Ever had a nice coin mailed to you loose in a manilla envelope?

This coin was shipped to me in a bubble envelope loose inside a 2x2 manilla envelope from overseas. I believe the very slight rubs on the highpoints of Miss Liberties features are the result of sliding around on the paper over its long journey. The seller was a antiques dealer (glass and china)who it seems happened to pick up a few old coins. Packing china is different than packing coins. If you don't regularly send and receive coins it would be easy to make the mistake this seller did. A friendly reminder to keep our coins secure when shipping, it can keep a coin from going from UNC to AU on a long journey.

 

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I truly doubt that a coin can deteriorate that quickly even if it took a couple of weeks to ship it.

I used to purchase a lot of medals from European sellers, and the oddest way I found one to be packaged is when the seller cut apart pieces of a cereal box and taped them together with the medal inside.

Chris

 

It takes more than a 2 week trip to create that amount of wear. But yeah, nice AU55 anyway. Tougher date, too.
I've had all sorts of mailing methods that make you smack your forehead. Ugh.

 

I had a seller ship one in a plain white envelope inside a saflip. There was no discernible return address, he spelled my name wrong and address was hard to read as all was written with a wide black sharpie. I paid $23 for the coin, which traveled all over the US before finally arriving in my mailbox. The envelope had a rip, hi-low looking tire track and my then 8 yr old said Hey Dad I think your coin arrived but you ain't gonna like it.

The envelope had a weird insurance tag on it and IIRC the printed cost said $4.12. The coin was pushed half out the flip but otherwise undamaged.

I left the seller positive feedback and also sent a note about how to ship it properly and for much less money.

Did I get a Thanks? No. The seller responded with "Listen, I'm a professional numismatist dealing coins for years and always ship this way and mine was his first complaint". He then went on to say I didn't know what I was talking about regarding costs and running a business.

I found his reply rather irritating and couldn't resist. I replied that a professional numismatist wouldn't sell a $4K coin for $23 let alone ship it in a envelope.

With this he cursed me and made reference to balls. Last time I ever tried to help someone save money on shipping.

 

I bought a lot of 45 V nickels off eBay based on some really crappy photos. Looked like a reasonably nice 1886 was sitting in the middle of the pile. Paid up for the lot, $130ish knowing that I may be using the eBay return policy if the ‘86 wasn’t in there. The 45 nickels were placed loose in an old tin band-aid can, placed in a padded envelope and shipped. The ‘86 is pictured below. Still thought the loose band-aid can was funny.

 

I bought one off eBay a while back and it arrived scotch tapped to a piece of cardboard!

 

I have to know the story on this: incredible cherry pick, dealer listing error, or something else?

 

It would also be a very effective way to troll a dealer like this that you don't plan on patronizing again.

 

I had a relatively low value coin come to me back around 2001-2 that was in a 2x2, taped to a piece of cardboard and then sandwiched with another piece of cardboard, both from a cut down priority mail box. It was then put inside a kraft envelope. Reasonable way to ship, and this wouldn't have been a problem except for the fact that at that time the USPS was irradiating and/or cooking a lot of mail due to anthrax scares. The thermal meter strip was brown and barely legible. I opened the package to reveal that the tape and Mylar from the 2x2 had melted onto the coin.

 

I believe the coin was already AU before it was shipped.

 

So, you physically removed what you could, then gave it an acetone soak, and all was well, right?

 

I once bought a fully red late 19th century world copper from a seller in Europe. By the time it got to me it was brown. They had wrapped it in red colored cling wrap with some drops of lemon juice on it and then sent it the slowest possible way (took almost 2 months to get to me). Yeah. I sent it back.

 

This was back during my Cherry Pickin days. At the time I was stuck in the house tied to an IV pole and had picked up the CPG. I'd just sold my first Cherry Pick of the 53 Proof RTF Quarter for a record of $3,549, (Pop then was 4 in 66 with 1 finer),when I spotted another one from Mr. Envelope. That coin albeit in transit for two weeks traveling the Globe and run over by a hi-lo looked real good. It came back 67, and I let it go in a best offer at $3,500. Shortly thereafter, picked another from JT for a buyitnow at $28. Made another 67. Continued on with several more and sold my last 67 a few years later at $1,025. I'd sold by that point several lower grade examples and also found one with strong potential for a 68...until I dropped it. So that's the lengthy backstory. I blocked the guy from bidding on my stuff as he seemed really mad.

 

Funny, but YOU KILLED THE MARKET on those! LOL!

 

I once bought a double eagle off ebay and it was sent registered mail,thank god,because the guy mailed a $1350 double eagle in a normal letter envelope and it was half open by the time it got to me. I couldn't believe it and messaged the seller and he never replied.

 

Acetone took care of the tape, but wouldn't budge the Mylar.

 

I think it was AU also, I was inferring that a darker toned unc. specimen could easily have a light spot rubbed into the highpoints with enough travel. In hand the above coin's rub marks are fresh and more noticeable than in my pics.

 

I once cherry picked a beautiful unc. RB 2 cent piece from poor photos for $25. When it arrived it was in a plain white envelope that had clearly been run through usps metal rollers several times. The surfaces were fantastic, but the rims looked like they had been run through a garbage disposal from all of the damage from the rollers. It was sad to see a coin that was so nice, destroyed by careless packaging like that.

 

Oof.

 

The packing while not sufficient are not the cause of the rubs on the coin. If you think about the long journey it took to get to you and associate those runs to the packaging then all I can think of is by the time every coin in circulation was used for a full year that coin would be almost completely run away from the wear and handling.