Enclosed please find an interesting article about Collecting and Investing in Key Date Coins.
The collecting of Key Date Coins is a popular way to make an investment in rare coins. According to Wikipedia,
a key date on a coin is a date (or date and mint mark combination) that is harder to obtain than other dates in the same coin series or set.
A key date coin is usually the rarest and most valuable coin in the series, because it has the lowest mintage or the highest survival rate.
Collectors seek out key date coins because they are scarce and challenging to find.
Investors seek out Key Dates in various series because they believe it's the keys
that will show the greatest returns on their rare coin investments. They may have something there. Ten years ago an 1889-CC Morgan Dollar was
certainly much lower in value than a similar specimen is valued at today. I can remember gem 1909-S VDB Lincoln Cents valued at less than a
thousand dollars while today the same coin is north of $5,000! One of the strategies I have helped deploy with a number of collectors is assembling
a "box of twenty" Key Date Coins as part of their investment portfolio. In this way they can make a sound investment but not have an open ended
commitment which is appealing to many peole and also a box of twenty to set aside for a child's future education now becomes a legacy which will
be remembered long after those years of education take place as the recipient will always remember who made that happen and how they did so. The
following is a list of key's or key dates we have identified for you to use as a template for yours or someone else's numismatic future.
Next we'll discuss not the keys but what are the "most" undervalued coins in each series!
Almost every United States coinage series
has certain dates that are difficult to obtain for one reason
or another. Some dates have very low mintages. Coins of
these dates are key coins that are fundamentally rare. That
is, they are rare in all conditions because only a limited
number was struck. Other coins are rare in uncirculated
or higher uncirculated grades. These coins are called condition
rarities and are often key coins as well. Then there are
some coins that are available in all conditions, but since
the series is so popular, the more scarce dates become key
coins even though in absolute numbers they are not rare.
Finally, some coins are actually mint errors that become
rare because of collector demand. This category includes
doubled dies and repunched dates and mintmarks.
Some examples can be illustrative. The 1794
Silver Dollar had a mintage of 1,758. No matter how many
millions of collectors there are in the world, only that
number of collectors can obtain an example of this coin.
In fact the actual number is much less because this is only
a mintage number and does not account for the actual survival
rate for this issue. In addition many examples are impounded
in museums and national collections making them unobtainable
by the general public, even for a price. Certainly the 1794
dollar is a key date coin. Continuing with dollars, an 1872-S
Seated Liberty dollar can be obtained in circulated condition
for three to five hundred dollars. In mint state 65 it lists
for $131,250, clearly a condition rarity and a key coin
in higher mint state grades. The High Relief, Roman Numeral
Double Eagles of 1907 had a mintage of 12,367, not a tiny
mintage by any means. Yet because of the number of collectors
who desire an example, the coin is always in demand in all
conditions and especially in mint state. Finally, there
are thousands of different doubled dies in many series,
but there is none more famous than the Lincoln 1955 Doubled
Die Obverse coin. This coin has become a key date although
many other doubled dies, repunched dates and mintmarks go
unnoticed except by specialists.
The following list of key date coins does
not include proofs unless they are “proof only”
for the date. For example, the 1895 Morgan Dollar is a “proof
only” coin since no business strikes were released
for that year. Collectors would have to obtain a proof coin
to have a complete date set that included 1895.
Half Cent 1793, 1796 With Pole, 1796 No
Pole, 1797 Gripped Edge, 1802/0 Reverse of 1800, 1805 Small
5 Stems,1808/7, 1811 Close Date
Large Cent 1793 all types, 1794 Starred
Reverse, 1795 Jefferson Head Plain Edge, 1796 LIHERTY, 1803
Large Date Small Fraction, 1804, 1807/6 Small 7, 1823,
Flying Eagle Cent 1856
Indian Head Cent 1877,
1888/7
Lincoln Cent 1909-S VDB,
1914-D, 1922-D Missing D Strong Reverse, 1955 Doubled Die
Obverse
Two-Cent Pieces 1864 Small
Motto, 1867 Doubled Die Obverse
Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle 1907 High Relief
Roman Numerals Wire Rim, 1907 High Relief Roman Numerals,
Flat Rim, 1920-S, 1921, 1927-D, 1927-S, 1930-S, 1931, 1931-D,
1932
Early Commemoratives 1900 Lafayette Dollar,
1904 Lewis & Clark Dollar, 1905 Lewis & Clark Dollar,
1915-S Panama-Pacific Quarter Eagle, 1915-S Panama-Pacific
Fifty Dollars Round, 1915-S Panama-Pacific Fifty Dollars
Octagonal, 1922 Grant Half Dollar Star, 1928 Hawaii Half
Dollar.
We are in a unique position of having specialized in better material like this for
several decades. When everybody was pushing generic morgan dollars in MS-65 at a thousand bucks a pop, I was recommending Early US Gold coins.
We all know how that worked out and if you don't give us an email or call and we'll fill you in. Let us help you build a collection of real
value that is meaningful to you, your Family and possibly your Heirs. We have helped collectors and investors in all walks of life, from a
single rarity to become their one and only, to complete collections of early US Gold and Silver Dollars valued at millions of dollars and
everything in between. Everyone is different and unique. Let us help you build something that will last for decades into the future.
Don't hesitate to share your Want List items - we are adept at filling them, and we're discreet.
We wish you and your family continued health & prosperity.
Tom Pilitowski, US Rare Coin Investments
is a Rare Coin Dealer, Gold Coin Dealer specializing
in Rare Coins, Gold Coins and Silver Coins since 1979.
Tom Pilitowski has been involved in coin collecting
since childhood. There are virtually no areas of American
numismatics that Mr. Pilitowski has not explored,
or has had experience in and over the years, Mr. Pilitowski
has been successful in not only surrounding himself
in the most astute and influential circles of coin
traders, numismatists, collectors and investors but
became one, who is looked upon by some of the most
astute buyers as a source of knowledge, information
and inventory acquisitions.
P.S. Remember, we are a small company with specialties, some of which were considered highly
esoteric decades ago
when I started studying and doing business we have honed over decades, who cherry picks millions of dollars in rare
coins to offer you. Some of these very same numismatic specimens are today worth many times what they once were when
only a few of us were as deeply involved with them as I was and still am decades later I promise you confidential,
personalized and expert representation of the highest integrity. Buy and sell with confidence.
