Does anyone have one in decent condition I could beg, steal, borrow or exchange? Prices in the US are just unrealistic, I'm hoping someone in the Auld Country can put their hands on one.
You can have my first born or one of my wife's kidneys for an UNC specimen.
Non illegitimis carborundum est. Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!
Quote: pnightingaleDoes anyone have one in decent condition I could beg, steal, borrow or exchange? Prices in the US are just unrealistic, I'm hoping someone in the Auld Country can put their hands on one.
You can have my first born or one of my wife's kidneys for an UNC specimen.
Cheers Matt. I've bookmarked the site for future reference, he has several other coins of interest.
I took an unscheduled nap yesterday and missed the PCGS MS64 1951 penny I've been stalking on eBay. It went for $54, I was really disappointed as you normally can't find rare UK coins in the US at a reasonable price.
Quote: pnightingaleCheers Matt. I've bookmarked the site for future reference, he has several other coins of interest.
He's not the cheapest dealer in the country, but has a good reputation for honesty, advertises in Coin News regularly, and is based about a mile from where I live (but that's pure coincidence).
I have never dealt with him, as he only deals in quality material which is out of my price range.
Only 20,000 were minted. I shouldn't say they were that common. As for value, that's a subjective matter of what some one is prepared to pay. Me, I'm not interested so I shouldn't pay more than £5, but someone else may be very anxious to own this coin and prepared to pay a lot more. Each to their own. But then I am not a dealer (and I have noticed there are a LOT of dealers on Numista preying on the gullible).
Only 20,000 were minted. I shouldn't say they were that common. As for value, that's a subjective matter of what some one is prepared to pay. Me, I'm not interested so I shouldn't pay more than £5, but someone else may be very anxious to own this coin and prepared to pay a lot more. Each to their own. But then I am not a dealer (and I have noticed there are a LOT of dealers on Numista preying on the gullible).
MattThe mintage is 120,000, no? You are quite right in what you say about value.
I've seen the mintage published as 20,000 in several catalogues, I think it due to confusion with the figures for proofs. Scotty has it right at 120,000. Numista record for the 1951 penny doesn't include the business strike.
Interesting link BTW, what the author is saying pretty much mirrors my own experience. A perfect example is the V series US 5 cents. Due in part to the composition and heavy circulation (they were introduced to fill a demand) they are hard to find in collectable grades. You can pick up bucketloads on eBay for 75 cents or so in grades up to VG but a F+ specimen is going to cost you around $10. The exception is the original 1883 "no cents" issue. As it didn't have a denomination it was gold plated and passed off as a $5 gold coin - the "racketeer nickel". I'm not sure if it is urban myth or not but a man named Tatum was charged with counterfeiting but cleared because he didn't claim the coin was genuine, just pocketed the $4.95 cents change from the unsuspecting store owner. As a result of the notoriety the coin was kept in large numbers as a curio hence an uncirculated 1883 "no cents" can be picked up for less than the cost of a F grade 20th century issue.
Back to the 1951 penny - I've followed two this week on eBay, one I missed, the other was subject to a last minute bidding frenzy. Average price here is usually over $100 for a good specimen, even EF coins go for around $75. Yet a 1950 penny (mintage 240,000) can be picked up for a few dollars.
I'm thinking that the precious metals craze of recent years is behind the unrealistic prices. These are being bought up by speculators / investors who have been drawn towards coins, rather than collectors. They are armed with a list of rare coins, the 1951 makes the cut, the 1950 doesn't, thus the huge disparity in prices.
It sucks but what can you do?
Well, as MP said, you can opt out of the game and refuse to pay the prices being asked. At some point the speculators will decide it's time to offload their "portfolios" and the only buyers in the game will then be coin collectors. The speculators will take a big hit and coin prices will be depressed for a generation. It happened after the boom and bust of the 1970's / 1980's - it's bad for the hobby but if you can keep your head while all about you etc. etc.
Non illegitimis carborundum est. Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!
Here's the eBay listing. It's listed as AU which looks optomistic judging from the pictures but it's still a steal. If all goes well I may be buying a few more coins from him. He has a nice inventory at decent prices and all with a buy it now option.
Sorry Scotty, I was looking at the Numista data, which only lists the 1951 proof mintings, and doesn't list the general circulation edition of the 1951 penny.
You can understand my mistake within the confusion of data supplied.
I have now asked the Numista team to add the 1951 general circulation mintage year to the year list for this penny.
Good lord if I saw this post earlier, I have handfuls of the things, all Mint uncirculated - As I live in Bermuda I have good access to hordes of 1950 and 1951 pennies lol. I give them away for free lol (yes 1950 and 1951 and not just junk ones)
