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ABOUT US Rich Uhrich, President.
I deal in rare U.S. coins from 1792 to date, especially silver, nickel and copper coins, as well as varieties. My areas of focus are Bust and Seated half dimes, Bust and Seated dimes, Bust and Seated quarters, Seated halves, and Seated dollars. I enthusiastically buy scarce and rare dates in my areas of focus. I am a member of several numismatic organizations, including:
I have contributed to the book Grading Coins by Photographs and Buffalo Nickels - The Abraded Die Varieties. I also issue an e-mail newsletter that provides information on numismatic topics and also lists new purchases.
Bill Bugert, Numismatist. Bill serves the business as Table Assistant, consultant on Seated Halves, and photographer of those difficult-to-photograph toned coins. He is a lifelong collector and has collected and researched Seated Halves since the mid-1970s. He and Randy Wiley authored The Complete Guide to Liberty Seated Half Dollars, and he is writing a five-volume set A Register of Liberty Seated Half Dollar Varieties, the first two of which have been published (Volume I, San Francisco Mint, and Volume II, Carson City Mint). He has authored numerous numismatic research articles and served as a speaker at many local and national coin club events. He won the Liberty Seated Collectors Club’s James B. Pryor Numismatic Research Award for the best research article to appear in the first 50 issues of the Gobrecht Journal, won the LSCC’s 2008 Kamal M. Ahwash Award for the best article to appear in the Gobrecht Journal, won the John Reich Collectors Society’s 2008 award for the best article to appear in the John Reich Journal, and won the Numismatic Bibliomania Society’s 2008 award for the best article by a new author in The Asylum. He is Vice President of the Liberty Seated Collectors Club, edits and publishes the monthly E-Gobrecht, and moderates the Seated Half Dollar question and answer section on the LSCC’s message board. He is a life member of ANA and a member of LSCC, JRCS, EAC and NBS.
Bill Cowburn, Numismatist, serves the business as Table Assistant and advisor. He has been a collector for over 30 years and has a great deal of knowledge of the Bust and Seated series, especially Bust and Seated halves and Trade dollars. He has had numismatic articles published in The Numismatist, The Gobrecht Journal, The Centinel and The Journal of the Barber Coin Collectors’ Society. He has won the Wagner Award as well as several awards for his articles including a Heath Literary Award from the ANA for his article “How Rare is Rare”. He has exhibited and judged exhibits for several years. His exhibit “A Transitional 1876 Proof Trade Dollar” won 1st place in the US Coin category and was 1st runner-up in the Best-of-Show judging at the 2006 ANA Convention. He has been a speaker at the ANA Convention, FUN, CSNS, and PAN as well as at local clubs. He is Vice President of the York Coin Club, and supervises educational programs for that club and the Red Rose Coin Club. He has served as president of the Red Rose Coin Club and has been the Membership Chairperson for several years. He is a member of ANA, LSCC, JRCS, BHNC, EAC, ANS, the Civil War Tokens Society, and several regional and local coin clubs.
Len Augsburger,
Numismatist. Len serves the business as Table Assistant, and consultant on
seated quarters. He assembled the Chicago Collection, the highest ranking PCGS
registry set of seated quarters. He is the Secretary-Treasurer of the Liberty
Seated Collectors Club. He has authored numerous articles for the Gobrecht
Journal, the Asylum, the Medal Collector's Advisory, and the Numismatist. Len
has won author's awards from the MCA and NLG. He is a frequent speaker at hobby
events and presented the Groves Forum at the American Numismatic Society in
2008. His book on the Baltimore gold hoard, Treasure in the Cellar, was
published by the Maryland Historical Society in 2008. Len is a member of the
ANA, ANS, LSCC, EAC, NBS, MCA, C4, C40A, NLG, Chicago Coin Club, and the
Rittenhouse Society.
Karen Uhrich, Assistant to the President. Rich's wife Karen also works in the business. She enjoys meeting customers, working as a Table Assistant at coin shows, and helping to run the business.
HOW TO ORDER Ordering from us is simple. Browse our inventory and when you find the coin(s) that you want, click the "ORDER" button, or contact us via e-mail or phone to verify availability. For customers we know, we will ship you your coin(s) after we receive your check. For customers unknown to us, we will ship after your check clears our bank. We charge shipping of $10 on all orders. We ship the same day or the next business day, unless we are at a show. We offer a 10 day return privilege for any reason, with a 100% refund of your purchase price, but not including postage. We have no restocking fees. We want you to be happy with your purchase. Our contact information and payment options are listed below: Payment Options: Check or Money Order ONLY. We don't want to have to raise our prices to cover credit card fees. To Order:
We ship registered mail or insured mail depending on value. If you need your coin(s) shipped more quickly, we can do so, at an additional cost to you. The words "coins" or "numismatics" will not appear on your package. To help preserve the environment, we often reuse the cardboard safety mailers used to protect your coins in shipment.
RICH UHRICH RARE U. S. COINS INC. guarantees that the coins listed on our website are GENUINE, unless so noted. No other express or implied representation, warranty, or guarantee regarding the coins is given, including investment performance. Accepted grading standards, services, and terminology can change over time. Therefore, RICH UHRICH RARE U. S. COINS INC. does not guarantee that the coins above will regrade the same at a different grading service or that the coins will grade the same at the same service that originally graded them. The RETURN PRIVILEGE is 10 days after you receive your coin(s), however, for coins sold at coin shows and/or previously inspected by the buyer, or as specifically noted in the coin's description, all sales are final. For coins that are returned, we will refund 100% of your purchase price, excluding postage. We have NO RESTOCKING FEES. All items listed remain the property of RICH UHRICH RARE U. S. COINS INC. until paid in full with good funds. The purchaser/consignor agrees to arbitrate or mediate any disputes in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania according to ANA (American Numismatic Association) rules. Signing the invoice or accepting the merchandise described above constitutes acceptance of the above terms and conditions of sale. All claims and returned coins MUST be accompanied by your invoice. A word about CLEANING: Many, many 18th and 19th century coins have been cleaned at some time in their history. Surprised? Consider the many Mint State white silver coins 150 to 210 years old often seen in the big-time auctions. Exactly what storage method was used to keep that 1795 half dollar white for 210 years? There weren't slabs back then, or flips, or 2x2's, or plastic, or any of the storage methods currently used. The inescapable conclusion is that most of the "blast white" silver coins that are 200 or so years old have probably been dipped! Therefore, on this site, I have not described coins as "having an old, light cleaning" unless the cleaning has caused an unnatural look to the coin. I do back up all of the coins I sell with the return privilege described above. We try our best to provide PICTURES of all coins priced over $100, and also those coins where a picture is necessary because of some unusual attribute of the coin. WHAT SEPARATES US FROM THE CROWD
So, how do you prevent this kind of loss? You either have to know your attributions, or deal with someone who knows their attributions. At Rich Uhrich Rare U. S. Coins Inc., we guarantee that all of our attributions are correct! If you buy an 1830 Large Letters half from us, it will be an 1830 Large Letters half and will match the diagnostics in Overton's Early Half Dollar Varieties book. Are attributions important? "Yes!"
The December 1, 2008 issue of Coin World has a cover page story on a Chinese coin counterfeiter who manufactures and sells counterfeit U. S. coins. These counterfeit coins can be found on certain online auction "venues", and include fake Seated Quarters of 1870-CC thru 1873-CC, fake Seated Dollars of 1851, 1852, 1858, 1871-CC and 1873-CC, and many, many other fakes. At Rich Uhrich Rare U. S. Coins Inc., we guarantee that all of our coins are genuine unless so stated. One of the latest scams to hit the market, specifically online auction sites, is counterfeit PCGS, NGC, and ANACS slabs, mostly produced in Asia. The coins contained in the slabs could be counterfeit, or genuine coins that have been vastly overgraded. You need to be very careful buying in online auctions, especially from sellers in areas outside the U. S., where obtaining a refund might be difficult or impossible. At Rich Uhrich Rare U. S. Coins Inc., we guarantee that all of our coins in slabs are in genuine slabs.
A lot of people buy or attempt to buy coins
via online auction sites. When you deal with Rich Uhrich Rare U. S.
Coins Inc., you avoid problem areas involved with online auction sites,
some of which are listed below. Third-world slabs: At Rich Uhrich Rare U. S. Coins Inc., we will not sell coins slabbed by anyone other than PCGS, NGC, ANACS, ICG, SEGS, and occasionally PCI. These companies are the most reputable coin certification companies. There are many, many other companies who slab coins who do not have experts to verify authenticity, nor do their grading standards approach those of the best companies. Some people might believe that one company's MS-65 coin is equal in quality to another company's. They often are not, and the market value can vary widely. How widely? A coin in a third world slabs might be worth only 1% to 5%, or even less, of what the same grade PCGS slabbed coin would bring in the marketplace. Coin dealers throughout the country report people asking them to pay $160,000 for their 1886-O Morgan dollar in a "third-world" slab marked as MS-65, but if the coin is a cleaned AU (which it often is) it is worth only $50. Cleaned and repaired coins: There are reputable coin sellers online, but there are also sellers who will not disclose that a coin has been cleaned and/or repaired, or even holed and plugged. These coins are worth much less than catalogue values. At Rich Uhrich Rare U. S. Coins Inc., we accurately describe all coins we sell, including any problems any coin may have. Mystery lots: Some online sellers appear to have a great deal, they have put a whole bunch of great coins together in a huge bin, haven't searched them and they sell them by the weight or scoop. They have seemingly credible reports of customers finding 1909-SVDB cents in their so-called "mystery lots" or "unsearched lots". To us, it is a mystery why anyone thinks that any coins have not been searched for 1909-SVDB cents, which have been famous and high valued since their issuance in 1909. Also, some people think a pound of coins contains a lot more coins than it really does. A pound of circulated wheat cents has about 153 coins, at current market value, it's worth $3 to $6. Don't pay more! At Rich Uhrich Rare U. S. Coins Inc., we do not sell "mystery lots". To us, the only mystery about "mystery lots" is why someone would buy one. Bogus auctions: There are many coin photos all over the internet. What's to prevent someone from stealing a photo, and then pretending to auction that coin, to make off with the high bidder's money? Well, this does happen. Be careful, know your seller, and if you don't know your seller, check out your seller. At Rich Uhrich Rare U. S. Coins Inc., we don't steal anyone else's pictures! Proof sets in sealed envelopes: From 1955 (some sets) through 1964, proof sets were sold in manila envelopes. Occasionally, some seller wants a premium price for proof sets in sealed envelopes. What's wrong with that? There could be some rare cameo proof coins in there or maybe some varieties. The problem is that replica envelopes are available online for less than $1 each. Most proof sets in "sealed envelopes" have been opened, inspected, and resealed. During the 1970's and 1980's, I was buying proof sets from the 1955 - 1964 era, and I never saw a proof set in a sealed envelope. Now they're all over the place. My recommendation is that you believe it is mint-sealed ONLY if you really trust the seller and/or know the history of the proof set from the day it left the mint over 40 years ago. At Rich Uhrich Rare U. S. Coins Inc., we don't represent any proof sets as being in sealed envelopes. Shill bidding: Some disreputable sellers engage in an illegal practice called shill bidding, which means that using another ID, they bid up the price of their items to raise the price to the winning bidder. One large online auction venue has recently hidden bidder's ID's which therefore has made shill bidding easier to do and harder to catch. There are a variety of ways to check for this practice which I will not disclose here, but if you suspect that someone is using shill bidding, contact the online auction venue. Beware especially "private auctions", many are legitimate, but some are perfect for hiding shill bidding. At Rich Uhrich Rare U. S. Coins Inc., we don't engage in such shenanigans. "Estate sales": If a seller wants to encourage bidding, often he/she calls their sale an "estate sale". This apparently leads bidders to believe they are bidding on Howard Hughes' or a similar billionaire's holdings. But estate sales often contain bulk coins of no special significance. There is one online seller of coins for which every coin he attempts to sell is "from an estate". I sell coins too, and I buy them from a lot of places, including but not just estates. Does it really matter where the coin comes from? Beware: the term "estate sale" often means "seller's junk he couldn't get rid of anywhere else". At Rich Uhrich Rare U. S. Coins Inc., we don't describe coins as being from "estate sales".
VARIETY - A variation in the die(s) which will cause all coins struck by that die pair to appear different than the normal coinage. Often called a die variety. ERROR - A variation in the planchet and/or striking that causes a non-repeatable error. Examples: clipped planchet, off-center, broadstrike, brockage, wrong planchet, multiple strike. VALUE - The value of a coin can be significantly different depending on the variety. An ordinary 1888 Indian cent is valued at $2 in Good, while an 1888/7 S-2 variety is valued at $120 and an 1888/7 S-1 variety is valued at $1,200. VARIETIES include:
This Month's MasCAT
LEO SAYS "THE CAT IS IN!" This month's MasCAT is Leo, who has taken over his dad's Inbox. Leo says, "The cat is IN!" |
