Low Ball Sets Within the PCGS Set Registry

Th e 1839/8 Type of 1838 Liberty Eagle, PCGS MS66 – “Th e Finest Known.” Courtesy of PCGS TrueView.

this incredible auction. Th e team of catalogers all expressed amazement when this coin arrived in our offi ces. It simply shouldn’t exist, not in this stellar grade.

Examine the surfaces, the strike, the radiant luster, and any collector or dealer will agree that this piece is stunning. It is, of course, the fi nest and only example of this date graded this high by PCGS [...] Th e cataloger recalls discussing the secondfi nest example of this issue when it was sold in the Rasmussen Collection by Superior Stamp & Coin in February of 1998. At that time the present coin was not publicized and that raw MS65 coin they off ered was assumed to be the fi nest known of the date and two-year type.

Nearly a year later, the present coin popped up out of the fabric of numismatics, and quickly assumed its rightful place on the highest thrown [sic] awarded by PCGS [...] of this type, a coveted and well deserved MS66. While there is always the possibility of a fi ner example than the present specimen, it would seem quite remote and virtually impossible for such a coin to have remained hidden from numismatic discovery.” Are There Other Treasures Hiding Out There, Even in Plain Sight?

As illustrated here, rare and important coins have turned up long after they were minted. Some 125 years passed before the King of Siam presentation set was discovered by numismatists. Th e Lord St. Oswald coins came to light after nearly a century and three-quarters. Jim Swan’s 1796 No Stars Quarter Eagle, the second-fi nest known, was brought to light two centuries after it was minted. Harry Bass “re-discovered” a second die variety for the 1796 No Stars Quarter Eagle 58 years after Edgar Adams noted it, which was more than a century after the coin issue was struck. A new die marriage was discovered for the 1795 Half Dollar two and a quarter centuries after the coin was struck; and it took well over a century and a half for the fi nest-known 1839/8 type of 1838 $10 gold coin to make its presence known to the numismatic world.

Based on these few examples, and there are many more, the likelihood of more numismatic treasures turning up in the future is high. Finding such a treasure will involve luck, but if you want to embark on such a treasure hunt, studying die varieties and examining thousands of coins at shows and auctions will exponentially boost your chances of getting lucky!

Mark Ferguson began buying and selling coins in 1969. He graded coins for PCGS between 1986 and 1990 and currently serves as the company's senior price guide consultant. He’s a numismatic researcher, writer, appraiser, and advisor, and he authored Th e Dollar of 1804: Th e U.S. Mint’s Hidden Secret.

P C G S S E T R E G I S T R Y Low Ball Sets Within The PCGS Set Registr y

By Sanjay Gandhi

1890 Morgan Dollar, PCGS PO01. Image courtesy of PCGS.

1842 $5 Liberty Head Gold, PCGS AG03. Image courtesy of PCGS.

Th e PCGS Set Registry went online in 2001 with a variety of sets involving some of the fi nest coins around in the highest grade known. However, in the years since, another aspect of collecting has gained steam on the Set Registry: low ball sets. Low ball coins have been referred to as a “slick,” or “slicks,” “culls,” “pocket pieces,” etc., and all of these terms essentially are describing coins with smooth surfaces devoid of most visible design details. In low ball collecting, the less you can see of the coin, the better off you are in terms of winning an award within the Set Registry. Th e fi rst low ball sets hit the PCGS Set Registry on September 13, 2007, and included three low ball sets. For those of you who are not familiar with these types of sets, the lowest-graded examples of coins are sought to create sets with the lowest overall grade-point average. In the scope of a low ball set, the “fi nest” grade a member may score PO01 or Poor-1, which is defi ned by PCGS Grading Standards as “identifi able as to the type, date, and mintmark.” Th en we can go up the grading scale to the next grade being an FR02 or Fair-2, AG-3 or About Good-3, and so on. A look at the U.S. Coin Forum on PCGS.com shows that one of the most controversial comments was this one: “Buying lowball [sic] coins are [sic] a mistake. Th ey seem to be a hyped collectible that was promoted in this forum. In a few years the