As a professional numismatist I realize that a basic precept of business success is that I must give my customers what they want. This thinking is sound, and doubtless most successful businessmen in any field become that way by responding to the desires of those who trade with them. So it is with rare coins. Collecting and investing trends change, markets and conditions change, and clients' requests change. Customers of the 1990s seek different things from what buyers of the 1970s and 1980s wanted.
Beyond the Grade of a Coin
What is connoisseurship? The term has never been used in numismatics to my knowledge, except in a few of my articles, although it is heard often enough in fine art circles. John Marion, president of Sotheby's, refers to it often in connection with collecting art, and I suspect that in the halls of the fine art auction house of Christie's the term is popular as well.
Connoisseurship in numismatics, to my way of thinking, is appreciating fully the ownership of coins. Anyone owning a coin wants to know its grade. But there is so much more to coins and coin ownership than simply knowing if a piece is Mint State-65, or About Uncirculated-50, or Extremely Fine-40 - or, for that matter, Good-4.
Would anyone want to own a coin in G-4 grade? Yes! A connoisseur interested in collecting Vermont copper coins minted under authority of that state and bearing dates from 1785 to 1788 would consider G-4, nearly worn smooth and on the verge of indecipherability, to be a very desirable grade for the 1785-dated variety catalogued as Ryder-5, for few higher grade pieces exist among a total population of fewer than 10 coins.
Of course, among later coins such as Morgan silver dollars, G-4 would not be an acceptable grade, and the discriminating buyer would want a specimen in MS-63, MS-64 or some other Mint State category. But for early colonial and state coins, half cents, large cents, and other series, some varieties are not known in Mint State or even close to it. One of the most famous of all American coin rarities, the 1793 Strawberry Leaf large cent, is known only in well-worn grades. In 1992, one of these was offered for sale for a price close to $200,000.
Anyone owning a coin also wants to know its market price. But there is so much more to coins and coin ownership than simply knowing if a piece is priced at $225,000, $6,000, or $575 - or, for that matter, $10.
