Check out this slabbed coin on Ebay and let me know would you buy it. this post may turn out to help some new error collectors learn a few things to watch out for. click on this thread to see the coin.http://www.ebay.com/itm/1988-Penny-...40?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item3cbeb2b948
From what I see I'm not convinced it is an error. Looks more like a hammer job. To have a clash showing that strong in the devices it would REALLY be hammered in the field and most if not all the lettering would be showing as well. This looks like a light hammer blow that impressed the memorial into the bust and the field. I think ICG blew it.
After seeing this, I won't be submitting coins to ICG ever (never had, but never had a good reason), and I won't buy anything graded by them, either. That's just ridiculous.
I'm on the fence. At worst, I'm 50/50 that it's a hammer job. It DID need MUCH better images, as going by the posted images, it wouldn't have been worth a bid from me, not a chance. I guess, judging by the selling price, most felt the same way.
After looking at the grade, even in a top-tier slab, it probably wouldn't go for more than it did. Figure it's an XF40 at PCGS and NGC at best (and, yeah, possibly might cross), and if it is a hammer, how much is an 'authentic 1988 XF45 Lincoln Cent' worth??? But regardless of the grade, in ANY slab, well, this coin was not even worth sending in, in the first place, even if the error is legit......not even to ICG (no offense to ICG supporters, JMO...you CAN find a steal in their plastic, but they are far and few with them).
That's obviously a hammer job. I hope it's a fake ICG slab and they really aren't that dumb. Even if ICG blew it, it's pretty low of the seller to list it as a real error.
I side with a hammer job also. One should keep in prospectus that the owners, graders, even the city of business of the major TPG have changed over the years , and even graders have rotated form one service to another. Yes some basement grading services deserve their widespread reputations, but as far as the others, the old saying about judging the coin rather than the holder, is very much truth. I have more faith with PCGS or NGC, but I have made some great buys of ANACS and ICG. Jim
CashDude i'm totally with you on this one. The folks on here that even comes close to thinking this is a clashed die coin needs to stop trying to collect coins and first learn more about the mint operations . Well I was the winning bidder of this piece of what I think is junk. I got it to put in my ICG junk collection. I have quite a few slabbed coins by them that only a few are labeled correctly.This one has to be the worst goof up of all time by any grading Co. if this is a hammer job. even a beginning collector should be able to identify this coin as a hammer job at first glance. look at the backward and sunken in letters of the word America then look at the pillars of the memorial building on Lincolns chin...There is absolutely no way that a reverse die can clash with the obverse die and transfer the design far enough up into the sunken in areas of the die to transfer the design onto Lincoln's chin. a die clash can be severe enough to be across Lincoln's neck but never on his chin area because that is impossible. I'm going to try to see what I can do if anything to stop ICG from authenticating coins wrong. The raw fake coins on auction are bad enough and it is a disaster if we can not trust the slabbed coins. I have seen coins slabbed wrong by all of the major grading companies. I trust ANACS above all of the others my self as the one to make less goof ups. hey don't get mad at me for liking ANACS coins. I'm just old fashioned and stick to the oldest and most reliable company. I informed the seller of this coin that it looked altered and received some not too nice replys and what I think is a bunch of lies.They say the reverse side of this coin don't even show a tiny bit of damage , well I will know when I receive the coin if I ever do. How many of you good folks think I should give them a negative? I'm thinking they deserve one.
I agree it's probably a squeeze job. Just one minor point Rascal, the reversed incuse lettering isn't an indicator that it isn't a clash. If lettering is transfered to the oppisite die, it'll be transfered as positive. Then when that die strikes a coin it would show up as negative, just like a hammer job. The key is whether the reverse is rotated or not. If it's rotated the same as the marks on the obverse then what?
go back and take your time and read my last post and you can see why this coin is definately not a clashed die coin. The only possibility of it being a real mint error that I can think of would be for a big stack of already struck coins to get built up on top of this coin while it was still resting on the reverse die. then when the dies tried to strike another coin the stack of coins had the dies about blocked and a small section of another coin got pushed on a slight angle into this one without the full force of the dies.I know this would be about totally impossible but sometimes the almost impossibles do happen. Heck I may have a thousand dollar coin here and not even know it. LOL We will all know soon as I receive the coin if I ever do.
I read and comprehended your post very well. I said I agree it's probably a hammer job. I was merely making a point about clashed lettering.
i think somebody had a real clash in that case. then they removed it and placed a b.s. coin in. it may not have been the ebay seller who did the change over.it could have been before them.imo today people will do a lot for just $10.00
Here's a heat damaged coin from a guy with tons of feedback and 100% positive http://www.ebay.com/itm/One-Kind-RA...22?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item3cbef4ccd6