Advice On Collecting Half Dimes?

I have a lot of these, so I will give some tips:

Well first, make sure you check all unslabbed coins you get for bends. They're common in Half Dimes and can hurt the value. If you can settle for culls/low grade for the keys, this shouldnt be too hard of a series with the exception of a few. 1846 is probably going to be the hardest and is extremely tough to get in decent condition (not an easy key like the 1895-O Barber dime), then 1853-O no arrows, 1844-O, 1838-O, S mints in the 60s, 60s P mints etc. Buy slabbed on the really rare stuff when you can, since it will dramatically cut the chances of a poor quality coin.

Beware of sellers on ebay trying to price gouge you for a 'rare' decent low grade example, but use heritage to gauge prices on the rarer stuff as red book/numismedia can be heavily off base with scarer coins. With enough looking you can find one at a reasonable price, though there may be competition. The S mints in the 60s frequently come with solder or ex jewelry for some reason. The capped Half Dimes are not much trouble in general, but can be a little pricey (though not excessively so in my opinion) when you get into XF grades and higher. I'm assuming you're not doing draped bust Half Dimes also, because those ARE very expensive. Would also suggest starting on the tougher dates first, this should save money in the long run since the commons tend to increase in price less.

Thanks for the help guys. I think I will go with a grade range of F-12 to maybe EF-40 or AU-50 - Some where in there, probably VF+. It would be nice if I could get a proof sample or two... there was a beautiful rainbow toned proof seated coin I saw at a coin show once... my it was marvelous.

EDIT: Also, I will be housing these in a Library of Coins album once I get it. Is there anything I will need to worry about? The slides don't contain PVC, right?

Sounds like a fun project. Stick with Half Dimes in Fine or better.

I just started my type series of Half Dimes and I have extreme difficulty locating any reasonable quality (VG to VF) draped bust Half Dime for a reasonable price (i.e. $1000 or less). I think it should be possible, but very little if anything is showing up at dedicated coin auctions (HA, GC, SB). ebay seems to be extremely overpriced for these denominations.

coinguybrian more or less summed things up. What I would add is eye appeal across the entire series. No matter which denomination or series prior to 1900, the earlier dates tend to be lower in mintage thus availability and greater towards the end. Using the Seated Liberty dime series I'm nearly finished with, I started with vg/fine in 1837 going up gradually in grade to AU in 1891. While there are many in between which could have been purchased in a higher grade, the eye appeal would look way off as a complete series. It's tough buying a lower grade when one two or three higher could be had for not much more just for consistency. Just my thoughts.

My advice is don't. I say that due to availability. Some time ago I started a Half Dime and Seated Liberty dime collection. It went fairly fast with additions then stopped due to so few available of certain dates. They are now sitting in Dansco Albums and just sitting there. No additions in years. Due to this virus thing, so few coin shows and buying on ebay is to much of a joke. You too will probably end up with Albums with many empty slots and not much of a future addition possible. If you do start those, good luck.

Well, for my collection I only need six Half Dimes: 1) Draped bust, 2) Capped bust, 3) Seated Liberty no-stars, 4) Seated Liberty stars, 5) Seated Liberty arrows, and 6) Seated Liberty legend.

Id put together a capped bust dime run in VF/XF. The whole set will run you about $1100. There are no tough dates, though some are harder to find.