Would you spend over $1000 for a rare coin? [View All]

[Droopy]

There is a coin for sale on the Heritage Auctions site that I'm interested in. The minimum bid is currently $1050. It actually hasn't had anyone bid on it yet and the auction ends Sunday at 10pm. If it goes for $1050 it will be a good deal. Heritage charges a 15% buyer's premium. With that tacked on it would bring the price of the coin to just over $1200. Over the last 3 years, coins in similar condition have sold for anywhere from $1265 to $1840 on the Heritage site. That includes the buyer's premium. Here's a link to the auction site and a description of the coin. The coin has been professionally graded and they have a picture of it up where you can zoom in on it and get a good look at it. Here's a link to the coin:

http://coins.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=69022&Lot_No=62053

The coin is what's called a three cent silver. I would like to collect those, and if I could comfortably afford it, I would be bidding on that coin. As it stands, I'm going to have to let it go.

Three cent silvers are slightly smaller than our modern day dimes. The three cent silver was introduced into circulation in 1851 I do believe. They minted the coin for circulation until 1872. They also minted a small proof quantity in 1873, I assume for collectors, and that is the last of the mintages for the three cent silver. The curious denomination was created due to postal rates of the time. The U.S. post office lowered their postage rate for a first class letter to three cents and people thought that was kind of a pain because of the amount of change that created when paying with larger denominations. The half penny was still in circulation at the time.

I would like to collect a specimen from every year the coin was minted in "about uncirculated" condition or better. Coins are graded on a 70 point scale, 1 being the worst and 70 being perfect. "About uncirculated" condition means the coin has a grade of 50 to 59. It looks like it's going to have to wait, though. This is going to be a big investment if I decide to get into it.