Scarcity of Graded Copper Coins in 1945 compared to Silver !!

[geejay50 10]

Relative Scarcity of Copper Coins in Graded Form compared to Silver for 1945

It has come to my attention that there are critically few graded Copper coins compared to Silver in this year despite mintages that are often 10 fold bigger for Copper.

If one takes the Halfpenny for example, mintage is 2 356 955 yet only 21 coins of all colours have been graded (12BN,8 RB and 1 RD)

Taking the Halfcrown, where only 183 406 or 12 times less were made, 40 coins or nearly twice as many coins have been graded.

Similar is true for the other Silver members.

I suppose Copper is not as intrinsically valuable as Silver is and often not as attractive, but if one wants to have a complete date set of graded coins with more than one colour in the Copper, one will have to be very lucky, find a hoard or pay a lot in the future.

It may be true that there are a whole pile of copper coins waiting to be graded but this seems less likely as the years wear on.

This relative Copper - Silver disparity seems to be true for the other George VI years as well. What do you think?

Geejay

[jwither 17]

I do not believe most of the copper/bronze KGVI are scarce at all, even in MS. A few yes, but mostly no. I have sold a 1945 NGC MS-64 RD 1D and NGC MS-64 RB 1/4D this year.

 

Dates like the 1939, 1944 and 1947 1D I believe are quite scarce (the latter less so) though even for these I have seen a decent number of higher grade though problem coins. And yes, I consider the 1945 1/4D reasonably scarce also. I currently own both the 1939 and 1944 1D in MS-64 RB.

 

Probably, most of these dates are also "color" scarce or rare, though I believe some dates are probably more common than is apparent at the current time. There are not that many RD MS listed in the census, yet I have owned quite a few myself, 11 in total at one time or another including these coins:

 

Pennies - 1937 MS-65, 1938 MS-65, 1940 MS-63, 1945 MS-64, 1947 MS-66, 1948 MS-63 and 1950 MS-64 (2). Half Penny - 1947 MS-65 and 1948 MS-64. Farthing 1947 MS-66.

 

I have also bought or seen small hoards of these coins in public auctions outside of South Africa several times, including about a dozen MS of the 1940 1D which I sold this year. I believe there are many more of these small hoards out there for some or even most of the dates.

 

The primary reason why the census counts for these coins are not larger versus the silver are likely the same as I have stated before. First, the coins are worth less or at least, most collectors believe them to be worth less even if they are not. And second, coins such as those I bought were from the UK where most collectors do not like graded coins.

 

The other thing i would add is that I do not consider all three colors (BN, RB and RD) necessary for a complete set and have no idea why anyone else does either. It must be a particular SA preference because I am not aware of any other country that has it and this absolutely includes the United States.

Edited December 16, 2010 by jwither

[ALJADA 10]

Hi, If anyone thinks that the pre 1950 half pennies are going to be freely available in uncirculated grades in the near future and beyond, on the basis of the high mintages that were struck, THINK AGAIN! Everyone knows that huge amounts of union silver coinage were officially smelted in the sixties but how many out there know that just over 75% of the half penny total mintage was also officially smelted at the same time?? Well its a fact. So when you consider that of the approximate 61,000,000 half pennies minted from 1923 to 1960 only around 15,000,000 remained in 1968, I think one would reconsider any half penny collecting strategy formulated prior to knowing this information.

 

Cheers

Alex

[Veto111 10]

75% of the half pennies. What about pennies and farthings? Please share. I can't wait for your site to come up.

 

Regards

Veto111