Filling Up A 7070 (Your Opinions - Please)

Kind of a problem situation. If you stick to high grades, the entire collection could become really pricy. Some coins could set you back a real lot but if your financially OK with that, then sure makes for a nice looking collection. If some are only G or F and others are MS grades, sort of makes it all look odd. If all lower grades, much easier to complete though and no where near as expensive. Really mostly up to your financial situation, availability of places to purchase coins too.
As to showing off your collection, you should really consider all the possibilities of robberies due to who knows what you have. Although you probably only show your friends and/or relatives, they all may have told others that you don't know and they too tell someone. The story grows until your that guy with millions in coins.

I personally would focus on better condition. It is a type set, so it is meant to display type, not rarity. I'd rather spend my money on a higher grade, common date than a lower grade semi-key. As others said, you have to figure out what grade levels you want to go for and decide what you can afford. Now, if you can afford both desired grade and semi-key for the whole set, then go for it! There's also nothing to say you can't selectively buy keys for certain coins if you'd like.

The goal for my set is VF or higher with an average grade of XF. I am ok mixing in AU or MS coins for newer dates as I think it still makes a nice appearance and emphasises the age progression from older to newer coins. I do try to make it a true progression so as to not mix different grades and toning too much.

Ken

Good inputs, thanks. I am leaning towards eye appeal; higher quality common coins, and leave the keys and semi-keys in their slabs.

What kind of timeframe are you looking at on putting together a 7070 set while looking for appropriate prices for the different coin? What I'm saying is you could probably put together a set in a short amount of time if money was no issue, but if you took some time and really looked for the best coin at the best price what are you looking at?

I grouped the grades in my type set by era. Early 19th century is F-VF, mid 19th is VF-EF, late 19th is EF-AU, early 20th is AU-MS, and the rest of the 20th is high MS-Proof.

That is true for many of us but can become a problem too. I do that all the time. But if you don't have an outlet for the old ones, the stockpile grows. For example my Mercury dimes. I started with whatever I could find to fill the holes. Then as better ones were aquired, I put the lesser ones in another Album. This has continued until I now have 12 Albums of that coin. Same with many others.
So it may all depend on what you plan on doing with the older ones as you replace them.

I've wondered that myself. Do I want to put a really nice 1921 Morgan in the Morgan spot or a semi-key/key coin. I can't afford a MS-63 1893-S for sure, so I think I'd have to go with semi-keys and hope to do AU-50 + like Bryan. I also agree with Bryan's point that MS-65 coins next to VG coins doesn't look quite so great. So, I guess the other alternative is to put everything in VF and it should be pretty affordable for a good amount of the album.