>>20184057>I've been wondering how many of the tokens you have are believed to be the only known specimens?I'd guess about 1/3 of my personal collection is population 1, R10. Another ~1/3 is population 2, R9. The remainder is mostly population <15.
I'm not worried about people finding new examples- rarity sometimes has an inverse effect on value. People don't care much about a coin they can't own. What worries me more is I have several complete sets from ghost towns that are the only known full set because one or more of the tokens is unique, and that can be ruined by someone finding a new token from that town and then not selling it to me. In those cases I've paid thousands of dollars to get a single new token just to keep a set complete. This is a doomed endeavor, there are unknown tokens in the dirt that I would need to keep my sets complete and that won't be sold to me.
One coin in particular that I want is population 1 and last sold for thousands of dollars and likely won't sell again in my lifetime. But I know where that coin was found and spend a few months every summer searching for another one like it. Given enough time I usually find what I'm looking for.
regarding hoards, I've seen 3 in my life crash a coin value to nothing. It's pretty rare and getting less likely every year. But it's always possible. I've probably told you that I did that once. My first summer searching I found about 30 tokens from a town that had a population of 7 known. I killed the market for those coins, dropping them from ~$400 each to ~$150. It happens, I've done it.
>>20182147>Whats with the cardboard box?I keep it in a bank vault most of the time.
I buy, sell, and trade coins- thousands of people know what I have and where I live. Only a fool would try to rob me, but there's plenty of fools out there.