samclemen3991

Sandon, thank you for that information, it is very helpful. James

This may be off topic but I wonder if anyone familiar with this board knows the answer. When I join this page I come to a preset list of topics. The list, as far as I can tell, is ranked according to the subject that has had the most recent post. The thread we are currently using is not in that list. It cannot ,as far as I can find , even be found. The only way I returned to this topic was that I noticed something called "Notifications" at the top of my screen. Are there private threads on this site? Or are there alternate pages or some such thing?

I will stand by my statement. Seated Quarters seem to me to be the poster child for a series that even many of the common coins are hard to find. I wish I could remember the pundit and his exact words. He wrote something like "Morgan dollars are common coins pretending to be rare coins. Everyone knows this but nobody cares. They are big, shiny, can be collected a hundred different ways and there are plenty for everyone. Seated Dollars are true rare coins but nobody cares. The vast majority of collectors just hope to get one or two for their collection and there are a few semi-common dates that meet this need." I think Seated Quarters have a similar relationship with Seated Half dollars. Seated Halves will never be Morgan's but they are big and shiny , can be collected a hundred different ways and except for a few dates there our plenty for everyone. Seated Quarters have numerous hard to find dates, some considered rare some considered common. There are also a few dates that are very common and much like Seated Dollars, these coins are the mirage that Seated Quarters are easy to find. The vast majority of collectors only want one or two for their set and these fill the need. It is when you try to dig a little deeper that you find (Or don't find) many Seated Quarters. As far as the LCSS goes, I am a recent member. I also think the earlier members of this club play a role in the lack of Seated Quarters. I think the early members recognized the rarity of Seated Quarters in general and salted away many of the attractive, collector grade coins. Today's collectors are trying to make a meal out of the leftovers from the feast. As far as personal experience goes, I know very few coin collectors personally but of the seven or eight collectors I know who collect Seated Coins all but one collect Half Dollars. My own collection features Seated Halves and building a date set was one of my favorite experiences. Hate to digress, but I must tell you about collector number 8. He only collects Carson City Seated Dollars. It felt like he was taking me to see Jimmy Hoffa's body but it was worth it. Probably the only time in my life I got to see what could be termed a "Collection" of 1873-cc dollars. He has dozens of Carson Dollars; all raw. In fact at the time he had just purchased a PCGS F-12 1870-cc Dollar, and because he hates slabs he offered to sell it to me for $400. ME? ME! I turned him down because I was going to get a VF or better coin for my collection. I actually get physically sick every time I think I could be that stupid.

I guess I have a different take on this question. To me there is no such thing as a COMMON date early gold or silver coin. I would venture to guess that the vast majority of collectors have never seen a coin from 1797 or some other such early federal date. I know I haven't. I consider a common coin to be something like a 1921 Morgan dollar. You could probably buy a thousand of them right now today. Just a rhetorical statement. My current pick for a coin series that is supposed to have numerous COMMON date coins (that don't seem to exist) would be Seated Quarters. I have 2 reference books on these coins and they will say about numerous coins, "A common date, can be found in any grade desired." Or, "slightly scarce, but can be easily found." None of which matches up with my personal experience. I have coins on my personal list that have not appeared for sale in the last 2 years(At least in the grade I am chasing). I have several coins that are described as common, but have certified populations of 2 or 3 hundred. I must mention I have over 12 dealers on my list I check daily. I follow three different auction sites. I have 3 different search engines that are supposed to track the listings of hundreds of dealers. I check E-bay on a regular basis. So if someone out there knows where this mystical supply of Seated Quarters that are in collector friendly grades and don't look like they were used as a chew toy by Cheribus.exists: please let me know. I

Your "pretty easy " comment made me laugh. About 15 years ago I thought about getting into collecting more modern coins,(I collect seated coins). I bought about 15 1958-D quarters in grades 64 thru 66. Then about every other month I would take them out, (all grades previously covered with masking tape). I figured when I could spot the different grades with ease I would be ready to try my hands at building some sort of collection. I never broke the 50% barrier and ended up selling all the coins. With that in mind I guess your coins is a 65. Not because I feel that way but rather other people suggested that grade. James

I do not specialize in half dimes but my cursory grade would be xf-45. It can be hard to judge both luster and strike from a photo:; in hand my opinion might be completely different. In my opinion less than 1% of !% of Seated coins can be absolutely call "original". Having said that I don't see anything that would prevent it being slabbed. James

Quintus, I am glad you were able to get the site to function for you. I have considered Heritage to be the flagship of numismatic endeavors. I can't help you with the smart phone issue. I have never owned one, but would think ALL the websites are tiny that way. The want list management is an easy 3 step process. 1 check small box in front of coin (s) you wish to delete. 2 go to small box at bottom of page and select option delete. 3 click OK when prompted if this is your desired action. I also do not know much about ROOSTER coins. Sound fascinating, but have to many other coins on my radar. Last of all I would encourage you to explore the MY COLLECTIONS option. I have used this wonderful, (and amazingly free), program to track my collections for over 30 years. I am half Dutch and considered any attempt to charge me money for something that was once free to be an insult to the laws of man and god. Having said that, if Heritage turned this into a pay feature i would be first in line. It is that useful. James

I am not trying to argue with you Quintus but I use their web site almost every day. I am about as computer literate as my dog and have no problems with their site. What feature(s) are giving you so much trouble?

I tend to build my own personal versions of coin sets or sub-sets. It is not unusual for me to spend 3 to 5 years looking at various coins and groups of coins before buying even one piece. Some sets never happen for various reasons, other sets get put into a rotation that can be years in the future. Case in point, the set I am currently working on requires 12 more coins to complete. I anticipate finishing it by summer 2024. I have a second set that is lacking 5 coins. I just keep an eye for those since they are of the 2 or 3 coin appearances a year type. I have a third set that only has 8 coins and requires 19 coins to complete. I track coins for that set in case a rare opportunity happens, but that set will have to wait it's turn to become a priority. I am also currently researching a set of coins that may or may not ever happen. James

Zadok. Yes I am very familiar with the LCSS. This is not a rant, and I am in no way angry but I made several failed attempts to join them. The first two times I sent an e-mail to the address listed at the end of their E news letter. I never heard back. At that time there was a message board that had modest but well informed traffic. Two different individuals said they knew the editor personally and would tell him about my attempts. No reply. I finally found the snail mail address, wrote a brief not of introduction and sent a check for (I Think) twenty dollars. The check was never cashed and I never heard anything. The truth is you never know what is going on in someone else's life so it is stupid to get worked up over things like that. Life is full of quirks. When I think about something like this I remember the day a very enthusiastic man called me at my office to ask me to join their very prominent business organization. After a fifteen minute sales pitch, which I caught about 3 words off, he asked if he would see me at their next meeting. I said no and abruptly hung up. He had no way of knowing that less than 24 hours earlier I had been in a hospital room holding my son while he died. to this day that fellow refuses to even acknowlege my existence. Personally I operated like a robot for about 6 months back then and probably ticked off lots of people. Hopefully most didn't let it ruin their day, lol. James JT2, I don't know if you ever come back to read other posts, but I know just what you are talking about with proof Indian cents. I built an 1880-1909 Indian head cent collection in RB MS-64 back in the 90's. One day on Teletrade I saw an 1880 proof Indian going for small money so I bought it. Pictures, even today, just can't capture how stunning a proof Indian cent is. I had seen other proof coins but their is just something about seeing a coin you collected in ag-vg grades as a kid and then see the same thing with those mirrors and cameo features. As they say, once the boy has seen the city lights there is no going back. James

I have been collecting coins since I was 7 years old and got the J.C.Penny Let's Collect Coins kit for Christmas 1968. I currently, and for about the last 25 years, have collected Seated Liberty coins with a focus on Seated Half Dollars. In January of this year I decided to devote more attention to the other Seated coins series and have been adding Mintmark pieces to my basic type set. Good luck to all other collectors on their collecting interests. James