Bidding Frenzy!?

Recently GreatCollections had an auction featuring the Bellewood Collection of Lincoln Cents. The Christopher Collection had commented on the huge prices realized for some of the coins on the Coin Cabinet page. An ad in the May 17th Coin World though caught my attention.

The owner of the Bellewood Collection obviously had an eye for quality. I bid on the 1910 and 1910-S as well as several others but was blown out of the water. I did pick up three coins from this nerve-racking auction but they didn’t make the list above. The prices illustrated above are remarkable. 1910’s in MS67 CAC aren’t common but aren’t unheard of either. I paid half in 2017 for what the no CAC 1920-D went for and mine has a CAC sticker.

The Christopher Collection is fascinated by pricing anomalies like this. The excitement of so many great Lincolns available at one time may have led to a bit of a bidding frenzy. Perhaps some buyers were able to discern a difference between a great coin and a world class coin that escapes an amateur like me. Sometimes when an auction attracts Big Money (those who can pay $28k for a Lincoln penny) adding $2k to a bid is a trivial matter. Big Money probably doesn’t peruse the auction sites weekly like us plebeians and this was one stop shopping.

Ah, Big Money. We resent it when we lose a bid to it but cackle with glee when we imagine what coins in our collection might be worth on the right day.

$5,000 for a $10 Lincoln!?

At a recent GreatCollections auction see here a lowly 1954-D MS66 BN CAC went for over $5,000 when auction fees included. It seems the rainbow color craze that has come to dominate Morgan collectors has hit the Lincoln cent community.

Christopher Collection is more than curious to see where pricing goes for these colorful gems. Poor PCGS, how do they determine a proper price guide value when one MS66 sells for $10 and another for $5,000?

This Coin Doesn't Exist

(This post has been updated). I purchased this 1935-S San Diego Commemorative half dollar at auction recently.

When I went to add to my inventory PCGS said no coin with that registration number existed. I went to the CAC site and they confirmed it as a stickered coin. How long has it not existed? After all a first generation OGH coin was holdered decades ago.

I sent an email to PCGS even though the web site says to call. I did get a response and they wanted a picture of the reverse (I had sent only obverse). Not sure what they can glean from the reverse since it doesn’t have any information but I sent anyway.

UPDATE: Three months have come and gone. PCGS finally responded that they would reholder and give coin a new serial number. Given that the coin is a CAC OGH that isn’t an option. PCGS won’t say why that is their only solution. Ian Russell, president of GreatCollections emailed me offering to help in this matter. I had not mentioned GreatCollections here or on my post at PCGS so it shows a deep commitment to customer satisfaction that when he saw the post he looked the coin up.

RESOLUTION: Another individual contacted me from PCGS and asked me to keep him informed of the process. I explained I was dead in the water. I didn’t threaten to smear PCGS or go on social media blitz against them (not the Christopher Collection’s style). Anyway, on March 10th he sent me an email saying the matter was resolved. One visitor to this site suggested the coin might have been reported lost or stolen at one time which I had not thought of. Here is the coin https://www.pcgs.com/cert/05014986.

Bidding Madness!?

I am bidding at auction on a pop 3 none finer coin with a CAC sticker as this is being written. I doubt the coin will go for less than $4,000. Yet it took TWENTY bids for the coin to reach $100. I’ve written elsewhere about this phenomenon. I try to be respectful of the ways of other collectors but this is something I simply can’t get my head around.

Does this strategy succeed? Are people really buying $4k coins for $3? I guess it is possible. If you bid on 400 coins a week maybe you get lucky occasionally? I’ve noticed most serious bidders come into online auctions late in the game. Bidders 1-4, who bid shortly after the coin was posted, all dropped out when the price passed $100. Now that the coin is above $1,000 the bids are going up in $200-$400 increments. Eighteen bidders are tracking this coin.

I really would like to hear from someone who follows this low bid strategy. Does it really work given enough time and bids? It seems to me one option if pursuing this strategy would be monitoring coins that are closing shortly with few bids and few followers?

As the Kids Say - OMG

In a recent GreatCollections auction a 1946-S 67RD Lincoln went for $1,206. PCGS price guide for this coin is a whopping $185. Not a CAC, not even an OGH. A 1946-S 67+RD however goes for $3,000 (12 at that grade, none finer). Obviously hopes are high the coin upgrades to a plus designation. Perhaps it is an error coin?

Here is the coin.

Honestly I don’t love the coin. The beard and front jacket details are a little weak. The reverse has a distracting light stripe. I have to assume the coin upgraded though as the PCGS certificate number is no longer valid. If it failed to upgrade it would likely be in the same holder.

UPDATE: Coin sold as an MS67+ CAC at a GreatCollections auction on 9.15.19. However, coin only went for $1,025 at hammer while in a recent HA auction another CAC went for $2,640. So, as I say all CAC’s are not created equal.

Why did D.L. Hansen Sell this Coin?

In December 2017 I purchased a 1937-D MS67+ RD CAC Lincoln from a Stack's Bowers auction. Imagine my surprise when I went to register the coin and it was part of the all-time finest Lincoln registry set of D. L. Hansen, the King of PCGS registry sets. Mr. Hansen has hundreds of number one sets with many like his Lincoln set are all-time finest. PCGS has a piece on him in the current Market Report magazine.

D. L. Hansen registered his first set in the fall of 2016 and in less than two years has amassed, which most agree, is the finest complete high-grade collection of U.S. coins ever assembled ... 394 of his sets are ranked number one. PCGS Rare Coin Market Report September-October 2018

There are three coins finer so I assumed he had found a MS68. He, or more likely someone on his staff, never released the coin when prompted through the PCGS email notification service so I could add it to my set. What to do? How could I knock Mr. Hansen out of his number one all-time ranking by registering my coin? I kept expecting Stack's Bowers to contact me to say they had made a mistake. After two weeks I emailed PCGS and said I wanted to register the coin but please let Mr. Hansen know if he needs more time I could wait. I don't know if my offer was passed on but the next day my coin was registered and Mr. Hansen dropped to number two. He then switched his set to private so you couldn't view it. Sometime later he had added another 1937-D at the same grade (promptly going back to number 1) and made his set public again. I find all of this very odd.

Here is my coin.

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Here is the coin Mr. Hansen replaced it with.

Both are nice coins. Not sure you could say one better than the other. Early Lincolns age in beautiful tones and sometimes collectors favor one tone over another. With hundreds of registry sets to keep up with though it is hard to believe he would worry about a lowly 1937-D Lincoln. Would love to hear anyone's theories. My theory is a deal fell through for a MS68 and my coin was already consigned to auction. 

It’s Raining 1943-S MS68 CAC's!

Recently there has been three 1943-S MS68 CAC Lincolns for sale in the weekly GreatCollections auction. Prices have ranged from $3800 to $5400 with the price rising with each subsequent coin at auction. CAC has stickered 23 of these (versus only five for the 1943) so I guess not a statistical impossibility but GreatCollections has only offered four in its entire history. When that many "identical" coins sell for such widely different prices in a short time frame it shows that collectors are willing to stretch for a coin they find a real beauty - CAC sticker or not. This is a fascinating insight into how the coin market works. The Christopher Collection can't emphasize this enough - the way to maintain your collections value and enhance the collecting experience is by buying coins you love.

UPDATE: OMG as the kids say. GreatCollections just posted another one! Did someone horde these? Are they coming from the same seller?

The $5400 coin. You could use this as a mirror to shave with.

The $3800 coin - a solid example but not nearly as flashy.

No CAC Sticker for this Beauty?

Before I bid on this I contacted GreatCollections. To their credit they confirmed it was a failed CAC. I purchased this MS67+RD anyway and resubmitted the coin to CAC. Failed again. Even the guy I submit my coins to for CAC consideration was surprised at the result. Let us know your thoughts.

UPDATE: I posted the same query on the PCGS coin forum. Some were shocked it was graded above MS66RD, much less deserving of a CAC sticker. Some thought the tiny nick in the "E" on the reverse kept the coin from the sticker. I've always heard the obverse is the preponderance of the grade so don't know about that. One thought the coin was struck with rusted dies. Perhaps, there is some roughness in the fields. Some were upset I would care about a CAC sticker (a surprising number of collectors are against slabs and CAC - it makes you wonder why they hang out in the PCGS forums). One guy hoped the coin turned brown so I could see the folly in collecting Lincolns with the "RD" designation. Hmm, it's been over a hundred years and it still looks pretty shiny to me. Two out of three comments on forums are informative and intelligent, the rest are pure snark and venom (a lot of unhappy people in the world I guess). Shamelessly I only visit that forum (some good stuff there but also a lot of hating going on) so I can put a link to this site in my posts.

Great color, clean surfaces and an exceptionally strong strike for an early Lincoln. I love the coin regardless and won't worry about the CAC sticker.

UPDATE: Here is a 1916 67+RD CAC at a January 2020 auction. Is it a better coin than the Christopher Collection one shown above? At least the CC coin doesn’t have a nick on Lincoln’s cheek.

Why the Difference in Bidding Activity?

Riddle me this. Two coins, both 1943-S 67+ CAC. One got all of the love and sold for $125 more than another 67+ CAC coin that sold the prior week and for $147 more than the other 67+ CAC in the same auction.

Here is the one in demand. Lots of hairline scratches and some discoloration on the reverse.

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The ignored stepbrother. 12 bids versus 27 bids for the first coin. First coin also had extra pictures so obviously GreatCollections saw something special in it. Why? Let us know your thoughts.