barber halves figures seem off. Any thoughts on their rarity rating in general or with the Barber halves specifically? Edited by Bababooey 09/04/2013 04:46 am Report this Post to the Staff

Conder101 Bedrock of the Community United States 17884 Posts	Posted 09/04/2013 10:47 am PCGS is trying to make everything PCGS related and so they have come up with their own fairly worthless rarity scale which they will try to get everyone to use. Frankly there is nothing wrong with the Sheldon scale that most people have been using since 1949. PCGS's scale has each level divided into I think ten levels with each level further divided by ten single point decimal places. This kind of precision on rarity counts is impossible. Even on the Sheldon scale the most we indicate is upper,middle, or lower third of the range for each level. Quote: Are there that few collectors of Barber halves around? Because I picked up a 1912 S in the local coin shop for $12-$15. It does not seem such a rare coin would be so low priced On the Sheldon scale a coin with 3500 pieces estimated would be an R-1- and considered to be Very Common. Report this Post to the Staff
YoshiRules Pillar of the Community United States 602 Posts	Posted 09/04/2013 10:50 am When was the last time they updated their site and is their site accurate when compared to other site's numbers? If you see a trend of the # of Halves remaining today, and the trend is the same/similar in all the sites, then that is one thing, but if it is just PCGS, that's another. Report this Post to the Staff
just carl Bedrock of the Community United States 20753 Posts	Posted 09/04/2013 11:44 am It's all easy. PCGS hired millions of people to go out and count all the different types of coins in the USA. Then as any of them get melted, lost, dented, etc., those same millions of people remove one more from their statistics. Your one example of a certain coin may have been the only coin they missed. See how easy that was. Report this Post to the Staff
Bababooey Valued Member United States 374 Posts	Posted 09/04/2013 1:43 pm Ok, so their statistics are dodgy. And I supposes those that flaunt these statistics to sell coins may be in the same category. To say that there are the same # of each of the common Barber halves as say an 1877 IHC or 1885 LHN just does not make sense. Just out of curiosity, were a significant number of the Barber coins melted for the silver? As opposed to the coins not made from precious metal (nickels, pennies, etc) Report this Post to the Staff
basebal21 Bedrock of the Community 13014 Posts	Posted 09/04/2013 3:33 pm Quote: Just out of curiosity, were a significant number of the Barber coins melted for the silver? Barber coins saw heavy circulation and usage during there time. Its a pretty safe bet to assume that a lot did get melted either for the silver or because they got to worn and were pulled out of circulation. How many exactly though any number would just be a guess at this point Report this Post to the Staff
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