My First Circulated Commemorative Stone Mountain! Grade Opinions Wanted!

I have seven of the old commemorative's,the cheaper ones as commemoratives go. I thought I would like to collect them all but can't justify the price for most. I'm not saying they are not worth it, just not worth it to me.

Good luck on your quest.

Congrats and good luck on your new collecting venture - it will certainly be a challenge!

My eyes don't see a VF-30 coin - I would suggest an XF grade.

nickelsearcher should be along soon to give you his highly-educated opinion.

Welcome to Circulated Commemoratives!

Nice Stone Mountain, I would say high XF/low AU.

Keep us posted with your progress!

cownas22 -

I'm humbled and pleased that perhaps my CCF sharing of the circulated classic silver commemorative set might have in some small way inspired your interest to pursue these coins.

Welcome indeed to the pursuit of these coins ... many tremendous works of art in the series and great stories behind all of them ... the history of the set continues to unfold right here as told by our master historian commems.

So in the true spirit of the CCF mission ... education ... I offer the following based on my personal experiences as the only PCGS registry set holder to have both a certified MS type set and a certified honestly circulated set.

Humble enough to be embarrassed by making the statement

For both sets ... MS and circulated ... the absolute best and most timely thing you should do right now is think deeply about your set objectives ... write them down and stick with them all the way to the end of the never ending hunt.

By 'set objectives' ... I mean grade and eye appeal.

The MS set is a lot easier to acquire today as there are plenty of coins to be had .... so the question there is your appetite for expensive coins at whatever level of grade and surface presentation you prefer (toned, color, white, etc)

A collector with a large enough bankroll could complete an MS classic silver type set in a relatively short time period ... the collecting challenge here is meeting your 'set objectives' ... the coins are market available.

The circulated classic silver commemorative set is entirely different ... and as you read in my long running CCF thread driven by market availability.

Many of these coins are simply not available ... and hence this circulated challenge is currently being pursued currently by only 5 of us fanatics ... all of which are using PCGS to attempt to certify ... and one has already replied to your post.

I say the following with all sincerity ... you will save yourself a lot of time and TPG grading fees if you decide up-front your collecting objectives for the circulated set ...

Consider ... are you in for 'as low as you can go' ... or are you good with any circulated example?

I ask you that to inform my opinion of your posted Stone Mountain ... at best (worst) this is IMHO by the photos provided an XF45 coin ... I'm betting highly on AU53/55 range.

Good trade for an Indian cent ... and depending on your circulated set objectives perhaps the ideal coin

IMHO ... with all due respect ... the starter Stone Mountain you have shown is not worthy of TPG certification costs as many are already available on the market.

I truly wish you the best with your pursuit ... we are here to help ... and hope to see more coins from you are you chase this lovely and historic set in whatever grade you pursue.

David

Which is the approach I took ... and hence the never ending search for downgrades. If that is your objective ... then I politely suggest that your Dad's Stone Mountain will not meet the long term need.

Within a short time of searching you should likely find an AG3/G4 example of this coin ... it is readily available raw (uncertified) in the market (more to come on that).

There is tremendous information available here at the CCF on commemoratives ... I suggest you find commems epic 'Days Of" thread ... in that thread we shared learnings on all of the coins .... MS and circulated ... and I showed examples and commentary on every one of my MS and circulated examples ... including the circulated coins I called the 'stoppers'.




You can, and should, throw away any published price guide for these circulated coins. They are not based on market reality.

Hopeful that you agree that the price of any numismatic item is fundamentally a matter of supply versus demand.

The following are simply my observations after many years of chasing both sets ... not proven in any scientific way ....

MS commemorative have enough supply and demand .... thousands of each coin in various grades traded every year ... that the various 'price guide' services can do a reasonable job of estimating and publishing expected prices.

Soooo ... for the truly circulated commemorative ... supply/demand comes into play again ... with a big focus on demand.

There is an absolute inverse pricing model for the true, and rare, lowball commemorative .... a true lowball with demand will bring moon money ... one a few grade points higher will fall way short of that price.

I told you in my initial reply there are only 5 of us fanatics chasing this set in PCGS lowball holders ... truly have no idea of NGC collectors but if they are active they do not appear as bidders in the market ... so I'm basing this reply on the 5 of us truly friends competing for the coins.

The market demand for truly lowball honestly circulated classic silver commemorative is just the five of us friends .... and none of the published price guides are going to be able to capture that fact.

So .... you can easily learn the demand by going to all of our sets on the PCGS registry site .... there is simply no interest in higher graded coins between us dedicated collectors

There is no simple way to 'educate' you on how to price honestly circulated commemorative ... you need to pay attention and learn the supply/demand of the market.

Best example ... fire up your ebay account and search for a PCGS certified 1926 Oregon Trail half ... you will soon come across a PCGS F12 coin that the seller has listed at least 10 times ... always starting at $200+ and reducing the price soon to $160+ .... and it has never sold and never will at the price.

Why? There is no demand amongst us 5 dedicated collectors.

Hopeful that you can join us ... here to be helpful as we can.

David

I should also add that when you go to coin shows and ask dealers if they have any circulated commems be prepared for the answer from some that you won't find any because they weren't made to circulate. :)

At least XF-45. Nice coin!