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What in the world happened to that penny?

 

Massive lamination error.

 

Very cool looking coin!

 

I missed the rim damage on the seller's photo on eBay. They also neglected to mention it in their description.



But I certainly saw it when I removed the coin from the 2x2 and see it in my photos. It's on the obverse at the 5:00 position and seems to have peeled away a bit as if hit by a sharp edge.

If this were your purchase, would you send it back or keep it?

 

New acquisition

 

Depends on how much I paid, but if it wasn’t much I’d keep it... nice looking coin.

 

I haven't bought anything lately, but I've always liked these.
Sellers images.

 

A small upgrade to my Roosevelt 1946-64 set.

 

I have been looking for one of these for a while now but they were all too pricey for me.

So I seriously looked at this offering at David Lawrence. It said “cleaned” but the photos didn’t look so bad.





When I got the package it was in a corrugated cardboard adhesive wrapper, with a layer of bubble wrap taped around it, inside a padded mailer. And yet, the slab was cracked on both sides right across the middle of the coin.

Given that it’s graded at the very bottom of the MS scale, I had nothing to lose by cracking it a bit more. Say, completely.

The coin is extremely shiny. I had to shorten the exposure quite a lot to eliminate blowout on the reflective hot spots. I am thrilled with the luster.

Maybe it’s cleaned; maybe it’s not that important to me.



Edit: I had a problem with my white balance, so this is a replacement image.

 

Your animated gif is really nice! Great coin.

 

Thanks, John. Considering how much I like your photos that means a lot.

I don't mean to bore anyone, but I am having a hard time with coins that are graded as Cleaned. Let me be specific. Below you will find the reverse at CoinTalk's maximum size. Feel free to click it and take a close look.





Yes, I see scratches on the bear's body and I see scratches in the fields. However, I cannot find any that carry from the fields up over the body. The lines in the field disappear at the edge of the body, which is characteristic of die scratches made on the flat surface of the die.

The ones on the body I would expect to also spill over if someone were wire-brushing the high spots. And how would you scrub inside the curve of the back leg without touching any of the higher relief around it?

To my admittedly inexpert eye every scratch seems to be more likely on the die than administered after striking.

Anyone should feel free to correct my thinking - I can't be the only person who needs more education on this subject.

Edit: I fixed a white balance problem with my camera and replaced the images.

 

New acquisition. This puts the wraps on two PCGS gold registry sets!

 

Ok I bought the slab...... couldn't help myself ...... these trend in the $150 +/- range.... > $65.

Actually this type trends for $100. Pcgs go for more $

 

Got this pair at a local pawn shop. 1 for me 1 for the father in law. 28 a piece

 

I think one reason the fields look so satiny, but without what is strictly a "cartwheel" shape to the luster, lies in this quote from the NGC web site.

The 1925 California Jubilee Half Dollar was struck in commemoration of the state’s 75th anniversary. The San Francisco Citizen’s Advisory committee, headed by future mayor Angelo J. Rossi, was the organization which spearheaded the push for the production of the coin. At the time, commemoratives were already beginning to become a sore point for Mint officials. In fact, the coin might not have even been made at all had it not been for President Calvin Coolidge personally endorsing two separate commemoratives for Vermont. The California Jubilee Commemorative was slipped into the bill for those two coins, which passed on February 24, 1925.

The committee then set to work finding a designer for the coin. They eventually asked local well-renowned sculptor Jo Mora to design a coin that would help capture the spirit of the state’s Diamond Jubilee. He employed two symbolic motifs: a Gold Rush prospector for the obverse and a grizzly bear on the reverse. An interesting touch that Mora made was to ensure that the fields of the coin remained unpolished, leaving the boldly textured surface just as it was on the sculptor’s model.
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It's definitely surprising, but I have been making offers on coins in details slabs and nobody else bids on them. Of course I inspect the photos scrupulously first, but, still, I have gotten the impression that mistakes are made in this area. Or, there is damage, but it is so obscure that they ought to have dropped the coin a grade, but not from MS 67 to the equivalent of MS60.

Example 1: A 1924 Standing Liberty quarter that was sold as PCGS Unc Details (92 - Cleaned). I garnered a number of opinions on this thread, but the consensus was that the surfaces retain all the delicate structure and detail from a fresh die (it doesn't even have flow lines), and that only some variations in light dispersion may have made one spot look cleaned. I paid $118 and I think it is worth $1500 if it is really MS65. At MS 66 FH it's $2550.



Example 2: A 1917 Walking Liberty half. It is marked as PCGS Unc Details (Machine Wrap Damage). I paid $112.50. Eventually, with much of CoinTalk examining the coin (see Do you ever buy "details" coins?), we were able to locate a tiny mark parallel to the reverse rim at the 8:30 position. I just looked again and cannot find the mark with the naked eye. If this straight graded at MS65 it would be a $1150 coin. At MS 66 it's $3150. And with this toning, who knows?