I just came across this new listing on eBay: 1892 Barber Half PCGS F12 Net graded from 15 due to obv. Rim Damage In My Opinio I never would have guessed that a coin with one rim hit deforming the denticles, and another deep enough to hit the field as well, could possibly get a clean grade. I submitted one Liberty-head gold piece to ANACS hoping that it would hit AU. It came back detailed due to a rim hit that's practically invisible in the slab, and looked quite minor when I submitted it. It was certainly much less pronounced than the ones here. What do you think? If you have them, post some images of clean-graded coins with significant rim issues. I'd like to refine my expectations.
Rim problems on otherwise problem free coins are a real pet-peeve of mine. I own a few graded examples, and on one or two, the rim issues really bothers me to the point I will end up selling them. for other collectors, rim damage doesn't bother them at all. I think the TPG are very inconsistent with body bagging (or not) coins for rim issues. Although, from my perspective, they are inconsistent with EVERY aspect of coin grading. Your eBay example almost looks like ex-jewelry, but I don't see any damage on top. grade or not, it is certainly distracting damage to me....
I would suppose that they are more accepting of rim issues on lower graded coins, but I'm surprised that half dollar didn't get shot down because of those very noticeable and severe dings. I'm even more surprised your gold coin got body bagged. Where is the damage on it? I see a couple tiny nicks on its rims but nothing that's inconsistent with how much it circulated.
I showed it to a dealer not long after I bought it, and he said it was ex-jewelry. I took him at his word, and figured ANACS might say the same, but TBH it looked pretty good to me. The ANACS rep at the show where I submitted it said he didn't think the rim ding was enough to keep it from grading. I'm guessing that the number and position of nicks led people to think that it was ex-jewelry. Again, though, I'm puzzled that they didn't say so on the slab. Oddly, in their list of codes, they have one for ex-jewelry but not one for "rim bump"!
I had a Morgan with a rim bump where it is an issue because of their size. I was told to dump and did so but surprised it sold for $35 in 5 minutes. Sounds to me whether not the rim bump was intentionally done or not or the size of the coin.
Pretty much anytime the question of severity comes into play in the already inconsistent grading of the TPGs, that inconsistency is greatly magnified. And often there is no rhyme or reason to it. And of course it also varies from TPG to TPG. And it's not just with rim dings, it's with everything - harsh cleaning, scratches, damage, planchet flaws, over-dipping, etc - anything that can garner the problem coin designations.
