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 Replies: 11 / Views: 5,050 |
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Pillar of the Community
Turkey
870 Posts |
Dear coinfolks, I would like to hear your opinions about what mintage quantities do you consider rare in modern circulation coins, say dollar coins or euros? Until recently, I consider anything minted less than a million as rare (and often referenecing Numista for mintage quantities), but it appears like so many modern coins up from 1970's are on electronic trade platforms such as ebay with less than a million minted. Unless uncriculated, they rarely go aboce face value. Whats your opinions about this? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5825 Posts |
IMO there are no modern circulation coins that are rare according to strike numbers.
To me "rare" is below 1000.
And the only thing since 1970 that gets close to that are commemoratives, and they are not "circulation coins".
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Bedrock of the Community
United Kingdom
17896 Posts |
It also depends on the country that issued the coins and the number of potential collectors. I've got a 1979 Cook Islands Uncirculated set with a mintage figure of 1,000, but the coins are only valued at a few dollars each in the catalog. However, if something like a regular circulation US nickel or dime had a mintage of 1,000, it would be worth a fortune.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
7934 Posts |
A modern circulating coin can be considered rare if fewer than 5 come up in an ebay search of sold items plus items for sale. It has very little to do with mintage. (Yes, I just made that up, but I think it will withstand a lot of tests). |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2781 Posts |
With older coins you can sort of determine a "rare" based on mintage numbers, but they are still most likely termed "key dates". I would be more concerned with survival rates vs mintage, and grade rarities over the quantity the market is offering. For modern coinage (ie the last 100 years) there are very few that I would consider rare. According to the Sheldon scale the term "rare" should seldom be used (exact opposite of what you see on ebay) R-8: only 1 exists R-7 High: 2 to 3 exist R-7 Low: Extremely Rare, 4 - 12 known R-6: Very Rare, 13 - 30 known R-5: Rare, 31 - 75 known R-4: Very Scarce, 76 - 200 known R-3: Scarce, 201 - 500 known R-2: Uncommon, 501 - 1250 known To each his/her own when it comes to the definition. R-1: Common, 1251+ known |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7934 Posts |
One problem with rarity scales is that they reflect the knowledge of the author at a given point in time. Specifically, most of these assignments were made before the internet age.
I can find coins rated R5 to R6 by someone in the past, where I can find a dozen or more auction sales per year of that type recently.
Edited by tdziemia
02/04/2021 10:42 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
'Rare' for circulation coins can mean mean different things for countries with very large populations, as opposed to those with very small populations.
The Cook Islands for example, has a population of less than 20,000, and some their issued into circulation coins number less than 1,000. Such coins can be bought from a coin dealer in Australia for less than $5. At least, that is how much I have have paid.
And yet with 1909 S VDB pennies, nearly half a million were issued. High grade examples of these will cost $ thousands.
When considering the above facts, I prefer to go for coins that are historically or numismatically important rather than rare, and so value has little to do with my consideration, so long as I get good value for money (whatever the coin is), at the time of purchase.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
To me quantities minted means very little since if I need a coin and I am going nuts trying to find one, then to me that is rare.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
999 Posts |
What can be rare in one area of the world may be not so in another. For example, ebay.ca or .com may only have one or two examples of a coin for sale and that have sold in the past few months, but a dealer in that local country where it was issued might have a dozen or two of those coins in their inventory. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5177 Posts |
Mintage numbers by themselves say nothing about coins being "rare" (as in "almost unique", or "difficult to obtain"). What counts are total population numbers. For example, if you have 999,990 19th century silver dollars available in circulated condition, but only 10 available in uncirculated condition, then those uncirculated ones would go for a fortune whereas the circulated ones will be closer to melt value.
Edited by NumisEd
02/05/2021 1:37 pm
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Pillar of the Community
 Turkey
870 Posts |
I agree to most of the comments above, thank you guys for your thoughts. Up until last year, I automatically considered anything with a mintage below 1 Million uncommon, or rare, in modern coins. Therefore I saved all that I could find fitting to that criteria. Now they're taking too much space, I decided to let some of them go. In the next few weeks, I suppose I'll be working on how to get rid of some of those.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5825 Posts |
Like I and others have said, it's not how many were struck, it's how many are available to collectors.
My favorite example:
There were 445,500 1933 Saint Gauden's Double Eagles struck.
There are other years that Saint Gauden's Double Eagles were struck in lower quantities.
They go for $2000-4000 in MS-63.
BUT most of the 1933's were melted when the US went off the gold standard because of the 1929 Depression.
NOW there is only one that's legal for a private citizen to own.
There are also 2 in the Smithsonian collection.
And there are some 10-15 that were confiscated by the US Gov't and they now reside in the vault at Fort Knox.
The one 1933 Saint Gauden's Double Eagle that's legal to own sold for $7,590,020.
Lots struck; only one legal to own.
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Replies: 11 / Views: 5,050 |
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Posted 02/04/2021 11:25 am
