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To me, CAC populations help to quantify quality. By this, I mean that if 8 examples of a specific date of Liberty Head half eagle have been approved by CAC, we can assume that there are at least 8 above-average examples of this date with some degree of originality and eye appeal. A figure of “8” at PCGS is not as quantifiable when it comes to quality.
Read MoreThe powers that be at PCGS and NGC have never sat down and said “let’s deliberately ruin such and such issue by misattributing them or miscalculating them.” Unfortunately, this is exactly what they have done on a number of important U.S. gold coins. I have selected six. There are more, but these examples are egregious enough to merit discussion.
Read MoreAs collectors become more insistent on originality, they are quickly discovering that many 19th century issues are extremely hard to locate with a nice, natural appearance. Why is this?
Read MoreGary was a world-class expert on early type and knew more about early silver dollars then just about anyone else in the coin business. Our numismatic paths didn’t cross all that often but when they did, I found Gary to be fair and honest. In my dealings with collectors, Gary’s name would come up from time to time and I never heard anything bad attached to him. When someone told me they were a “Gary Carlson customer” I knew that their coins were nice and that they were being treated fairly.
Read MoreA total of 17 half eagles were produced at the New Orleans mint between 1840 and 1909. Focusing on the No Motto Liberty Head issues (struck between 1840 and 1857) there are at least five issues which I would call “rare” (i.e., fewer than 100 examples known in all grades). These are the 1842-O, 1847-O, 1855-O, 1856-O, and 1857-O. Of these five, which is the rarest in terms of overall rarity and which is the rarest in high grades?
Read MoreThe dilemma that I speak of is this: given an average budget of around $5,000 per coin, is it advisable to buy a common date in the best affordable grade, or a scarcer date at the same price point? A quick caveat: this dilemma does not exist, of course, for certain issues like Type Two dollars as coins like the 1855-O are one-year issues with no ability to select from a variety of dates.
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