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 Replies: 15 / Views: 1,401 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
606 Posts |
I paid $15 per coin (book included) for 1892-1915 Here is a sample. I know it was way over spot, but it is cool to have a complete set of years (not mint marks). Hope it was a fair deal.   Edited by MontanaCMR
10/05/2014 10:35 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2368 Posts |
You paid close to book value, which is a fair deal. Barbers usually carry a premium over melt. Are they all Philadelphia issues or are they all different mintmarks? The last two or three P dates in this series are keys.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
606 Posts |
Thanks, So where would these grade? Most are like this, some better some worse. I will look to see if the key dates are included. What are P dates? no mint marks? Edited by MontanaCMR
10/05/2014 8:38 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
606 Posts |
Lots of different mint marks for the 50 cent pieces. The coin shop guy said it was a pretty good deal, and I trust him. However, it doesn't look like good deal, but I am ok with a fair deal too - at least since the book came with it and it was a complete set.
Some of the better ones (I guess at $15) are:
1892
1983
1894
1895 O
1896
1897
The 1914 S shows only 992,000 but the price isn't high at all.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3843 Posts |
Looks to be G-6. $15 is a bit steep in my opinion. $12 would have been much more attractive.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
606 Posts |
Dang, it sounds like I paid about $75 too much for the set. Hopefully the coin album is worth $76  This also leads me to another question (sorry for all the newbie questions), I noticed you can buy coins from other members of the coin community (links to e-bay or something). Do you find this is a good way to buy coins, or a terrible way? For the most part, my local coin shop tends to have better prices than e-bay or large online sellers. Part of the reason is because they know the trouble and costs associated with doing so. They are also very humble folks just trying to make a modest living and know they will never be rich. With coin community folks, my guess is they have a very good idea of what a coin should be valued and want top dollar. Is it safe to say fair deals, but not good deals? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3843 Posts |
Most coin shop owners are genuinely nice people but whenever a person's livelihood is at stake they might try to get higher profit margins than they would otherwise. The brick and mortar coin shop is a low margin business model with high fixed costs (employees, rent, maintaining extensive/slow moving inventory) so they have to pass on some of those costs on to their customers if they want to stay in business.
You really have to know your coin dealer, some may undervalue certain series while overvaluing others. There is one shop in my area that has the cheapest bullion but overprices their numismatic inventory. My favorite shop is very fair on higher end coins but they tend to overgrade/overvalue their currency selection and I've overpaid a few times before I learned.
Edit: By the way it looks like you did well on the Franklin set so it kind of evens out.
Edited by Joe2007
10/05/2014 11:18 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2187 Posts |
I'd give it a VG8 but I'm not too familiar with US coins |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4692 Posts |
Good coin. 19th century Barber halves with full rims are hard to find and under-appreciated. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4692 Posts |
If you can buy those at $15 each and they have full rims, buy them ALL! I will buy them from you at $17 each!
Edited by jimbucks
10/07/2014 3:26 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
606 Posts |
Thanks for the comments. You guys are great. The coins shop owner has been "giving me good deals" lately. Ha Ha, but he actually ran out of rounds, so I have brought some of mine in for him to replace later. If he closes shop next week, I going to be ticked! What I have liked about him is that he tells me a good deal and not a good deal. For instance, I wanted a curved proof baseball, and he told me they were not a good deal as prices might come down. In addition, I really wanted the 2011 ASE set and he was going to sell for $600, but told me not to buy it either as he thought they were overpriced. While I don't think this was a steal, I think a complete book with every year is good considering they all have full rim (or at least look like the one above). Again, thanks. Before the last couple of posts, I was going to send one of them in to be graded to see if they graded at the level he said. I don't remember if he gave me a grade, other than full rims. Does full rim differentiate g from vg? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
8137 Posts |
This was taken from the Barber Coin Collectors Society...
"Good (G 4). Few if any details on the front, but the rim should be full. On the reverse, all of the letters will be clear of the rim, which may or may not be full."
"Very Good (VG 8). On the front, any three letters of LIBERTY on the headband will be present (usually LI and Y). On the back, the rim will be full, and a few feathers will begin to show"
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Pillar of the Community
United States
606 Posts |
Great Info, thanks. It looks like everything is a VG, except no letters which would bring it down to a G. I guess I'll just have to take a sharpie and write LIB on the crown  to make it VG. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
606 Posts |
Jimbucks,
Thanks for the link. I don't see any Lib on any of of the linked coins, including the 110 (must be a rare date.
I am not sure where I think the coins I have (pictured) fit into the range of prices. However, the headbands on mine are better than many listed on the link.
Thanks again. This is really enjoyable getting to better understand coin conditions.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
36839 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
Israel
2420 Posts |
VG8 and a fair deal.
It's always nice to try and find deals, but 15$ is truly fair IMO.
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Replies: 15 / Views: 1,401 |
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Posted 10/05/2014 8:32 pm
