Wondercoins' Top 100 Modern Coins Set

关于此套币: A while back, I had an idea for a neat registry set for PCGS; a top 100 modern coin collection. I presented my idea to Jaime Hernandez, the Price Guide editor at PCGS and a modern coin expert. He told me he had also been thinking about such a set and the two of us got to work on developing a proposed listing for what 100 modern coins should be included in the collection. We spent probably a few hundred hours working together on researching and formulating the (100) set coins and once we finally reached an agreement on all (100) coins, we presented our work to the top "Coinfacts" editors and contributors at the time (David Hall and Ron Guth). David and Ron spent another six+ months fine tuning our work and only about a handful or so of our (100) proposed coins never made it into the inaugural (100) coins you see here. In the future, I plan on writing some articles concerning the (100) top modern coins. There are so many great modern coins dated 1964-date that this set could have easily been the top (200) modern coins and the additional coins would have been highly collectible and prized pieces. Who knows, maybe one day there will be such a set as the specialized area of modern coin collecting expands and the post-1963 era marches on. Just a quick personal comment on three of the coins in the "top 5". First, with respect to the 1964-D Peace Dollar, since it is (likely) illegal to own I would not have included it in the registry set, but would have created an "honorable mentions" listing outside of the required coins for the set. The same is true for the 1974 Aluminum Cent which is also quite possibly illegal to own. And, with respect to the dozen 22kt Sacagawea Dollars that logged about 2 million miles in space, what an honor it was for “my team” to inspect all (7) coins, side by side, that were released for sale by our government and then purchase direct from the Stacks (government) auction the BEST quality example of the (7) coins! Make no mistake about it, the difference in quality between the finest of the (7) coins (in the same grade) and the weakest quality specimen are light years apart!

Good luck everyone in building this wonderful registry set!

Do you have a coin that could help my set and that is solid for the grade? Please let me know.

UPDATE (1/29/13) -I had a chance to meet with David Hall today and discuss this Registry Set. He essentially agreed that coin ##1 & 3 deserve "honorable mention", but should not be included in this registry set (and should be replaced with two new coins).

FAST FORWARD TO TODAY: Of course, those adjustments back in 2013 never happened. Years later, the powers that be at PCGS decided to go in a completely different direction and create a “Top 100 Light” (my words) version of this registry set so that many more collectors might be enticed to collect this series. The greatest and most valuable modern coins were left out of the new set so the masses would not have empty slots in the registry they (likely) could never fill. While I was not a fan of this direction to take the Top 100 Modern set, it is what it is.

Way back when as the (4) of us (Hall, Guth, Hernandez and myself) voted on the placement of the 100 coins in this set, I recused myself from the voting on the UNIQUE “1976 No S Eisenhower Dollar” as I owned the coin. The “Ike” was placed above the 22 kt. Gold Sacs, but below the 1975 No S Dime. Yet, the Ike was given a Price Guide value at nearly double the dimes (and a higher Registry weight))! The decision back at the time to rank these great coins as they were ranked had many factors behind it. However, I do not believe true value was one such factor. Indeed, today, the Unique Ike (quite possibly the only Ty 2 Proof Silver Dollar struck for the 200th Anniversary of our country is (IMHO) a solid “seven figure” coin. While the 1975 No S Dime (the finest example of which I bought at public auction and then sold to a great Roosevelt Dime collector at a World record price) might become a ‘seven figure coin” one day, as well as the 22 kt. Gold Dollars, the Ike was the very first “modern US coin” (IMHO) to achieve “seven figure” status. Should the Top 100 Modern set ever get a “second edition” version, I believe the top (3) coins should be the Ike, Gold Sacs and dimes in that order. These (3) coins are the “holy grail” of US Modern coin collecting at this time (09-14-25).

Note: (IMHO) -The (3) “Frosted Freedoms” are mistakenly over-weighted in this set, especially the $25 coin which as I recall I passed on at least 2x already at public auction for well under “six figures”. The weights of these (3) FF coins are nowhere near the weights of the (3) “Holy Grail” coins (IMHO).