Mintage Numbers Of 1858, 1859 W9/8, 1859 Narrow 9

I would say type collecting plays a part as type collectors generally prefer the first year of issue. If
you are collecting the series by date you only need one 1859. How many variety collectors are out
there?

There is NO relationship to the number of coins that are are offered on ebay to the number of coins that were minted. ebay info normally only offers numbers derived from the title of the auction. Then there are all of the problems about mis-ID, multiple coins in one lot, poor photos, what/which coins are worthy of being certified and, of course, multiple or reofferings of the same lot for years on end... let alone those that are hoarded away in collections all over the globe.

The 3 types of Provincial coinages above have been commonly known and collected for over 100 years. How many are actually out there is an unknown commodity and not really worthy of a good guess now. Mr Turner's data was based on random populations gathered from raw coins purchased (and by multiple accumulators) long before the ebay and coin-site chat modified the way that folks collect coins and conduct research. Some dies may have struck only 1,000 coins and some may have struck 100,000 .. who knows what's out there? Some people collect one each of an item, some collect dozens or hundreds and have them in boxes. At one time, I had well over 1200 1859's and still have over 50 9/8's, because I'm an accumulator. When I die, what's going to happen to your 9/8 ebay data when they all show up on the market?

My recommendation to all collectors already in, or thinking about getting into, variety collecting of Vicky large cents .. take the data that Rob Turner laid out in his first 4 books and take that to the bank. His tomes are an absolute necessity for any large cent collector. Add to them (currently 4) books with other authors who have been around the block and researched for over 25 years. Disregard anything that has ANY relationship to ebay data or colorful descriptions of auction items offered up for sale. There are people who are prone to taking advantage of misconstruing what actually happened at the Mints 100-150 years ago.

I am not sure what there is to discuss? I do realize that part of advancing what we know, is challenging the known. But that effort usually starts with the published literature and ends with new, statistically valid data.

Rob's publication (and its subsequent revision) is a good start, but ebay "statistics" certainly do not fall into the latter as "valid data" - I don't think we need to explain why...

I see any attempt to use ebay to validate any numismatic statistic analogous to graduate students using Wikipedia to cite their sources - both are unacceptable.

i think my question of "do collectors care, or have strong opinions about the mintages of 1858, 1859W9, 1859N9" has been answered...by the people who replied...

that was the only answer I was "looking for".

as for ebay having "nothing more than distorted anecdotal information"...on any given day, there are 8000 large cents for sale. "Completed listings" shows 12,000 large cent listings over the past 3 months. That's about 50,000 large cent listings per year.

There is no collector or group of collectors that, visiting every coin show in the country, and every coin store in the country, can ever amass or see a tiny fraction of what is on ebay. Not to mention the biases that come with targeting only certain stores or only certain auction houses, or collecting with personal preferences and biases (conscious or not), which we all have. If anything is "anectodal", it's individual collectors visiting coin stores.

That being said, how to handle this wealth of data on ebay is a completely different story...there are a few distortions, bad photos, group lots, etc...can it even be done statistically? probably not...

but to ridicule and completely discount the largest, most varied, and arguably least biased marketplace on earth, is not "reasonable" to put it kindly.

I found it interesting that the proportions were similar between ebay offerings and the mintage numbers, but I don't think I would trust applying that as a blanket rule.

It would be interesting to see if other years/denominations etc also follow the same trend.

While not "gospel", ebay is a pretty solid reflection of the marketplace as a whole. I trust the final sales values of the 'bay over any printed catalog.

"The above estimates based on ebay postings from Dec.8-Mar.8 fall nicely into these ranges."

that was simply an interesting observation...

i think if you actually read the original post, you'll realize you all jumped to various conclusions and launched a coordinated attack for no good reason. That's shameful and disappointing.

I see so many repeats on ebay that I don't know how to get an accurate # of actual sales..

I've seen some vickies come back every week for over a year.

There is sold..and there is maybe not really sold..

I can't remember how many cents "did not sell" at the recent Torex but my count is that it was a lot of "pass" until the next auction...

..and then it comes back again at a slightly lower starting price..over and over..so actually a lot of repeats..on ebay or at auctions..

Naturally we all "cherry pick" the good ones and pass on everything else..

by the way JHAX I recently picked up your book Canadian coins and tokens , I must say its a very interesting book and really nicely laid out, next books I will be getting will be Rob Turners