Market Movers & Shakers

At PCGS, we often highlight some of the modern coin market’s top performers based on the PCGS Price Guide changes. In this installment, we highlighted 10 of the top movers and shakers in the coin market from the past three months.

As we’re moving through the second quarter of the year, the modern coin market continues thriving. Many coins keep realizing healthy prices at auction or are selling privately for strong sums of money. Take, for example, the 1969-S Doubled Die Lincoln Cent in PCGS MS66RD that sold for an astonishing $601,875 at a GreatCollections Auction on January 22, 2023. The specimen previously belonged to the late Stewart Blay, and his coins brought record prices – sometimes shattering previous price records – proving that the modern coin market is still very strong.

The first coin on the list is a 2007 Missing Edge Lettering Madison Presidential Dollar in PCGS SP68. The PCGS Price Guide value for this coin increased from $125 to $500 in SP68. There haven’t been any recent auction sales for this coin. Yet, after comparing the coin to other similar issues in the series and factoring in its relatively low population of 25 coins in PCGS SP68 (with none graded higher), we determined that the coin was extremely undervalued compared to other coins in the series. This is especially so due to its scarcity and because it is a prominent variety. So we took a conservative approach and increased the price to $500, but the coin may possibly end up bringing more at auction or in the marketplace when and if an example does become available in the near future.

The second coin in the recent gainers list is a 1977 Washington Quarter graded PCGS MS68. Currently, PCGS has graded only one example in MS68, with none grading higher. Therefore, it is no surprise that this coin has not appeared at auction before. This is one of the reasons why it’s difficult to price a coin when there's only one in MS68 – and with no previous auction records available. However, there is a comparative coin, which is the 1982-P Washington Quarter that was also a pop 1 (with none higher) at the time of sale. The coin was sold by Heritage Auctions for $10,200. So, based on a very comparable coin, we adjusted the price of the 1977 Washington Quarter in PCGS MS68, so it is more in line with the price of a similar coin that has sold at auction.

The third entry in this list is a coin that we already touched on earlier in this article – the 1969-S Doubled Die Lincoln Cent graded PCGS MS66RD. This coin also has a PCGS population of one, with none graded higher. The coin was recently sold by GreatCollections for $601,875. Therefore, we updated the PCGS Price Guide to more accurately reflect this coin’s value in the grade of PCGS MS66RD, bumping the price up from $200,000 to $605,000.

These are just a few of the modern coins that have performed really well in the market over the past three months or so. To view the entire list of all U.S. coins that have performed well, please visit the PCG Price Guide and check out the Price Changes category to see the Top Gainers and Losers.