Buy the coin ...

[MikeKing]

Did you ever notice how some of the GREAT collections are not necessarily of the 'highest' grade?

 

Like Eliasberg...

[jom]

Oh yeah.

 

Grade is not necessarily equal to quality. I've seen many AU58's that are a lot nicer than MS63's of the same series. Same holds for other grades as well, such as real nice MS63s over certain MS65's.

 

What is unique about these historic collections they are put together over a long period of years. Cherry picking the best coins for the dollar paid. Eliasberg was well known for not paying crazy money for coins. Even if he lost in an auction he'd be patient and eventually get the coin for the money he was willing to pay.

 

jom

[TomB]

That was the entire point, more or less, of my recent thread Ahhh...The Power of Cheese.

[michael]

well

 

i posted another thread on here wanting opinions about top plastic encapsulated coins

 

 

and i got some really angry fearful comments questioning my ethics and intergrity

 

so i guess for many it is the holder not the coin

 

well i wish these holder buyers well and also hope they have fun and make all the right decisions

 

 

and hope they keep buying from all those sellers

 

who offer strong buy backs and make a market is such pieces of plastic and also collect and put away what they sell/push!! as it must be really great if they sell it??

but i guess actions speak louder than words

 

well for me

 

if i was buying a coin i would buy the coin i liked !! and if it is in a say for example pcgs/ngc holder and correctly graded well all the better!!

 

michael

[michael]

i love buy the coin not the holder if the coin is great and eye appealling it could be poor one like a smooth totally original chain or a proof68 ultra cameo barber quarter or an ms63 proof 64 whatever

 

as long as the coin has eye appeal

 

that is the key

 

now a really cool coin would be an eye appealling coin with exceptional toning and a superb gem technical grade in business strike format and pre civil war that is a great value as it has not been yet promoted and still has a ways to go in the demand category

 

 

michael

[SilverEagleCoins]

My coin collection is not really about the highest grades. I have mostly picked up Silver Eagles in the $7-9 range that are not perfect but in very good shape. I like the idea of having a hundred silver eagles in my collection. It is quite an impressive display pulling out coin after coin after coin of silver. My next fondness is for coins no longer in mint like the Franklins, Morgan, Liberty, Peace, etc. None of those are in perfect shape but they are in good shape. Oncce again I like the idea of being able to display coin after coin of Franklins, Morgans, Liberty, Peace. etc.

 

Maybe someday there will be a hoard named after me!!!

[BillJones]

My collection contains mostly coins that are "very nice for the grade." I like original coins and coins that are scarce. I am not attracted to extremely common coins in very high grades, especially if they have very high prices on them.

 

I have a few coins that are among the finest know for their die variety. One of them is a B-20 1800 silver dollar that is tied for the finest known. It's official grade in the census is EF-45, but now it's in an AU-58 slab.

 

I also have the 1802/0 half cent (Cohen 2) which was in the Garrett Collection. It's listed in Breen's Book as one of the better ones, but when I submitted it for grading, it came back in a body bag as "cleaned," which is outragious. There's nothing wrong with the coin. I've seen 1802 half cents with the same "look" in PCGS holders. When I see some of the really bad copper that has gotten into PCGS and NGC holders through the years, it makes me really question the value of bothering to get good copper coins slabbed at all. I don't think these graders know anything about copper at all.

[jom]

In the 1940 Lincoln thread "across the street" I made mention that it was my opinion that many collectors worry too much about what others think of their collection. This preoccupation people have with sending their coins into PCGS/NGC and Registry are just examples of this. I know that some use services to grade their coins for sale but I get the distincted impression (after reading many posts on these message boards) submissions are used to somehow "justify" ones purchases. The Registry also seems to be a battle ground of over-hyped issues in high grade all trying to some way impress others.

 

If you decide you like a coin then buy it. What business is that to someone else or what you paid? Who are you trying to please here anyway? YOU that's who...

 

jom

[cladking]

When Eliasberg was active it was extremely difficult to even find the highest graded coins. People were not nearly so fanatical about grade. This really makes sense when you think about it since many times the coins being collected were very rare in any grade. If only a few of a coin existed then when one came available you either bought it or waited years until another became available. Additionally it was difficult to even know the condition unless you were there to see it or had a picture from the auction. The commoner coins were not so often auctioned so you were left to travel or to rely on the opinions of dealers as to the condition. This was an expensive proposition in those days and few could afford the luxury of specializing in the best grades only. Certainly Eliasberg had a reputation of seeking the finest pieces and he paid the price to get them as they were available. Pittman was better known for this and did specialize in the highest grade coins. Someday his modern coins will appear on the market and some people will probably be most impressed, I'm sure I will be.

 

Coins are fun to collect not because they are rare, or high grade, or beautiful and historic so much as it's the way they make us feel as we are assembling sets. It doesn't so much matter what criteria or medium we use to form collections as it matters that we are forcing reality into a logical sensible order either by date/mm, grade, age, or whatever. If Eliasberg hag the financial werewithall to assemble a complete US collection (to 1950) then more power to him. I'm sure he enjoyed the work and the hunt. If Pittman had the eye and the foresight to acquire one of the most financially rewarding collections of all time then more power to him. I bet he had a blast. If Aunt Mildred is having fun putting states quarters into a folder she got at the five and dime or Joe is having fun with his registry set then more power to them too. This is what the hobby is for.

[EVillageProwler]

A word about Eliasberg, and not responding to anyone in particular but just making a general comment about Louis himself...

 

He was a collector, but hardly a numismatist. He loved his coins, but didn't really know coins that well. In his day, he was more apt to buy on the thrift than to pay up for awesome quality. His greatest single contribution to both the completeness of his collection and the awesome quality of his collection was when he purchased the Clapp family collection/inventory.

 

He bought the Clapp material not because he had to have all those superb coins. Rather, he felt that it was a good deal. He lucked out; Clapp needed money, and Stack's got Eliasberg to cough up the money.

 

EVP

 

[DaveG]

Personally, I'm at the point where I don't buy "bargain" coins anymore, nor do I buy "the plastic" (except in a couple of cases), but I do buy coins with an eye to what others will think.

 

For example, when I buy a coin, I want to be able to show it to TomB and have him say "Wow, cool coin!" or to have Dahlonega say "Great original surfaces!"

 

I guess that's not such a bad thing, after all.