Are a lot more collectors putting together UNC date sets of Lincolns?

[James_OldeTowne]

For some reason, I am having a devil of a time getting common BU Lincolns from the 1920s. Seems like what should be common dates - 1923, 1925, 1928 for example - have just evaporated off the market. They were struck by the tens of millions, topping 100 million for many dates, far exceeding the production of the branch mints. Oh, and the 1915? Forget about it!

 

Is it just 2009 Lincoln cent hype? I wonder if folks are assembling date sets.

 

Just venting....

[michael]

Are a lot more collectors putting together UNC date sets of Lincolns?

 

no

 

mostly for promotions by major boiler room hucksters planning for the upcoming

2009 100 year anniversary

[DC Dawg]

Yesterday, I sat with two dealers in Baltimore who were selling very nice, uncirculated red Lincolns. He had a number of early date coins including the 1909 VDB and 1909-S VDB. One dealer told me that with the 2009 celebration coming, there has been an increased interest in early cents.

 

I was looking for the semi-key red 1931-S. I could not find one. I may try again on Friday.

 

Scott

[World Colonial]

Are a lot more collectors putting together UNC date sets of Lincolns?

 

no

 

mostly for promotions by major boiler room hucksters planning for the upcoming

2009 100 year anniversary

 

This is happening? That would be really interesting to me. How many coins do these marketing outfits promote and hype like this? I have no idea now but I recall it used to be (in the 1980's) almost exclusively generics such as liberty gold types, St Gaudens and Indian gold, Morgan and Peace Dollars and maybe classic commemoratives. Basically anything that was common enough to sell in large volume.

[lkenefic]

I've spent the last year or so putting an UNC set together... the '20's have been tough as well as the teens (except '17, '18, ' 19).

 

L

[halfpint]

 

there may be a lot of hoarding by people THINKING THEY CAN SELL THEM FOR MELT!!..........

[Oldtrader3]

I think that Michael had the right answer. One year and a half ago, I bought several '20's cents including '20-P, '24-P, '25-P, '28-P, '29-P plus '25-D, '26-D and '31-S all MS65RD except the D mint coins. None of the P mint '20's coins that I mentioned, are usually difficult to find. Now they have all disappeared, most likely being hoarded for speculation in 2009.

[Coin]

I agree with your agreement . There is certainly some 'early-hype' starting in advertisments of the 2009 'CENT-ennial' . I noticed a bit of price climbing as well . I am thinking that some of it is also collector interest of hobbyists that decided to go back and try to update their collections with some of the better graded specimens that have popped up over the last 3-4 years along with the strong coin market , as far as the graded sector goes .

I've also been watching for raw red uncs from the early 20's to 30's and thought I was the only one that thought they were drying up .

[Coin]

Do I at least get credit for 'coin'-ing the phrase 'CENT-tenial' ?

 

....been waiting for a chance to use it .

[Conder101]

Just hold on, we're trying to think of a suitable punishment.

[Coin]

...yipes!

[jesbroken]

I have found for about a year now, acquiring 1916 down and 1920-1933 BU Red(or brown for that matter) have been extremely difficult to purchase at anywhere near a reasonable price if at all. Not just the semi-keys, but all dates in those categories. I can understand the 1931 D&S but the philadelphia strikes were well over 100 million cents produced. 1935's are getting a little harder to find, but 1936 up with way lower mintages are fairly common to find. Hard to figure and certainly tough to come by the coins I need to complete my BU collection. I have a few heavy lincoln collector friends who say stay away until 2010, but I find that the only reason to be a little misleading. There has got to be another reason for this, but I certainly do not know it.

Jim

[Arizonadesertrat]

Much of what is fashionable in the U.S. coin market is driven by marketing. The appearance of coin boards caused many new collectors to want to collect specific series of coins by date and MM, for example (there is something about the psychology of plugging holes). The centennial of the Lincoln cent is as good an excuse to start a collector stampede as any. Until a couple of years ago, very few people cared about matte proof Lincolns (MPLs), not even many Lincoln collectors wanted one. Just look at the MPL price increases since last summer.