The prices of Caesar portrait seem to be all over the board. ??
Oddly, because they are very common coins (really, they are, just begin to count them, you won't finish because there are hundreds online at any one moment),
Caesar portrait coins are some of the most consistently priced coins that exist. Of course the prices move with the market, but the ratio between condition and prices for a
Caesar portrait is more or less what I'd expect for any other common
Republican coin, except the actual prices are times-ten. For example, if (hypothetically) a nice EF costs $5k, a nice VF would costs $2k, a nice F costs $700 and a G-VG costs $300 in that market. That's pretty consistent. There are few
rare varieties, and coins that are off these
price levels are generally so because they are well centred or badly corroded or whatever, or because your grading experience is such that you mistake a VF for an EF or vica-versa.
In the last five years I hardly recall seeing any
Caesar portraits under-priced relative to these norms (a few get over-priced but then they never sell). It's as close to a gold-standard in coin pricing as you can get.
Superb coins, GEF or
FDC, of course can go off the
scale, but that's beyond the normal market. The reason I know this is because I'm always in the market to buy a
GVF Caesar portrait for the
price of an NVF: slip ups in grading and pricing do occur, but not often. I buy about one
per year.
The coin that started this discussion just recently sold for nearly 2.5 times what I paid for mine just a few weeks ago. It is a nicer coin in terms of strike, but 2.5 times nicer?
"nicer" is subjective. If it's the difference between near-VF and good-VF then 2.5 times might indeed be the correct ratio, or at least not far off. A small difference in condition often makes a big difference in
price. This is my most recent
Caesar portrait acquisition: It's almost as nice as one currently on sale for twice the
price (which doesn't have the flat areas), but that's my point. It isn't as nice so it's worth half. That's normal pricing, not erratic.
