MTC'S IN EBAY STORES
These are MTC's offered by ebay sellers month after month in their ebay stores. They are offered with a Buy It Now price instead of in an auction scenario, and often offer the potential buyer a chance to get the item at their own price by offering an "or Best Offer" option. Many of these items have been recycled over and over month after month for years now. Most of them have not sold because they are priced too high, but there are also some bargains out there. If you want one of these items use the Advanced Search option, and look under "Items in Stores".
ALASKA Boosters. 1962 Land of the Midnight Sun Dollar. Actually a Washington issue, put out at the Seattle World's Fair to encourage tourism to Alaska. This is one of the most easily obtainable Municipal Token issues, although choice Uncirculated examples are getting harder to find. This one in the typical Almost Uncirculated condition, is priced at $19.95 plus a whopping $6.38 postage. Today's value - a buck or two.
ARIZONA, Willcox. 1975 Rex Allen Days Dollar. A scarce issue, offered along with the 1976 issue which is not a MTC for $19.95. Every month when this comes rolling around I consider buying it, but the $4.00 postage the seller asks is just enough to put it out of my range as a duplicate. There are two varieties of this - unnumbered and edge numbered. Both varieties are hard to find, and either one is easily worth $10 to $15.
CALIFORNIA, Mount Shasta. Two and a Half Mount Shasta Dollars, 1982. The first of a two year run for this issue. Supplies of this one seem to have dried up, they are not an easily available issue any more, even out here in California. I'd say $7.50 is a fair price for either year in nice Uncirculated condition. This one, which appears to be a little spotty, is priced at $11.95, but has a $3 shipping fee, pushing your cost up to just about $15. Probably too much unless you are desperate to get one. My advice is to hold off - you'll find a better one for less, sooner or later.
HAWAII, Kona Coast. 1981 Kona Dollar, Antique Bronze. Priced at $50.00 with free shipping. WOW! That's an awfully steep price for this common issue, even though it is in a NGC holder and graded MS-66. You can easily find one this nice for $5.00 or so and just skip the NGC holder.
ILLINOIS, Elmwood Park. 1964 Golden Jubilee Dollar. A large, handsome oxidized bronze issue that can usually be found with a little effort. A reasonable price would be $5 or $6. This one is offered at $19.95 plus $2 shipping.
IOWA, Goldfield. 1955 Centennial Quarter, choice Uncirculated. Buy It Now price is $10.00 plus $2.50 postage. See my comments of December 14, 2012. Basically it's old, its uncirculated, and there were only 1,000 made. Someone ought to buy it!
IOWA, Webster City. 1957 Centennial Half Dollar, About Uncirculated. An older issue with a mintage of only 1,000 pieces. Easily worth $20.00 in Uncirculated, this About Uncirculated one certainly ought to be worth the $10 the seller is asking, even with the $2.50 shipping fee. A legitimately scarce issue.
MICHIGAN, Big Rapids. 1955 Centennial Quarter. This one in nice Uncirculated condition and offered for $19.95 with FREE shipping. A nice old piece, but common - even in Uncirculated. Easily obtainable today for $5 or so.
MICHIGAN, Lake Linden. 1966 Centennial Half Dollar. A nice low mintage of 1,500 on this one but for some reason it has always been available. Worth $5 - $6, but not the $19.95 asked.
MICHIGAN, Lansing. 1959 Centennial Half Dollar. A very common issue with 80,000 issued. There are a couple minor varieties, but none are worth the $19.95 the seller is asking, even with the FREE shipping.
MINNESOTA, Cass County. 1958 Minnesota Centennial Half Dollar. Part of the 1958 Centennial series. This is in an NGC holder marked MS 62, but it sure looks AU to me. Fairly easily available, and with a mintage of 7,500, this seems to me to be a $7.50 to $10.00 item. Offered for $54.38, this one is way too high for now.
NEBRASKA, Chadron. 1960 Diamond Jubilee Half Dollar. Advertised as silver for $24.99 plus $2.50 postage, but almost certainly silver plate. There were 1,000 issued in silver plate for 75¢ each, but only 25 in real silver, which originally cost $2.50. At the time these came out, we lived in Hot Springs,South Dakota - less than 100 miles away - and a family friend who knew I was a coin collector was going down there and asked if I wanted any of the Chadron Half Dollars, which had just come out. I decided to have him pick up two of the regular issue goldene ones for face value, and one of the silver plated ones for 75¢, but I thought that $2.50 was just way too much for a silver one. I was only 15 years old at the time, and I remember my Dad even offered to loan me the $2.50 for a silver one, and I could work it off later (I earned 50¢ an hour washing dishes and operating the elevator at the hotel we lived in, and he was the manager of) but I thought about it, and decided my money would be better spent on something else. It would have been a good investment. In the years that followed I was finally able to get a silver example, and I believe I have only ever seen only one other specimen. I wouldn't be surprised if a Nebraska collector would pay $100 for one of these. If you have a chance to get one, exercise caution - I don't know how many of the silver plated ones have been on ebay or offered in dealer's stocks as silver, but they are always out there. They do look very convincing, but the silver one must be lettered STERLING on the edge. Today the goldene ones are worth under $5, and the silver plated ones maybe $8 or $9.
NEVADA, Las Vegas. "1878" Entertainment Capitol of the World. Las Vegas Dollar. Nickel plate, Uncirculated. Some of these "Las Vegas Dollars" with a replica of an 1878 Morgan Silver Dollar on the front are quite scarce, but not this one. It is offered at $9.95 with FREE shipping. You can probably shop around and find one for less without much effort.
NEW YORK, Canastota. 1960 Centennial Half Dollar. Offered for $110.00 with FREE shipping. Graded MS 64 by NGC. Wow! This seems like a whole lot for this coin, even with the free shipping, insurance and delivery confirmation offered by the seller. This is not a really common coin, but it is available, and in choice Uncirculated condition. The mintage was only 2,500, but $10 for a choice example seems more appropriate to me. Perhaps we are looking at the future of MTC prices. Right now this price seems way to high, but if Municipal Token collecting takes off, and there are 100 people looking for this coin, $110 is definitely not out of the realm of possibility. After all, what American coin with a mintage or 2,500 pieces can you buy for that amount? I know I really don't have to tell you the answer to that one!
NORTH DAKOTA, Williston Basin. 1961 Centennial 50¢. Very common in Golden Bronze (mintage 25,000), but this variety in Antique Bronze is much scarcer. One thousand pieces were authorized and were offered at $5.00 apiece, but apparently they did not sell well as they very seldom show up today. I suspect that the entire quantity of 1,000 was not produced, or if they were they were probably returned to the maker - or maybe they are sitting in someone's attic. At any rate this piece priced at $50.00 with FREE shipping is priced too high - just as they were when they were originally sold 50 years ago. Ten to fifteen dollars seems about right for this piece today.
OHIO, Dennison. 1965 Centennial Half Dollar. Attractive Uncirculated condition. This is priced at $12.89, and this piece is probably worth that much. The $2.65 postage pushes its cost to over $15.00, a price point which holds some collectors back.
OREGON, Florence. Undated Sand Dollar. An elongated penny. Available for a reasonable $2 plus another buck ninety-five postage. Probably never used as a MTC, but it does say Sand DOLLAR, so some of us will have to add it to our collections.
PENNSYLVANIA, Cambridge Springs. 1966 Centennial Dollar. This nickel silver piece is the most easily obtainable issue of the 4 varieties I know of for this issue, but with a mintage of just 1,000 pieces it is well worth the $10 + $2.50 the seller is asking. Go for it!
PENNSYLVANIA, Erie. 1963 Permissible Copy. Back in the early 1960's, when the Federal Government became annoyed with the growing number of municipalities around the country that were issuing their own money, they began suddenly swooping in and confiscating entire MTC issues, and threatening individuals and communities with lawsuits for usurping a right exclusively reserved for the United States Mint. It was finally decided that it was legal to issue local coinage if certain guidelines were met. These included that the coins clearly stated they were redeemable by a specific date, at a specific location (or locations) and that they were redeemable only in trade, not in cash. This piece, the reverse of the Erie Pennsylvania Perry Sesquicentennial Celebration municipal, met all those qualifications, and the token maker struck some of these up with only the redemption side to send out as examples of how the issues should be worded to communities that were considering issuing their own coins, but were uncertain how to do it without placing their coins and citizens at risk. Usually encountered in goldene, as this piece, which is offered for a reasonable $7.98 +$2. Occasionally seen in aluminum, which is considerably scarcer and easily worth $20.
PENNSYLVANIA, Hanover. Bi-Centennial 50¢, 1963, Uncirculated. Priced at $14.99 plus $3 shipping. Worth $5 - $6.
PENNSYLVANIA, Hummelstown. Bi-Centennial 50¢, 1962. This one is offered for $11.99 plus $3 shipping. More common than the Hanover above. Value less than $5 in Uncirculated.
PENNSYLVANIA, Schaefferstown. 1963 Bicentennial Half Dollar. About Uncirculated, holed at top. Fairly common and worth $5 to $6 in Uncirculated in the typical un-holed version, but quite rare holed. This one is offered at $16.50 with free shipping. I think I'd rather buy a nice Uncirculated copy of this for $6 and drill my own hole to get the rare version!
WASHINGTON, Port Angeles. 1962 Centennial Dollar. A handsome piece, with an angler riding on the back of a giant fish he has just hooked. This one in choice Uncirculated condition and offered at $10.99 plus $3.57 shipping. A huge mintage (for a Municipal Token) of 22,500 assures that these will be available to collectors for the foreseeable future. Today it is probably a $5 item even though it is over 50 years old!
WISCONSIN, Evansville. 1962 Sesquicentennial Half Dollar, choice uncirculated. A $5 to $6 coin you can buy for just $18.99! FREE shipping.