SEGS and Capped Busts

Why do i seem to see so many Bust Capped coinage in SEGS slabs?

Ruben

 

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Because Larry Briggs is a main dealer in the area of Bust and seated coins and he is also a grader/authenticator at SEGS.

 

and owner

 

You can't go wrong with a coin graded and sold to you by Larry Briggs.

 

He seems to chew even finer than NGC and PCGS.

I've seen a Franklin under one of his labels, designation, 75% FBL.

 

Is that a fact or toung and cheek?

 

What I can say, is that I have done business with Larry since the late 70's, . That collection of Seated Types are now all gone. I have always found him pleasing to work with and generous with his time in discussing coins with me.

 

He is a tough grader.

 

So I can trust a grade on an SEG Bust coin? Halfs and Quarters, Dimes and Half Dimes?

 

So larry briggs be damn, you still can not generally trust a grade in a SEGS coin (lately i don't trust a grade in PSGC). With Busts, I'm not that familiar with grading. An Vf 45 is pretty much what it is but I can't destinguish and AU grade

 

Yeah, I remember when the SEGS first appeared on scene. Some dealers treated them like the plague, and in some instances it got quite nasty. Larry has always stood behind his coins and assigned grade 100% by me.

 

Not so much. Watch for problem coins in numbered slabs. This is just as much a problem as their liberal grading, at least if your goal is to get the coin into PCGS or NGC plastic. To add to what Doug said, if you have a certain variety want it certified on the cheap, and could care less about the holder, they are not that bad for this purpose. I kind of like SEGS holders as they are much more attractive than ICG or new ANACS (IMO), but as for confidence in the grade... no.

 

Ruben Bust halves are so tough to grade because they were often weakly struck with bad dies , some MS coins had hardly ant hair detail and the reverses are just as bad . Still they are one of my favorite coins . Id still stick with PCGS and NGC , but I buy most of my busties raw .

 

You bring up one of my main problems with third party grading of many early series coins, the inherent problem of standardizing grades for coins which were not standardized products.

 

More like he's more loose than the TPGs.

75% FBL?

Not hardly!

 

You can't TRUST a grade in ANY grading service slab. You ALWAYS have to determine if it comes up to what you feel the grade is.

And the SEGS attributions are much more likely to be correct than those of PCGS or NGC. And if you are a variety collector you want those attributions to be right.

Agreed.

So FBL is all or nothing right? And there is no difference between a coin that has most of the bell lines there and one that is completely flat with no bell lines. If you can't afford a FBL coin you would be perfectly happy with the completely flat one.

I think if I was a bell line fanatic I would like to know how much of the bell lines ARE there. Sounds to me like a service SEGS provides that the others don't.

 

Maybe we use standardize in two different ways. Part of the goal of TPG grading on coins was to open the coin market up to an investor market which needs liquidity and fungibility in their investment. It also helped dealers trade sight unseen by relying on the grading party, an efficiency improvement that the TPGs could tap into and monetize. This works wonderfully with Morgan dollars where there is not much difference between a two MS64s, but does not work nearly as well with these early series, the early coins are just not fungible as mid to late 1800 coins are.

As to the claim of knowing and grading based on strike characteristics of a specific coin I think the answer is probably somewhere in the middle. I have seen plenty of S24 and S65 large cent's overgraded by TPG due their unique high points (cheeks on S24, lower left rim on S65) protecting other obverse surface detail from wear. They may take it into consideration for some coins, but I know they don't do it for all.

 

I can't appreciate your dissatisfaction with the 75% designation. Before you folks jump on the " OLD" hype about SEGS, I'd like to repeat my experience with Larry Briggs, Larry Briggs Rare Coins and SEGS. If I were still in the specialized collecting arena, I would not hesitate to do business with him or either of his business associations.