Liberty Seated “Too Many Types” Coin Syndrome. Are you a sufferer?

[BillJones]

A couple of days ago I posted a picture of an 1873 with arrows half dollar that had a thick layer of artificial toning on it. At the time I wrote that I would discuss why I had purchased such “a beast” knowing full well what its problem was.

 

At the time I was finishing up my type set, and was starting to get a bit tired of the number of coin and the expense involved with completing all of the liberty seats coins as prescribed in some books and coin albums. For example here the list for the liberty seated half dollar types with some commentary.

 

1839 “No Drapery” – A partial year type coin that is hard to find nice and quite expensive. The price of true or imaged Mint State pieces can go half way to the moon!

1839 – 1865 “With Drapery” - Many years from which to choose, fairly common

1853 “Arrows and Rays” – One year type, fairly common in circulated grades, very scarce in strict Mint State and expensive.

1854 – 5 “Arrows at the Date” – Like the arrows and rays type, but a bit easier.

1866 – 1891 “With Motto” - Many years from which to choose, the most common Liberty Seated half dollar type.

1873-4 “Arrows at the Date” Low mintage, scarce in all grades, many coins were struck from worn dies, especially on the reverse, which made for unattractive coins, high prices.

 

You can pretty much repeat this list for the other seated coins from one extent to another.

 

By the time I got to the 1873-4 “With Arrows” type I had a BAD case of “Seated Liberty too many type coins Syndrome.” What was it with these coins with arrows at the date, anyway?

 

 

That led me to buy this AT puppy with lots of detail on it for less than $100. I did this (bought problem coins) with a few other seated type coins as well. In every case I paid less than $100 per coin, most of time a LOT less than $100 per coin. Today I’m gradually upgrading these “beasts” to pieces that range from AU-58 for MS-64.

 

Has anyone else suffered or is suffering with the “too many coins in the set” syndrome. If so let’s compare notes.

 

[TomB]

It's funny that you should mention this, Bill, since I recently put a note in my type set about how much I like the Capped Bust series since one doesn't get bleary-eyed by all the different sub-types, as the Seated Liberty series suffers from. Don't get me wrong, I like Seated Liberty coinage, I just get overwhelmed sometimes by so many sub-types and denominations.

[jom]

Has anyone else suffered or is suffering with the “too many coins in the set” syndrome. If so let’s compare notes.

 

Join the club. Actually, I've gotten out of the club. I've sold off a bunch of stuff from series I don't really want to put a real effort into. I just sold a bunch of stuff on Ebay and, luckily, since gold went up I actually made a small profit. Miracles DO happen.

 

jom

[Oldtrader3]

The Seated Lib halves seem to be the most daunting (and expensive) coins of this type. The quarters and dimes are still expensive, but at least are somewhat available for a price. I have been putting them together by type rather than by sets.

 

I have settled for AU coins of the scarcer varieties and MS coins in the more common varieties.

[Android]

I've always loved quarters, so I started a quarter type set. I have all of them except the 1796, draped bust large eagle, capped bust large size, and the early no drapery (1838-40). I haven't found any suitable examples of these, so I started to buy other type coins and found myself well on the way to building a US type set. I now suffer from the seated variety syndrome as well. The one nice thing about building a type set is going to coin shows. There are so many more coins to look for other than being narrowly focused on one series. It makes the shows a lot more fun for me.

[shirohniichan]

I've found that my fascination with varieties made my collection really narrow.

 

For example, I got into "type I" and "type II" obverses and reverses on 1875, 1875-CC, 1875-S, 1876, 1876-CC, and 1876-S trade dollars. All the combinations made it an expensive set, and there were still some I couldn't find after lots of searching. It got to the point where I'd take problem coins just to fill a spot.

[Numbers-migration]

If I agree with you, do I get a free Liberty Seated Dime w/ arrows for my type set?

 

 

Yea, their are too many varieties... and getting a nice, eye apealing one can be expensive.

 

[berylcoin-migration]

When I started my typeset a few years ago I was in a hurry to "fill holes" rather than find nice coins. This quantity over quality approach led to some especially brutal purchases in the seated microcosm. I've been able to replace some, but several remain as eye-sores in my collection. Here are a few examples:

 

Scratched, likely cleaned:

 

Deep, funky toning (this one's gone ):

 

Not good times.

 

BC