Condition Rarity For Moderns

Condition rarity for modern coins
5/1/2006
By Mark Ferguson
COIN VALUES Market Analyst

By one definition, modern coinage includes those coins that are currently circulating, as well as those struck during recent years, like Eisenhower and Anthony dollars, commemorative coins struck since 1982, and American Eagle bullion coins, all of which are legal tender. With notable exceptions among commemorative and bullion coins, most of these coin issues were struck in quantities of tens and hundreds of millions of pieces per issue, and many issues were even minted by the billions.

For example, the 1982, 1989, 1994-D and 1995-D Lincoln Cent issues were all struck in quantities exceeding 7 billion coins each. More than 8 billion 2000-D Lincoln cents were struck. These are huge mintages, compared to the usual hundreds of millions of individual cent issues struck in the 1950s and 1960s, and with the occasional 1 billion or 2 billion cent issues struck in the 1960s.

Of course, we've had the occasional low-mintage issues, including pieces recently struck, that are worth large premiums because of their scarcity. Such low-mintage issues include the Proof 1995-W American Eagle silver bullion coin of which just 30,125 pieces were coined, compared to about a half million to more than a million pieces struck in each of the other years. The Proof 1999-P Anthony dollar was coined in a quantity of 749,090 pieces, compared to the earlier years in which about 3.5 million to more than 4 million examples were struck.

The circulation-quality 1981-P, -D and -S Anthony dollars were not issued for circulation, but were issued in three-coin sets with mintages ranging from 3 million to 3.49 million coins each, compared to a few hundred million pieces for the 1979, 1980 and 1999 issues. However, while Professional Coin Grading Service has graded no Anthony dollars in Mint State 69 or MS-70 for the entire series, it has graded more than 100 MS-68 Anthony dollars. Most of these, however, are the 1999-D Anthony dollar of which more than 11.77 million were struck. In contrast, the PCGS Population Report shows more than 26,000 Anthony dollars graded Proof 69 or Proof 70.

So, while low-mintage issues carrying price premiums can be identified in most modern series, it is important to note that some high-mintage issues are more difficult to find in the nearly perfect grades of 69 and 70, with Proof and Mint State 70 coins considered absolutely perfect in every respect. Proof coins are the most common in these high grades, as they were struck using special presses, dies and planchets, and are carefully packaged at the Mint in highly protective holders before being sold to the public, whereas the circulation-strike coins are machine counted, bagged and transported to non-Mint facilities to be wrapped and rolled. The handling circulation-quality coins receive, including as they come in contact with other coins, means they sustain contact marks, also known as bag marks, which lower their grades.

The best resources available to identify common-issue modern coins that are scarce or rare in high condition are the grading service population reports, which list the numbers of coins graded in each grade for both circulation strikes and Proof coins by issue. PCGS, Numismatic Guaranty Corp. and ANACS produce these reports several times a year. Studying these reports is both revealing and surprising.

For example, PCGS lists 152 Uncirculated Kennedy half dollars graded MS-70. Of this total, 145 are the Matte Finish 1998-S Kennedy half dollars issued by the Mint in protective holders as part of a special set that also included a commemorative silver dollar honoring Robert F. Kennedy, and seven are Satin Finish 2005-P Kennedy half dollars from last year's Uncirculated Mint sets. Outside of these two years, the grading services have graded very few Kennedy half dollars at even the MS-69 level.

We also see that most modern Proof coins are graded either deep cameo (their designation by PCGS) or ultra cameo (the NGC designation), rather than just cameo (both deep and ultra cameo refer to an extreme level of contrast between highly polished, mirrored fields and frosted devices). Improved quality standards at the U.S. Mint account for this grading trend.

Another important point to be aware of in purchasing the very high-grade modern coins is that the high grades mostly result from dealers sending in prescreened coins in bulk lots that they've removed from sets. It is rare for a collector or dealer to send in just a few cherrypicked coins and get back the very high grades of 69 or 70. Therefore, many dealers obtain their inventories of these coins from bulk submissions, rather than outright purchases.

Be aware also that some of the dealers who sell very high grade modern coins don't buy these coins back at current market prices. So before you purchase these high-grade modern coins, you may want to research how you can sell them back into the secondary market if you should ever decide to do so.


Cladking is our resident expert on many of these issues...and usually has insightful commentary on modern rarities.