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 Replies: 17 / Views: 3,174 |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
6528 Posts |
How do you know how "rare" a coin is.
Numistia?
Population reports?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1316 Posts |
Rare bring a question of quantity in the market or rare as a function of supply / demand? "Rare" can be a tricky word. For US coins, even ones with hundreds or thousands in the market can get labelled rare. And there is enough demand to support the label. But for those who dabble in some foreign or ancient stuff, we've learned that there might only be a couple dozen specimens but it's such a niche thing that the small qty outpaces demand and they are cheap despite the relative rarity. The population reports at NGC/PCGS might give you a sense of how much quantity there is in the market. Edited by Collects82
09/07/2020 1:21 pm
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Moderator
United States
56855 Posts |
It really is a matter of supply and demand. Q.David Bowers universal rarity scale is: zero through 20, zero means none known and twenty means 250,001-500,000 John1  |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
6528 Posts |
I should have posted this in the Main Coin Forum. As I'm asking about all coins. Not just modern. Sorry
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Valued Member
Canada
363 Posts |
I think numista reflects rarity based on their members catalogues not so much the rarity of any particular coin that you search there
it may give you a sense of whether or not a certain coin us common or not but I wouldn't say it should be your only reliable source
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Moderator
United States
34397 Posts |
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should have posted this in the Main Coin Forum Done.  . "If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5239 Posts |
Actually, it is not a stupid question at all. There are a number of nuances which make it tricky to give a general answer. As @collects82 has mentioned, rare in terms of absolute quantity may not mean expensive.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
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Q.David Bowers universal rarity scale is: zero through 20, zero means none known and twenty means 250,001-500,000 Actually the scale is open ended and the rarity numbers can keep getting bigger, but frankly much of anything past URS 8 to 10 is meaningless because there is no way to get any kind of an accurate guess of surviving pieces past that point. |
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Pillar of the Community
4628 Posts |
ironhorse is right. Their scale is based on how many members have a coin. I know for a fact that if you have a coin and no one else has it, the rarity is 97, then 2 members is 95 and 3 is 93. The commonest coins are 3 on their scale and my guess is at least 10k members of numista (It has over 100k members, but not all are active and not all are going to share their coin holdings on line). They had a thread on the most common coins and the US Memorial cent, Rosie dime, French 1 Franc and coins like that came first. French coins feature a lot as the site is essentially French, but with a large English language part. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
To me a rare coin is one I need and just can't find.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5029 Posts |
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To me a rare coin is one I need and just can't find. Amen to that. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6528 Posts |
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I know for a fact that if you have a coin and no one else has it, the rarity is 97, Which one would that be? |
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CCF Advertiser
United States
1533 Posts |
Its a matter of supply and demand. There are some political tokens that there are a handful out there, but there are only 3 people that care, so they are available. US patterns are mostly rare, but all the collectors of it are dead, so you can buy them.
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Bedrock of the Community
United Kingdom
17918 Posts |
Of course, if you're a new user with zero feedback, you can advertise any coin on ebay and describe it as "Rare", even if it has a mintage figure in the hundreds of millions... |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
8137 Posts |
Pop reports are great, except they dont account for the same coin being submitted multiple times. For most coins, I dont think anyone truly knows how many are left out there, but they can come up with an educated guess.  |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
3733 Posts |
entry level coins, can never be truly assigned a number that survives.. especially silver coins.. too many have been melted..
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Replies: 17 / Views: 3,174 |
Posted 09/07/2020 1:28 pm
