The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-04-06
wiry little carriers and its brave riders, was far more humanly picturesque.-- Outing.
VALUE OF OLD COINS.
The Things Which Make Collectors Pay
 Big Prices for Them.

The Things Which Make Collectors Pay
 Big Prices for Them
 While the knowledge is fairly gene
 raI that many old coins command high
 premiums. said a coin dealer the other
 day, 'sstill there are very few who un-
 derstand why certain coins are worth
 more than others. The great majority
 of people wrongly depend upon it's age,
 the result being that every coin coming
 into their possession more than fifty
 years old is carefully laid for some fu
 ture time when there may be a demand
 for it. The principal reason for a large
 premium on coin is it's scarcity. The date has nothing whatever to do with it. There are plenty of Roman coins
 thousands of years old, in good condi-
 tion, which can be bought for twenty five cents, while a New Jersey cent is sued in the latter part of the Revolution
 will bring seven hundred dollars. It is
 due to the fact that there are only eight
 1894 dollars in existence that those coins
 are worth from twelve hundred dollars
 up to any figure one chooses to pay for them.
 The next thing in importance to the issue of coin is it's condition. And upon this really rests the value of the coin. The average collector has very little use in his collection for worn or mutilated coin, na matter how scarce it may be. Here for instance, is a 1793 dollar, badly worn, which will bring hardly anything, while one in good con- dition is worth fully three hundred dol- lars. There are, of course, other req sons for the increased value of a coin, and one of these is illustrated by the experience of a wealthy Massachusetts coin collector This collector, impatient to finish his collection of territorial gold coins--fhat is, coins made by mining companies and private firms in the west during the years immediately following the gold discovery in California-adver- tised for the coins he needed to com- plete his set. Of these gold coins there are nearly two hundred pieces, ranging in face value from two and a half up to fifty dollars. Of this number he had all ready obtained about one hundred and sixty, and needed about forty more to complete the series.
 As soon as the dealers and those holding these coins learned that there was somebody anxious to get thenl the prices went up with wonderful rapidity. Any one of the coins before the adver- tisement was published could have been bought under one hundred dollars. But | the premium soon went over this figure and increased until as much as two hundred and fifty dollars was demand ed for a single coin. The collector bought them as they were offered, how ever, notwithstanding the increased fig 1 ure at which they were placed. Finally a coin dealer in the city secured one coin for seventy five dollars, and anoth- | CT for two hundred and fifty dollars, | which were especially sought by the collector and then advertised their sale at auction. The advertisement attract ! ed the attention of the collector, who was promptly on hand on the day of the | sale.
 l When the coins were offered the bid- | ding was spirited, and the coins were lfnally knocked down to a youngish- ! looking man, whose appearance indica- ted limited means. for five hundred dol lars apiece. Promptly paying cash for his coins, the young man at once left the auction room. He soon afterward was followed by the coin collector, and the supposition is that the collector finally secured the coins from the young man. The whole affair had much the appearance of the fictitious bidding that takes place at the auction sales around town, where, by collision between the auctioneer and a paid bidder, the price of an article is bid up until it reaches a satisfactory figure. As five hundred dollars was the last price paid for these two coins, that figure will now stand as 1 the listed premium ''-New York Times CA S TT Q R IA = i. I'm Xind Vnu u,un hluouo Dn,,bS