Difficulty of collecting one series.

[toyonakataro]

My dream was to complete a set of seated half dimes in mintstate by date and mint mark(except for the unique 1870-S), but I found it very hard to build a nice set.

There are 3 mint state 1840-O with drapery half dimes graded by NGC/PCGS...2 by NGC and 1 by PCGS. I saw one of the two graded by NGC last year and didn't like it. If it was a $100 coin, I might have bought it to fill a hole, but I didn't want to pay big money to buy a coin whitch I didn't like. At that time, I was hoping to get either another NGC example or the one in PCGS holder someday. But I noticed the other NGC example now resides in Richmond collection and judging from the picture, I don't like it either. I haven't seen the PCGS example yet, but I'm afraid the current owner, who has built the finest known seated half dimes set won't sell it in near future and even if it will be auctioned in near future, I'm afraid I can't afford it because it's the finest graded among the three mint state example.

I've been wondering if I should give up building a set for nearly one year and have not come to a conclusion yet. I LOVE this series even though I know I won't be able to complete.....but I WANT to have a complete set

Now I'm upgrading some of the common dates but I'm not sure where I'm going to.....hey, it just occured to me this thread is pointless!!

[Tradedollarnut]

Sometimes it's necessary to compromise and buy a gorgeous circ coin for a high end set. When I was actively building my Seated Dollar set, I almost passed on the gem 1873-CC because I had a gem AU. It wasn't until I changed my focus toward doing the entire set in high grade that I decided to expend the money to keep the MS65. The AU58 was so darn nice.

 

Expand your thinking to choice AU on certain dates - you won't regret it.

[Wihlborg]

Toyonakataro,

 

I agree with TDN, Try to find a nice AU coin. I did this with some of the rare dates when I built my Morgan dollar set and never felt that the AU coins distracted from the set as a whole.

 

Good Luck

 

John

[jom]

I built my Morgan dollar set and never felt that the AU coins distracted from the set as a whole.

 

Much of the time an AU coin will ENHANCE the set. It just depends on the date and mint. The more common dates you can usually find some nice AU pieces. The harder dates are tough (obviously) but you'd be hard pressed to find a nice MS as it is. You just save a bunch of dough buying the AU which lets you afford MORE dates.

 

AU is the way to go!

 

jom

[toyonakataro]

I just checked the pop report. NGC has certified 6 AU58 of this date. The number might have been increased by re-submissions, but I might have a chance to find a nice AU example. This isn't a date you always find at a single show so I might have to ask a dealer to keep his eyes on this date for me. Thank you very much for good advices, folks. At least I'll TRY to keep on building a set.