PR70

I am the winning bidder on a 1871 PR68 Half Dime from an eBay auction. I have a concern that there may not be any Proof 68 coins that early in the minting history. It is hard to tell from this picture, but does this coin look legitimate? Even if it was overgraded, it would still be worth it, depending on what it's actual grade is from PCGS or other top tier grading service.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=3943964299

Thanks,

PR70

GDJMSP

Howdy PR70 - Welcome to the Forum !!

Well I certainly understand your concern. To be honest - I never would have bid on the coin given the grading company and the seller's feedback rating. To make things worse - the pics are so poor that you can't even get an idea about the coin and if it is genuine or not.

The seller has no stated return policy - only to ask him for details. Hopefully you did before you agreed to buy it.

Sorry I can't offer a more positive response - but an auction like that would worry me

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PR70

Thanks for the welcome and the quick reply. I was mesmerized by the opportunity to own a Proof 68 version of such a rare coin and didn't ask the questions beforehand. I noticed 3 of the replies on the first page state tha Capitol has overgraded the coins.

What concerns me is that there is no buyer protection since Paypal isn't offered. I feel sick having to recind my offer, but I am afraid I will be out major $ if I follow through.

PR70

cdb1950

I haven't heard of Capitol Coin Grading, but there are a lot of new grading services out there. Just about anyone can buy a slab and print up a label to encapsulate a coin. With no track record for this grading service and the fuzzy picture in the auction, you are really buying this piece sight unseen. I suspect that if there was a real PR68 1871 half dime out there, it would probably have been encapsulated by one of the 3 or 4 major grading services and sold at a major auction for tons of money. Good luck! CDB

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satootoko

Welcome to the forum. Hopefully your tuition wasn't out of your means, as I am afraid you have just attended a session of the school of experience, and learned that when it seems to good to be true it virtually never isNeither the feedback of the seller, nor the identity of the grader seem calculated to inspire confidence.

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Roy

Ed Zak

These low-tier grading services and those run by ebay sellers themselves (i.e., Star Grading Services <SGS> run and operated by the seller Aboncom) really have some nice marketing and glitz...but they are all for not since their coins would never receive a grade from the top 4 graders as they advertise.

When a seller pushes and pushes that their coin was "professionally" graded by a certification company other than PCGS, NGC, ICG and ANACS...it is wise to do more research and do simple google search on both the seller and the grading service before you buy.

Also, did you ever notice that the picture quality from these low-tiered (or bogus) grading services are always BAD? That is because they are selling the supposed-slab...not the coin!

Speedy

Howdy PR70

I think if you don't want to go through with the deal you should be able to back out.....I've heard it done before.

About the value I looked in my red-book and it listed PR-63 at $600 so even if PCGS down graded it to PF-63 I think you'd be ok.

So if I were you...I'd go ahead and get it and send it right away to NGC or PCGS.


Hope you have a great day.



Speedy

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PR70

Thank you for your responses. I unfortunately did all of my research on the grading company after I won the auction.

PR70

9roswell

1.not even pcgs or ngc has a proof 68 recorded
2.Cost of the coin or whats it worth I have no idea
3.Up for sale is the "hgihest"
red flags

National dealer

Would certainly scare me away.

Here is this persons feedback;

http://www.toolhaus.org/cgi-bin/negs...rn=Received+by

While this person has a very high feedback rating, sometimes the few bad or neutral ratings give more of the story.

mmarotta

I am sort of curious about how you weighed the description of this coin from Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Proof Coins. Breen says of the obverse:
"71 almost touch. Date begins almost centrally: slants a little down: left base of first 1 and r. base of last 1 about over spaces between dentils: shield point above tip of serif, pendant approximately central over 7. Top of D open. ..."

(Breen does allow that other varieties may exist.)

Perhaps you used a different guide, such as the website established by James Halperin of Heritage at www.coingrading.com

Myself, when I make a mistake, I always keep my word. Pay the money. Next time, spend the $600 on books. Join the ANA. Go to the seminars in Colorado Springs. You will be money ahead.

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Michael E. Marotta
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lincoln64

PR70,

Don't let these naysayers get you down. There are bargains out there! I've taken chances on a lot of items on ebay, and usually done pretty well. As far as the pictures, a lot of people don't have good "macro" close-up lenses and the best they can do is small photos.

The "experts" sometimes take a lot of the fun out of this deal by slamming anything they don't find warm and fuzzy. These oldtimers have forgotten about the excitement some of us new collectors feel and to keep us going we need someone to share the excitement not bring us down.

Good luck with the coin!! Keep the excitement, take a chance once in awhile, and for crying out loud don't let the "experts" bring you down.

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lincoln64

PR70

I am not taking the comments personally and I value their experience. I have found a few items that I have bought from Ebay that I like. I am less happy with a few. For example, I bought this coin:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...e=STRK:MEWN:IT

and it doesn't have the edge to edge luster that it does in the pic. It's a pretty coin and wasn't that expensive, it just looks different than the pictures. There is a foggyness around the sunbeams and on the other side. Does the flash change the look of the coin?

I also bought this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...e=STRK:MEWN:IT

and the coin is alot darker than the picture seems to show and there isn't much of a rainbow effect that I can see when viewing it. It is another nice coin, just different than expected.

PR70

Prethen

PR70:

I was one of those "bidders" that was watching this coin. I was curious what it was going to go for. The grading company is a lark. If it's truly a Proof 68 you have a coin worth potentially many 10's of thousands of dollars. Unfortunately, in that holder, there's a good chance that someone has already cleaned the coin (especially since it appears it's a "white" coin). There's a possiblity that it's even impaired by someone harshly cleaning it, it getting polished, a little bit of circulation wear, or all of the above.

Is it possible you got a deal? Sure. But, I would never stake any large amount of money on it. If I were you, I would back out.

I personally own an 1871 Proof Half Dime graded by PCGS (I think, otherwise it's NGC) as PR64. Proof coins are very susceptible to being handled improperly and the top-tier grading services will show no mercy when it comes to grading that type of coin. Typically, a mishandled proof coin will be "body-bagged" and sent back to you.

Essentially, by buying that coin in that type of holder, you're buying it as a raw proof coin. My rule of thumb, because I'm not an expert in accurately grading raw proofs, is to only buy the coin if it has been slabbed by NGC/PCGS/ICG/ANACS and, of course, if I like the appearance of the coin. I realize some of you might shiver at the idea of having a policy of not buying a raw coin, but I've come close to being seriously burned on buying them raw. The pricing changes can be quite large between various proof grades.

PR70

I received a reply from the seller offering to close out the issue for the relisting fee. I asked for more detailed pictures to see more accurately what it looks like. If I can get better pictures and it looks good enough, I will continue the sale. If not, I will pay him the relisting fee. I thought that was a fair deal.

PR70