Just recieved my last set of grades from PCGS this morning. Im very pleased. Only the first 1 surprised me. 1767 Spain 1/2 Escudo AU50 1786 Spain 1/2 Escudo AU53 1907 Fengtien 20 Cash Y11e AU58 1906 Kwangtung 10 Cash Y10r AU58
Very nice. When did they get scanned in at pcgs? I have some there and I am wondering how much longer I have to wait. I like those gold... let me know if they ever go up for sale
Grades just popped this morning. Cant even view pictures yet. Alas the gold are for my daughter. I want to say about a week and a half after arriving at pcgs
Great looking stuff, Britannia! Congrats on the grades and hopefully the first grade was a pleasant surprise.
I still find it odd there are not close-up picture of just the coin. Does anyone know if this is a normal thing?
I would've guessed that, too, even though I knew those "scratches" under the crown and shield on the first coin were adjustment marks. I suppose PCGS got it right. Those may detract a little bit from the coin's value, but they can't really be considered "problems" since they were made on the flan by the mint, before the striking. That's a good outcome. AU50 would've also been a pleasant surprise for me. I almost bought one of these with some really nice antique coppery toning, once, but just missed the opportunity. Seeing how yours graded out makes me think I should pay attention to these some more. They're great little historical gold coins and are still relatively affordable.
Yep. For anybody else who's reading this and wondering what "adjustment marks" are, they were done by the mint, usually with a file, to bring a gold or silver planchet (flan) down to the correct weight. This is why you'll often see them as a series of parallel grooves. Sometimes the die pressure of the subsequent striking of the coin obliterated the marks, and sometimes they can still be seen, either faintly, or as in the case above, more noticeably. Like some eye appeal issues such as dark or uneven toning or things like that, adjustment marks are considered to be a minor detraction, but they aren't really a "problem", since they were done by the mint prior to the striking of the coin. This is why the coin above straight-graded. In my experience, this is most often seen on 18th century coins, which of course the little half-escudo above is.
I'll add that I'm more accustomed to seeing adjustment marks on bigger silver coins than small gold ones like this. And I don't know why they often filed the flat sides of the blanks/flans/planchets. Seems to me it would've been easier and more aesthetically pleasing if they'd done the filing on the edges? Anybody know anything more about this?
@jwitten- It is my understanding that this is how the PCGS affiliates in Europe and Asia image the coins. The TrueView template you're more accustomed to seeing is a USA thing.
