To Crack or not To Crack

I am an eclectic collector of coins who collects what interests me at the moment. I have some nice coins and lots that are of interest to me. Until recently I did not own a slabed coin. I saw an offer on e-bay for a large cent PCGS Genuine Surface Damage 1837 – Head of 1838 for a low price. The picture with the offering was pathetic, but I decided to put in a low bid, and I got the coin. Examined in-hand, I am mostly happy with the coin, even with the damage. My picture taking skills are minimal, but I wanted to raise a discussion about some things to do with the coin. First, the damage I see is on the reverse in the form of a couple of gouges in the center. Is this the reason it is classified as PCGS Genuine Surface Damage? How bad does damage need to be for TPG’s to classify it as such? What would be the grade without the damage? What do people think would be the price in or out of the holder? And finally, should I crack it out or not?

 

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It's hard to say what it takes for a TPG to slap the "genuine" tag on a coin, sometimes I think they are just in a bad mood. I have seen too many coins body-bagged for questionable reasons. In this case, I think the reverse gouges are the reason for the no grade. Yours looks to be a VG-8 Details, net G-4 with the reverse damage. Worth about $20-25. I would crack it out, nobody pays extra for for a coin certified to have a problem.

 

Part of me wants to call this piece F-12, but I'm not familiar with these pieces and probably totally off base. Any chance this piece was struck with rusty dies? I've read that quite often here, but again, I'm not familiar with what to look for. I'm also for cracking out the coin. I think it would do better in the wild.........

 

I always crack graded coins out of the slab after I buy them, as I prefer to display them in air tites. I especially would have no problem cracking that coin out of it's holder, because it was kinda silly for someone to have payed for the submission in the first place. It probably doesn't need to be mentioned, but as a matter of ethics, keep the tag and be honest about the previous grading results if you ever go to sell it.

 

Yeah, I wondered why it was slabed. I have no plans to sell it, but as far as keeping the tag and revealing it, does surface damage REALLY need to be revealed? It is not really hidden. BTW, I paid $15.50 + $1.89 shipping.

 

The "GENUINE" gets placed on the label usually because the coin is not gradable because of the amount of damage, over dipping or harsh cleaning, etc. They saying the coin is real but not gradable.

 

Well that's true, it's not hidden. And, I'm in agreement with you that a couple of good dings should not render a coin ungradable. But, that is what the grading service determined, therefore, full disclosure should involve providing that info. Just good general practice I suppose.

Makes for a decent example at $17.39

 

I know why they put the label there, but I had a proof 25th anniversary ASE shipped directly from the mint to NGC rejected for grading and determined to be cleaned. I have a RP-69 a PR-69 and a "genuine" as a 25th anniversary set.

 

How did you get the mint to ship a coin to NGC for you?

 

Was it shipped sealed in the mint packaging or was it send to NGC after is was opened. I find it hard to believe that they unsealed a new set and then determined it to be cleaned.

 

That was the same question that came to mind when I read it. Everybody would do that to save shipping and time. But the real danger would come from non-receipt of merchandise. The Mint wouldn't want that burden on them.

 

I guess I should have been clearer about the circumstance of my ASE set. I received the package and shipped it back out the same day with a box with the originality mint package unopened within it to NGC.

I read on another post that others had packaging from the mint with loose coins (coins that come out of their airtights). I assume this is what happened, but I don't really know.

 

PCGS is now also giving grade level with the no-grade coins like this, but you have to ask for it. So "Fine" or VF details would be a plus to have in a holder. A lot of people want to blow out details graded coins; alternative is to go back to the dealer who sold it to you and see if they will give you anything for the problem coin. Such people frankly need feedback and if they are running a one-way business where they will not acknowledge their misjudgments, look elsewhere.

In a low price coin like this worth about what it cost to certify you could wait until you have an expert look the coin over to see if the "stigmatization" of the coin as a problem was accurate or overzealous.

 

I am quite sure the graders are not the ones opening the packages. A more likely scenario would be a lower-end employee opened the mint package (as with any submissions) and the coins were later passed onto a grader unaware they had been shipped in the sealed mint box.

 

If you're not going to sell it , then crack that baby out . Those hits don't look bad to me , they should have graded it .

 

This amounts to personal preference!

 

Well, don't know how the devil that could amount to a 'cleaned' designation. From what I'm understanding, you sent an un-opened box from the mint to a third party grader and they deemed the coin cleaned? The 'moving around' in the conveyance was suspect to cleaning? These guys gotta get a new set of eyes.......

 

I would have called out NGC on that. What justification could they have to body bag as cleaned a coin fresh from the mint?

 

Just reading a thread showing lots of fake large cents. Maybe it makes sense to leave it in the slab. Still don't know why someone would slab a low-priced coin, even with no "surface damage" this would not be a high-buck item.

 

I think he said they rejected it from grading, wouldn't even slab it.

He's not too clear on the facts.