| Author |
 Replies: 37 / Views: 6,077 |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
4132 Posts |
Coin designs vary over their run in terms of mintage numbers, strike quality, design subtleties and surviving population in higher grades. If somebody is working on a type collection, what years and mints are good candidates for attractive and reasonably priced examples? For example, one recent thread mentioned that 1881-S Morgan dollars are very well struck and common enough that DMPL examples in high grades are affordable. Anyone have any favorites for other types? |
|
|
|
Valued Member
United States
309 Posts |
I have only been using the most common dates that I can find. This is a good topic though. I could see why you would want dates that were known to have better strikes.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
2936 Posts |
Since I'm working on a high end set of Buffalo nickels I can tell you that the 38D Buffalo has some wonderful MS strikes available. You can generally get a MS-66 golden toned for under $70. |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
3294 Posts |
I went the other way and am using the hardest dates I can find in VF-AU grade (excepting the moderns of course which are MS).
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
763 Posts |
I like the idea of choosing well struck coins for type sets. I collect Barber quarters and I know most of the later date coins come with a weak strike. The 1892 Philadelphia quarter is known to have a good strike and it is widely available in high grades. I agree with paleoguy on the 1938-D Buffalo nickel. I have seen some beauties available for a good price. I hope others will chime in on different series. Some series will be difficult - are there any well struck Peace dollars out there? |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
3294 Posts |
The 1921 Peace is generally well struck but it is a semi-key.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
 United States
4132 Posts |
Wow, you're not kidding about the 1938-D. I just searched ebay for "ms66 buffalo", and up popped a few hundred beautiful, graded, golden toned Buffaloes, mostly 1938-D, mostly under $70. Alright, we've got a list going now: Morgan dollar 1881-S (some other S mint years around the same time look good too) Barber quarter 1892-P Buffalo nickel 1938-D Mercury dime 1939-D (according to David Lange) |
|
Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Why not some of the error coins? 1937D Buffalo 3 legger 1909S/S Lincoln Cent or 55 Double Die And/or similar coins? Would make for a really odd ball type set. |
|
Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
If you are going to use common dates you want better grades and attractive pieces. A second option is to go with tougher dates and a little lower but still attractive pieces. Or you could do even lower grade and use key or semi-key dates. Typically what gets brought into shops are lower grade common date sets. These don't excite anyone and typicaly get lackluster interest if you are looking to sell down the road.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
687 Posts |
I prefer earlier dates in a series for my type set because the master dies are newer and crisper in the earlier dates. Collecting by keys and semi-keys may be rewarding, but you can (obviously) get higher grade commons that are more ascetically pleasing for less money. This often impresses non-collectors more than keys do :) There are some exceptions: for wheat cents, 1909 and 1910 are going to generally look nicer than 1942 will, but for memorial cents the early dates are mushy before Lincoln's portrait was recut. For Jeffs, I like the reverse of 40 better than the reverse of 38, so I'd probably try to get a high grade 1939 with the reverse of 40. Assuming price wasn't the main factor, I'd prefer a 1917T1 SLQ over a 1916 SLQ because the later year has better detail. For Washington quarters, I like the way the 32 looks (wider rim or something) but you might want a heavy motto version from a few years later. Some you don't have a choice: 1859 Cent, 1909VDB, 1913T1 Buff, 1976 quarter, etc. For most coins I prefer the Philly issues over the branch coins, but when you get into the clad era you can often find Denver issues that are closer to proof like (at least with the Ikes and the halves). Just some of my experiences from building my 20th century type set ... |
|
Bedrock of the Community
United States
10635 Posts |
I'll be following this thread closely for suggestions in building my type set. The more I learn, the more I realise I don't know anything.
-Les
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
4132 Posts |
For recent dimes and nickels (last 10-15 years), I find the Denver mint coins to be much glossier. At first I thought it was just the 2000-D nickels, but it's also true of other dates. I get lots and lots of super-shiny 2010-D dimes, even though I'm on the East coast, way more than 2010-P dimes, and the Philly ones don't look as nice.
When did they re-cut the Lincoln portrait on the memorials? I know from my roll searching that they turn to crap starting with the 1974 small date (there is no detail at all on the reverse, and the lower relief is less striking), and don't get better again until the 1982 switch.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
3229 Posts |
|
|
Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
I am an obtuse collector.
If I set mind to make up a type set, I represent each type with the rarest date.
I did that with an Australian pre decimal type set of silver and bronze coins. The only rare coin I missed on was the 1930 penny; that type was represented with a 1925 penny. Condition range for the set was good VF to BU.
|
|
Bedrock of the Community
United States
14454 Posts |
1881-S and 1882-S are both good examples for a Morgan type coin because of the reasons you mentioned above. the other coins in the series I am not very familiar with one or two certain years or MM that were very sharply struck and are cheap in very good condition. There are plenty of cheaper than other date/mm combinations but I don't think they follow the Morgan dollar's where the cheapest for the type set is also probably the best looking coins of the whole series when considering condition and strike. I think what most people look for is uniformity, where all the coins look pretty close to the others in the set. So allot (like myself) went with anything in AU or above problem free condition. Because if you get a MS-66 1881-S DMPL Morgan and then get a VG Seated dollar they are not going to look very good nest to each other and it throws the whole set off and looks like the person didn't think the set through and was just filling holes. I am not saying that just filling holes is wrong it is just not the look most people go for. I have seen type sets full of the lowest graded coins they could fine and have also seen one where they used nothing but coins that had holes drilled in them. So there is no wrong way but even in those situations they kept a theme and the coins looked uniformed together unlike a Po01 beside a MS-70 |
|
Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Quote:
The more I learn, the more I realise I don't know anything. Something we all learn, much to our dismay. Quote:
When did they re-cut the Lincoln portrait on the memorials? 1969 |
| |
Replies: 37 / Views: 6,077 |
Posted 07/19/2011 10:41 am
