Starting A SLQ Set. Any Advice?

I can't help with the uncirculated side of things, but I put together a circulated set earlier this year and my best advice there would be to pick a high enough target grade to where you can live with the early date examples. I am breaking apart the set now, mainly to fund another one, but I was willing to do so because I just didn't like having coins that were really difficult to see what year it is.

Good luck and have fun!

Far, far from an easy set to complete in any decent grade. So many of them in high grades are in the thousands of dollars.

Superb choice of series to collect.

IMHO, second or tied for first place with Buffalo nickels, THE hardest series to collect. Why? Not just type I, II, III strike quality issues, but within the same year, mint to mint peculiarities. Buffalo nickels are the same problem for the collector.


BUT, believe you have picked a GREAT time to start this endeavor. This IS a buyer's market. Also my opinion, posted prices are a good starting point and may be negotiated from there.

Set a grade goal, then review current price guide and RECENT auction prices. You may or may not let today's market determine your grade (grade = $$$$$$) level, but something that should be considered before attempting this series at or above XF/AU or AU FH and above.

Thanks for the great advice so far. I really am leaning to starting with a date set. I think it would be a good start and then I could expand from there. I finished my Morgan date set with most of it in high grade. I was ok with a few coins being circulated. I think I will take the same approach here. It is a pretty coin.

I have been working on a VF and above set for a couple of years (ok - 7-8 yrs). I did take about 3 yrs off, but finding coins that are appealing to the eye, and in my budget hasn't worked so great online mainly due to shady photography, so I usually end up only buying in person at large shows such as FUN in Tampa this Jan. I'm headed to that show this year hoping to fill my 1919-D and 1924-S slots with VF or better coins at reasonable prices.

Congrats on starting your quest, SLQ's are my favorite design. I do have a 1916, but it is an ANACS AG-03 that I pulled from a $10 lot of SLQs on ebay in 2010. I actually ended up getting 2 dateless SLQ's in that manner. At the time, there was a seller in CA who continuously had $10 lots, and they were apparently unsearched. I pulled many good dates from those, as did Johnny54321. The other 1916 dateless graded PO-1 and I flipped it for a few hundred bucks. ANACS graded both based on distinguishing characteristics you can use to determine if a dateless type 1 is indeed a 1916. There are some old threads that go into great detail on that here on the site. I doubt I'll ever pull the trigger for a 1916 in VF or better, but will be following your quest as you add coins! Good luck!

Andrew - Perhaps you could start a new thread and share some of these with us. I know I'd like to see them!

Back to the original thread.

The only thing I can add is that - in my personal opinion - SLQ's are among the most beautiful of issues in high AU condition and Circulation Cameo. That makes these a very accessible set even if one's budget does not extend to MS-FH examples.