Beautiful coin and the grade looks accurate to me. I have to say I'm a little confused by the photos: the coin looks a bit pumped up with light but the NGC holder looks dark gray. ? I had to look up wholesale for this issue; will guess you paid $875 or a bit less than 50% premium.
While I understand what you are saying I feel there is a simple explanation. The coin was titled in the album. In other words the left obv was closer to the plane of the album face (and the arm touching the slide would be my guess since it has little toning); and the right rev was closer to the plane of the album bottom. Not terribly uncommon for this to happen.
Can anyone explain how the coin can be lighted such that the coin is intense and there's no spill onto the holder? TJH, I scrolled back and noticed that your Walker was photographed in the same way (by Todd).
Do you believe the toning is natural and have you ever seen an NT type coin with that color? I get what your saying about a tilted coin etc and have no clue as to whether it caused it or not but it's at least s plausable explanation.
I happen to agree as well. The way this coin toned is uncommon at best, if it is natural toning. However, it has the NGC stamp of approval. I don't won't this to sound like I'm " Dissing " the owner. The coin, imho is questionable from a couple of perspectives. I'm no expert in the toning spectrum process, it's a bit more involved than I can wrap my small brain around. I have to trust the experience of those more qualified, like the TPG's .
Whenever I see this toning pattern and color scheme on a coin of this era, I immediately think that the coin may have been cleaned an retoned at some point. It seems to me that the premiums paid for toning on coins from the early to mid 1800's are not nearly as much as those from the 20th century coins. In addition, this is a coin with a $1,500 wholesale price tag. I don't think that the premium would push the price past retail, but I do think a strong retail price is appropriate. I guess $1,850.
It sure looks NT to me and yes I have seen coins with similar toning patterns. And even with the TPGs are being so picky about toning these days they apparently thought so too.
Well said, Lehigh. Our impression of the coin's past is the same -- although I might change "cleaned' to "dipped" in the case of this coin, as I see no evidence of cleaning, per-se.
interesting...fair enough...i must say I have never seen this color an pattern on a seated coin in an NGC or PCGS slab but the fact that a coin is a rare bird with a certain color does not automatically make it AT...I have an ike that was bagged that I am convinced is real but its real spectacular. For Doug or anyone else posting to this thread...i would love to see an image of another coin that looks anything like this simply becuase it is quite different then what I am used to seeing...so different in fact that I am not willing to even try to guestimate a value.