HOW TO PRICE VERY RARE COINS
By Doug Winter - CoinLink Content Partner If you collect very rare or finest known coins, figuring out what to pay for an item that you need for your collection can be difficult. Here is a real-life example of how I came up with what I believe to be an accurate value for a one-of-a-kind coin. The coin that we are going to use as our Coin Pricing Lab Experiment is the Finest Known 1860-C half eagle; an item that my firm recently handled. When analyzing any complicated, rare issue, there are at least four things that I give major consideration to: 1. Establishing rarity 2. Determining comparables 3. Gauging the depth of the market 4. How nice is the coin for the grade and for the i...

Coin Rarities & Related Topics: Eliasberg 1795 Eagle, Gem Oak Tree Shilling and 1806 quarter of the rarest variety!
News and Analysis: scarce coins, coin markets, and the coin collecting community, #16 A Weekly Column by Greg Reynolds Yes, there are more rarities, available in Boston this month, which should be discussed. In my columns over the last two to three months, I have covered many important rarities that sold or appeared in Boston, especially coins in the Heritage, B&M and Stack’s auctions. In my column just two weeks ago, I discussed rarities that were ‘on the floor’ at the ANA Convention in Boston, which was held from Aug. 10th to 15th. Even so, three additional coins are each extremely important in their own different and very distinctive ways. Perhaps few collectors would ...

Fire Damaged Coins Conserved
Have you ever wondered what a coin collection might look like after it is pulled out of a house fire? The following is from the Numismatic Conservation Services (NCS) newsletter and shows the remarkable conservation of a cherished collection after a damaging fire. “A house fire can be especially devastating to a prized coin collection. A once pristine, cherished collection can turn into a horrible blackened mass. However, with some careful conservation work, all is not lost. The first stage in conserving a group of coins such as these pictured is to safely remove them from what remains of their holders. Removing coins entombed in deformed coin holders is a challenge. The standard metho...

Coins With Shady Pasts
The U.S. Treasury’s high-handed seizure of a 1933 St. Gaudens Double Eagle from a British dealer lured to America under false pretenses by a Secret Service Agent posing as a buyer for the coin is outrageous to me, and should be highly disturbing to you, the collector. The arrest of this dealer, Stephen Fenton, and of his American agent, Jay Parrino, on charges of allegedly possessing stolen U.S. government property is frightening to all of us. Popular legend has long held that no 1933 Double Eagles were ever “officially” released by the U.S. Treasury, and that somehow this made them illegal to possess (other than the two specimens “officially” given by the Treas...

Coin Rarities & Related Topics: The rise in the number of collectors of rare U.S. coins and the importance of the PCGS & the NGC
News and Analysis regarding scarce coins, coin markets, and the coin collecting community #15 A Weekly Column by Greg Reynolds Today’s topic relates to the number of people who collect rare or scarce U.S. coins, and, at least once in a while, spend more than $1000 on a single coin. The number of such collectors has grown tremendously since around 1998. At various times since Sept. or Oct. 2008, a substantial number of collectors have stopped buying, not because of lack of interest, but rather because of their own personal financial circumstances. After all, in the middle of 2008, a rather severe recession began that negatively affected almost everyone. Further evidence of my point rega...

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