AHS "masterpiece of american coinage"
 

I bought the AHS "masterpiece of american coinage" set for like 5 bucks s/h included. This is a nice plastic box about 4x6 with a 5 hole coinholder in it with a decent graphic printed on it of an eagle and flag.

The coins are a buffalo nickel, a mercury dime, a silver standing liberty quarter, a silver walking liberty half, and a bicentennial quarter. All are silver except the bicentennial quarter I believe, not sure about the nickel.

Anyhow, although it took them almost 2 months to get it to me, I am rather pleased with this quaint little box of coins. Certainly it would have been far more than a five dollar pain in the neck for me to get this together and I feel I could sell it easily for three times as much if I had to. I'm not sure what the FMV of these coins would be but almost certainly more than $5 total.

Now about the quality of the coins in my set. I am just learning grading but I can say that the buffalo nickel looks about G-4, worn rim flat detail, lettering almost full; the mercury dime is a '44 VF 30-35 or so-- detail complete but worn, high points flat; the '25 standing liberty quarter is FR-2 or maybe Ag-3- worn rims, detail readable but worn; the bientennial quarter is high AU; the '42 walking liberty half is about F-12 or so some deeply recessed areas with detail, all lettering sharp.

What do you think eh?

Re: AHS "masterpiece of american coinage"
 

I'm hit or miss on the bicential, I used to like it more than I do now. The rest are all top favorites of mine and the metal value alone is worth $7.49 even if the bicential isn't silver and I believe some were. Plus what the nickel is worth, if buffalos are the same alloy as modern nickels that's another 6.7 cents at current prices.

Re: AHS "masterpiece of american coinage"
 

yep I think the walking liberty half is worth $5 easy. Plus again, what a pain in the neck for me to assemble a cute little thing like this myself eh? It takes up a nice space in my coin stash.

Re: AHS "masterpiece of american coinage"
 

Re: AHS "masterpiece of american coinage"
 

Hey G Ag:

Re grading. Thanks for the book referral last week, I used the scale indictated therein.

It's not so hard using that scale, at least not for the crappy coins. I think it would be harder at the MS scale-- and far more consequential in terms of value.

At the not-so-good end of the spectrum, say below XF or for some coins AU, looking at most coin prices inj these coin mags, and at various vendors on the net, it seems to not matter so much whether it's one or two notches up or down-- the sales that get published are for the good ones only.

Look here's a nice set of pics showing diff grades for mercuries: http://www.acoin.com/grading.htm

Re: AHS "masterpiece of american coinage"
 

Apparently the bicenntenial came in clad like some Kennedy halves, not 90%. This might help you determine whether yours is silver clad.

http://www.lynncoins.com/pcgs-silver-bicenn.htm

Re: AHS "masterpiece of american coinage"
 

Hey, Anty Ep:

It takes years to be able to distinguish from one grade of ms to the next grade, i.e. ms63 to ms64. I can't do this yet, so I usually go with the lower grade. The best way I have learned is to buy the same coin (peace dollars) of different grades and compare.

The prices listed are usually for a range of grade f at X, vf at X, xf at X. . .etc. At your dealer you can haggle over price because of the grade. My dealer loves haggling, I think its part of the experience. :beer:

The Great Ag

Re: AHS "masterpiece of american coinage"
 

Knowing AHS it is almost certainly clad and not one of the special issues of 90%. They did not represent it as silver, which they did for the mercury, for example.