Pricing

All prices in this "Key Date" blog are taken from the latest edition of the "Red Book" by Yeoman. In pricing coins for the real world, I usually take
1. the Red Book
2. Heritage Auctions
3. Ebay and
4. Craigslist
then I add them all together and divide by 4 to get a more realistic guestimate of their true street value. I always take the G4 pricing since that would be the lowest accepted price, which is pretty much what I consider bullion rates.

What makes a coin valuable more than just its Face Value (FV)? More often than not, it's these four things.
1. Rarity which means a low mintage,
2. The age of the coin,
3. Supply and Demand and finally
4. The condition of the coin G,VG,F,XF,AU,BU,MS

G = Good
VG = Very Good
F = Fine
XF = Extra Fine
AU = Almost Uncirculated
BU = Brilliant Uncirculated
MS = Mint State

As always, there are other factors that increase value such as the metals used in creating the coins such as copper, gold, silver, platinum etc. In principle, I am only discussing US coins and not foreign coins. Coins that qualify to be set aside as low mintage coins are usually referred to as "Key Dates".

What makes a key date?
In many cases, the key date is the coin with the lowest mintage for a given series. Examples of this are the 1916-D Mercury Head Dime or the 1893-S Morgan Silver Dollar. Both of these coins had extremely low mintages making them very difficult to locate in any grade. This in itself increases the value of the coin.


Then here's a view of the 1893S Morgan silver dollar found in circulation


And here's one that has never been in circulation and was graded MS-60 by PCGS


Then there are tons of extra issues that create value in coins such as errors, mis-prints etc. And this also applies to paper currency.

Here are some examples of key dates low mintage coins:
1909-S Indian Head Cent - mintage 309,000

1909-S V.D.B. Lincoln Cent - mintage 484,000
A key date coin is generally the most rare or difficult to obtain coin of a series. In addition to their rarity, key date coins often carry an additional mystique and allure since they are usually the final coins needed to complete a set. One of the most well known key date coins is the 1909-S V.D.B. Lincoln Cent.

1914-D Lincoln Cent - mintage 1,193,000

1955 Double Die Lincoln Cent - mintage 24,000*

1885 Liberty Nickel - mintage 1,473,300

1937-D Three Legged Buffalo Nickel - mintage 20,000*

1916-D Mercury Dime - mintage 264,000

1932-D Washington Quarter - mintage 436,800

1932-S Washington Quarter - mintage 408,000

1921-D Walking Liberty Half Dollar - mintage 208,000

1889-CC Morgan Dollar - mintage 350,000

1893-S Morgan Dollar - mintage 100,000

1928 Peace Dollar - mintage 360,649

1995-W Proof Silver Eagle - mintage 30,195
*Approximate number released into circulation, actual exact number may not be known.

For a more complete list of all coins I personally consider to stand out from the pack are listed in this blog under the different headings for the coin they represent.