Primer on Collecting Early Dollars: Part 2, Ways of Collecting

[EVillageProwler]

This installment of the primer will focus on the various popular ways people collect ED's.

 

1. The online registry. One of the newly popular ways of collecting this series is via the online registry. Whatever is good for the registry is good for your set.

 

2. Red Book. An oldie but goodie way of collecting ED's is to form a set based on what's listed in the Red Book.

 

3. Die marriages. This is a popular method of collecting for serious ED collectors, as this entails the pursuit of every die marriage, enumerated by the classical Bolender numbers or the newer Bowers-Borckardt numbers. For example, instead of getting the Red Book variety ``1798 Small Eagle 15 Stars,'' you would get ``1798 Bolender-2'' or ``Bowers-Borckardt-81.''

 

This method is an extreme challenge as there are several die marriages that are either unique or almost unique.

 

4. Die states. This is the collecting of the progression of usage of the various dies used in making ED's. Just a small handful of diehard JRCS folks do this.

 

5. Oddities. Many ED specialists will avoid the more popular ways and cherrypick the multiply-struck or struck-over specimens. These coins have a lot of character, and are quite interesting to study.

 

I collect by die marriage, although I do also have a passing interest in die states. I am also looking for a specific over-struck specimen known as the ``Star Gazer'' specimen. This coin is a 1799 8x5 variety that is actually a flip-over double struck specimen. It is very interesting, and the reverse has a shadow of Lady Liberty gazing at the reverse stars.

 

EVP

 

[Guest]

How and what is causing the prices to jump on these?

 

Is it type collectors pushing the prices up, or the different varieties collectors? Also what premiums are put on the rare varieties?? According to the price guids all varieties and dates are priced close to the same. Are the rare ones bringing multiples of common coins? Do you feel there is enough interest to push varieties higher. Some coins are said to maybe have 20 in existance. It sure would seem like there would not need to be much new interest in the series for these varieties to really go up in value.

 

 

[mark]

EVP:

 

I think that EAC members have similar methods of collecting large cents?

 

Mark of University of Florida

 

P.S.: The abbreviation "ED" is also used as the abbreviation for the condition that Pfizer's drug, Viagra, corrects. Everytime I read your abbreviation, my mind flashes to the medical term. By the way, I know this abbreviation because I own stock in Pfizer, not that there is anything wrong with knowing the term...shall we say, more intimately...

[EVillageProwler]

How and what is causing the prices to jump on these?

 

About 3 to 4 years ago, a number of dealers started to hoard these coins and drive up prices for them. This series is just numerous enough to market and just special enough to the collecting public apparently to sustain new price levels...

 

Is it type collectors pushing the prices up, or the different varieties collectors? Also what premiums are put on the rare varieties?? According to the price guids all varieties and dates are priced close to the same. Are the rare ones bringing multiples of common coins? Do you feel there is enough interest to push varieties higher. Some coins are said to maybe have 20 in existance. It sure would seem like there would not need to be much new interest in the series for these varieties to really go up in value.

 

I imagine that it is the type collectors who are sustaining the price increases. True variety collectors have always been willing to pay substantial premiums for rare varieties, but I think the days of increasing premiums for the rare varieties are pretty much over. (They're still worth a premium, but that premium is levelling off.)

 

One of the reasons for this is that there really isn't a large crop of new collectors who do so by die marriage (and less so by die state). They've been replaced by registry collectors. Many of the old-timers who did collect by die marriage are selling off and passing on. There's only a handful of us left, and that's not enough to sustain new price levels for Rarity 6 (13-30 extant) varieties. High R.7 and better varieties, however, can still cause a supreme bidding frenzy -- but only if they're problem-free.

 

Another reason why super rare varieties are starting to stabilize in price is because Warren Miller is just about 100% done with this series. Cardinal is going after a registry set, and have sold off large numbers of his rarer material. San Marino sold off his collection, and only has a couple of the super-rarities left. I have more than half of the R.6 and better varieties, so I will ignore many of them. I can only think of a few others who are seriously collecting the super rarities.

 

EVP

 

PS The Warren Miller collection is mentioned in a press release by NGC, and you can find the release online here as well.

 

PPS Cardinal just announced a web site devoted to this material: www.earlydollars.org

 

[Guest]

EVP,

 

Is it still posssible to find rarities out there?? I would imagine not all dealers take the time to attribute them.

 

For people that do try to collect all varieties, What grade do most seek? Or will people just take the rare ones, at whatever grade they may be? I like the dollars to be at leat VF for my taste. They can show a lot of nice detail at this grade.

[EVillageProwler]

Is it still posssible to find rarities out there?? I would imagine not all dealers take the time to attribute them.

 

Of course it is. Three new R.8 specimens were discovered in the past 6 years, one of them being unique still. I find R.5's once in a while that are unattributed, or attributed as a common specimen. The two I look for are: 1800 Americai and 1802 Wide Date. There are two AMERICAI varieties: BB-191 (R.5) and BB-192 (R.2). BB-191 shares the same obv as BB-190, the Wide Date, Low 8 variety.

 

1802 (perfect date) has two varieties. The Narrow Date is the most common ED variety. The Wide Date is an R.5.

 

For people that do try to collect all varieties, What grade do most seek? Or will people just take the rare ones, at whatever grade they may be? I like the dollars to be at leat VF for my taste. They can show a lot of nice detail at this grade.

 

For me, it depends on the variety. I won't settle for any ole junkie specimen if the variety is available in better condition. If it's normally unavailable in decent condition, then I'll settle for whatever I can get.

 

EVP

 

[nwcs]

What percentage of these dollars do you think have come out into the light at least once to be accounted for? BTW, I've enjoyed reading this information you've been giving. It's refreshing to read and learn here.

[EVillageProwler]

Of the super rarities (R.7+), the vast majority have been accounted for. The JRCS have a huge body of institutional memory.

 

EVP

 

[EVillageProwler]

I think that EAC members have similar methods of collecting large cents?

 

I think there's much commonality in collecting across the various early denominations.

 

As for the other ED, I'm not even going to go there...

 

EVP