I have a 1909-S IHC (full LIBERTY, 1 diamond) that under certain lighting conditions has fine scratches in the left obverse field between the "UNITED STATES" and the indian head - nothing on the letters or indian head. It also has some fine scratches around the field where the date is stamped - one seems to go over the 0 but most are in the fields. Nothing on the right side of the obverse. If you can make any of this out in my picture could you give me your opinion? Just some stupid kid with steel wool?, and if it was whizzed wouldn't the fine scratches be over the entire obvers not just the mentioned field? And with this damage how will it effect the cost of this coin. Like I stated before - you can't really see them unless you tilt it a little under a light source or viewed with a 10X loupe. Any info will be appreciated - thanks.
Those are pretty nasty scratches, definitely would severely impact the value. Not really whizzed or steel wool, looks like somebody scraped at it with a knife or something.
My dad had a bunch of old coins when he was young, long story short, he buried 50% of them in his backyard, the 50% he made "shiny" with a hammer and chisel, steel wool, or a screw driver, I think only 25 percent of them are decent shape now. Yes, That is 125% for all you math whizzes.
I can hear it now - "Hey son, give me your coin collection - I just bought a bottle of Tarn-X and Brasso!!"
That's what I would say but don't know how much. A self proclaimed coin grading genius from CT told me bag marks and scratches doesnt lower the condition of a non-graded coin - I say a bunch of bullcrapsky - what say you???
I completely agree with you, professionally graded or not a bunch of bag marks and/or scratches IS going to affect the grade by a lot depending on the severity. I would rather by a really nice raw coin for $30 than one covered in scratches and bag marks for $10. On many different times I paid the extra money to get a very nice higher grade RAW MS Morgan dollar, I think it was completely worth it.
This was a few years ago but I showed the dealar how the scratches could really be seen in the right light - got it for 180$ - don't know if that is good or bad - I see prices for undamaged coins!
While I do not know who said this, or in what context it was put to you, but generally speaking, until here long enough to learn who knows what they're talking about and who just thinks they do, such self fluffery should be taken with a grain of salt. As for the coin itself, the damage displayed, unfortunately, goes well beyond simple (or possibly forgivable) "scratches". It is severely damaged, and this will have a major impact on both value and collector interest, regardless of the date/mint. The unfortunate fact is that many to most collectors will avoid such material, even if offered for next to nothing, if it were to go into their collections, and in times past may have avoided altogether. However, with the eBay monster, such coins can fairly easily be placed as long as the price is "right", so while I cannot comfortably estimate (what I believe to be) a fair collector-to-collector value
(CONT.) You can rest assured that someone out there would buy it, and probably pay more than they should.
Yes - but it fills a hole in the album untill I find 500$ laying around that I don't know what to do with. Or I could just get one from this roll for 20$ - LOL Ebay of course!!
