By Jeff Starck for COIN WORLD

Trying to explain what sight-seen and sight-unseen bidding are is at once easy and confusing.

The market for sight-unseen coins is predominantly for “generic” gold coins, like this 1926 Saint-Gaudens gold $20 double eagle coin and other coins with large populations, several experts told Coin World.

There is little market for sight-unseen trading of certain collector coins, like the 1916-D Winged Liberty Head dime, one expert said.

“Sight-seen” and “sight-unseen” bidding are terms describing ways that dealers can buy and sell coins through dealer-to-dealer networks. But, it turns out, it’s much more complicated than that.

At the basic level, someone buying a coin “sight seen” has the option, once they’ve seen the coin, to buy it at a price already established between buyer and seller for a coin from a specific grading service and in a specific grade, or they can reject the purchase.

Buyers engaging in “sight-unseen” purchases may submit their bid for coins they wish to purchase, again for pieces certified by a third-party grading service, but without seeing the coins before agreeing to the deal.

The ability to pick-and-choose coins under the sight-seen method generally means those coins receive higher prices.

Technology changes market

As technology has evolved, the means and methods by which dealers trade coins has changed. In the 1960s, dealers used teletypewriter systems that transmitted their bid and sell messages to other dealers on the network.

Read Full CoinWorld Article Here

By Mike Thorne, Coins Magazine

In Helpful Hints for Enjoying Coin Collecting, Bill Fivaz defines “cherrypick” as follows: “to purchase a coin with a variety on it (unbeknownst to the seller) for the normal price of the coin. The variety usually makes it more collectable or valuable. This term may also apply to purchasing an undergraded coin at the lower price.”

This is something we all want to do, right? Whether we’re buying a new car, groceries at a neighborhood store, or coins at a coin show, we all want to get a bargain. Nobody wants to pay full retail price for anything anymore.

So how is this possible in the case of rare coins? How can you buy desirable coins for bargain prices? The answer, in a word, is knowledge. In order to be able to spot a coin that’s under appreciated and thus underpriced, you need to know more about it (its unrecognized variety, its true grade) than the seller.

Unfortunately, I know of no courses you can take to acquire this knowledge, and you’re unlikely to find someone who will mentor you in this area. Painful as it may sound to those of you who didn’t (or don’t) like studying and homework, that’s what it’s going to take for you to gain the knowledge you need to cherrypick successfully. For openers, you’re going to have to acquire a numismatic library and read and study it diligently.

But what books should be in your library in order for you to learn to cherrypick? Obviously, I need to be much more specific.

To begin, I would advise you to buy copies of each of the major grading guides. These would include the The Official American Numismatic Association Grading Standards for United States Coins, (6th edition), New Photograde, and Official Guide to Coin Grading and Counterfeit Detection (2nd edition). Of course, it should go without saying that you need to study each of these books thoroughly, paying particular attention to the coin series in which you’re most interested.

Read Full Numismaster Article Here

In conjunction with the appearance of his legendary Red Copper Collection in the PCGS booth at the upcoming ANA convention in Baltimore, Stewart Blay was kind enough to spend a few minutes in conversation with PCGS founder David Hall. David is certainly a man who knows just what questions to ask Stewart about his amazing collection and coin collecting in general. (See PCGS Article Here)

Sponsored by the PCGS Set RegistrySM, the entertaining yet informative video will be featured at the PCGS Booth (#1245). For those who are unable to attend the ANA convention, it is now available to view.

Click on the screen below to start Video.

By Jeff Starck for Coin World

Collectors interested in United States copper large cents, issued from 1793 through 1857, have numerous ways to collect coins representing each of the six types that constitute the production.

Some coin rarities aren’t as rare as many collectors may have been led to believe.

An 1804 silver dollar is but one coin that collectors of most means should be able to afford.

Skeptics may arise, but bear with us. Collectors desiring a real, historical 1804 silver dollar struck in the Americas, and not one of the myriad copies, can find them at relatively affordable rates.

The same can be said for the elusive 1943 copper cent struck by the U.S. Mint.

Much like a politician’s linguistic two-step, our wording is the key to this particular riddle: if you look slightly south, to Mexico, you can collect a silver dollar, of absolute North American origin, struck in 1804.

As for 1943 copper cents struck by the U.S. Mint, among the many world coins struck at the U.S. Mint in 1943 are cent (or centavo) coins, from five different countries ranging from Cuba to Surinam (Netherlands Guiana).

Read Full CoinWorld Article

By Paul Gilkes for COIN WORLD

In 1949, Dr. William H. Sheldon introduced the numismatic term “condition census” in his book Early American Cents, later renamed Penny Whimsy.

Condition census, according to Sheldon, denoted the finest example and average condition of the next five finest known of a given variety of large cents dated from 1793 through 1814.

Catalogers have gradually extended the use of condition census to other U.S. coin series. According to numismatic writer Q. David Bowers, the term has been used indiscriminately, sometimes to describe any coin that was in a particularly high grade category for its variety, regardless of how many others might share that category.

Growing from the condition census concept are the set registries for certified coins initiated by Professional Coin Grading Service and Numismatic Guaranty Corp. at the end of the 20th century.

The set registry concept was the brainchild of PCGS co-founder David Hall, currently the president of Collectors Universe, PCGS’s parent company. It began when Hall published in 1998 a printed booklet providing lists of the finest PCGS-certified coin collections and almost complete collections by denomination.

BJ Searls, the PCGS Set Registry manager, launched the registry online in February 2001. NGC followed suit in August 2001 with the NGC Registry.

Read Full CoinWorld Article Here