Hi, I just read your post about the SF Red 1953 cent.
Sorry for the 8 months lateness to the party. Simply to say that I sold one in an auction last week.
A real red is really though. The story goes as follow, according to a great coin guy, in 1953, all saved rolls and rolls of coins. Half year through, collectors had all they needed/wanted. Stop the gathering, began the SF series without anyone noticing, none took more, thus the rarity of it in high end grade being so difficult to get. When I bought one from him he told me he found 22 coins in a roll. In 40+ years of collecting, he never saw that. When I bought it, it was the last of all of them, he said he sold them easily because people knew it was rare and all needed one.
Hope you found one or what I said explains a bit of the mystery for this hard one to get.