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 Replies: 26 / Views: 4,488 |
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New Member
United States
48 Posts |
At a coin show today, a dealer and myself were talking about "rare" coins-- so I ask the group what constitutes a "rare coin" --do you base it on: value, mintage, year? --curios as to the groups thoughts......
Thanks
*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***
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Valued Member
United States
135 Posts |
"Rare" means how many of them are out there in the world right now.
The less of them there are, the rarer it gets.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
677 Posts |
For me, it's availability. Mintage is related, and a good starting point, but ultimately irrelevant. How many survive, right now, and are for sale. That determines rarity.
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Valued Member
United States
424 Posts |
I refer to The Man who once said:
"Baby if you gotta ask, you'll never know"
Seriously though, I don't think there is an official definition like "less than 500 constitutes rare" or anything even close to that. I think it is more of a general agreement throughout the hobby with a lot of room for personal interpretation. Of course if you listen to Weird Mike on HSN everything is rare, or at least everything he has for sale is rare.
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Rest in Peace
United States
17900 Posts |
There is a system in place as follows with numbers referring to likely survival and known examples:
R-1 Extremely common, 5000+
R-2 Very common, 3000-4999
R-3 Common, 1000-2999
R-4 scarce, 500-999
R-5 very scarce, 300-499
R-6 extremely scarce 100-299
R-7 rare, 50-99
R-8, very rare, 4-49
R-9, extremely rare, 2-3
R-10, Unique, 1
That's from memory. I might be off on a few numbers. If any one wants me to check for certain numbers, just ask.
Edited by moxking
01/29/2017 8:49 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
9395 Posts |
According to the widely-used Sheldon rarity scale, R-5 with 31-75 known examples is considered "rare". This is for early US Large Cents and other US coins. There are many other scales. One of these is the scale used by Levinson for early dated coins where R1 is "rare" with 21-50 collectible examples. |
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Valued Member
United States
321 Posts |
I consider anything under 500 known examples scarce and under 75 rare. I have an 1859-S half with about 150 and an 1852-O Half Dime with about 200, but my rarest numismatic item is a Civ War store card with 5-10 known. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
12057 Posts |
ebay Rarity Scale: SOUGHT AFTER 100,000,001-250,000,000+ RARE 50,000,000-100,000,000 ULTRA RARE 10,000,000-49,999,999 SUPER RARE 7,500,000-9,999,999 RARE SCARCE 5,000,000-7,499,999 RARE SEMI KEY 2,500,000-4,999,999 RARE KEY DATE 1,000,000-2,499,999 ULTRA RARE PQ SCARCE SEMI KEY DATE HIGHLY SOUGHT AFTER MS BU 1-999,999
Member ANA - EAC - TNA - SSDC - CCT #890 "Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done." -- Louis D. Brandeis |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
677 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3463 Posts |
The Universal Rarity Scale URS-0 None known URS-1 1 known, unique URS-2 2 known URS-3 3 or 4 known URS-4 5 to 8 known URS-5 9 to 16 known URS-6 17 to 32 known URS-7 33 to 64 known URS-8 65 to 125 known URS-9 126 to 250 known URS-10 251 to 500 known URS-11 501 to 1,000 known URS-12 1,001 to 2,000 known URS-13 2,001 to 4,000 known URS-14 4,001 to 8,000 known URS-15 8,001 to 16,000 known URS-16 16,001 to 32,000 known URS-17 32,001 to 65,000 known URS-18 65,001 to 125,000 known URS-19 125,001 to 250,000 known URS-20 250,001 to 500,000 known Read more here: http://pcicoins.com/?page_id=160 |
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Valued Member
United States
321 Posts |
Quote:
eBay Rarity Scale:
SOUGHT AFTER 100,000,001-250,000,000+
RARE 50,000,000-100,000,000
ULTRA RARE 10,000,000-49,999,999
SUPER RARE 7,500,000-9,999,999
RARE SCARCE 5,000,000-7,499,999
RARE SEMI KEY 2,500,000-4,999,999
RARE KEY DATE 1,000,000-2,499,999
ULTRA RARE PQ SCARCE SEMI KEY DATE HIGHLY SOUGHT AFTER MS BU 1-999,999
What a way to end the week. This is too true and hilarious.   |
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Moderator
 United States
56855 Posts |
There is more than one type of rarity: Mintage and condition. Lets say there are a 100,000 19? cents and then there are 10 of the same 19? but in MS70. Get the idea? John1  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1839 Posts |
The Sheldon rarity scale is the one that I think most people are thinking of when they talk about rarity. PCGS came up with their own and it's quite a bit looser than the Sheldon scale but it's also a lot more detailed. I kind of like it actually. http://www.PCGScoinfacts.com/Conten...arity&s=4520Edited by Tbone
01/31/2017 8:26 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
677 Posts |
I really like that scale Tbone. I hadn't seen it before. Thanks for sharing!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5854 Posts |
There isn't really any definition on what is considered rare. I think much depends on what it is being compared to. Patterns as a whole are rare when compared to federal issues but within the specialty, a pattern probably needs to be in the single digits to be considered rare. The 1909-S VDB is common as far as key dates go but rare in the context of lincoln cents. The 1884-S morgan in MS is rare compared to itself in lower grades.
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Moderator
Australia
16806 Posts |
To my mind, "rare" has to be linked to how difficult something is to obtain, which is in turn linked to both supply and demand. If one can choose from multiple examples of the coin, in whichever condition one feels like purchasing, simply by doing a quick search on ebay or popping in to visit your local coin dealer, then the coin Is. Not. Rare. If you've been searching for a coin on ebay for months and never finding it, in any condition, and the local coin dealer says they've only seen one or two in their entire life, and you need to scour through the Prices Realised sections of the major auction houses to find out what the last ones on the market were sold for, then yes, you can legitimately call your target coin "rare". Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Replies: 26 / Views: 4,488 |
Posted 01/29/2017 8:10 pm
