1876 trade dollar

But the worst damage was the polish. That is the harshest damage to this coin right now. Its unlikely, but if its real that polish just cost you huge money sir. That was my main point. Like I said, not saying I have never made mistakes either, but I would feel horrible if someone read this thread and EVER thought it was a good idea to do the same.

 

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even if you only paid $18 as bullion and it is real, you just totaled destroyed a coin that is worth a nice amount. first rule. never clean a coin. yikes. well either way i hope it's real

 

I don't think any of us in this thread meant any harm with our posts, nor did we want to make you feel bad. We just simply want to look out for the collector community and keep counterfeit coins off the market. Happy Collecting!

NEVER, under any circumstances clean or alter coin in anyway, shape, or form! Please leave that to the professionals at NCS.

 

he bought the 9 morgans from me even though they were also hideous looking. All sold in the same lot and he thought the Morgans had been through a fire as well. He never brought up the cleaned status. Only the structural damge on coin IE scratches pitting and rim damage.

 

I'm sure the OP understands by now the point you guys are making. I don't think we have to continue preaching about the evils of coin cleaning. I'm more concerned as to why a professional grader couldn't verify the authenticity of this coin. However, with an 80% chance that it's genuine I'd like to see it in a details slab.

 

I agree! :thumb:

 

I have a trade dollar I bought raw off of someone on this forum , I've had many people look at it and most think it's real . I took it in to Harlan Berks for Tom Delorey to look at . Hes probably seen and written about more trade dollars than most experts . He told me that though nothing jumped out at him as fake he thought it was a high quality fake but couldn't be 100% sure without further testing . Weight was spot on . So it is possible for a person not to be 100% sure either way . One day I'll send it in to a tpg to find out . Even next to my slabbed TDs it looks great .

 

ok so now to put this thread out of its misery I sold the coin today to a gold and silver shop that also buys coins. I got $65 for the infamous coin in this thread. I am more than satisfied by more than tripling my investment in 1 day.

 

I've got to say, this has been one of the most entertaining threads I've ever read on Coin Talk. What a cast of characters! First there's a guy who's not a dealer but who nevertheless manages to get his hands on valuable US coins and sells them just for their (supposed) metal value, even though there's a dealer who could probably give him significantly more for them. Either that person is buying his coins from people who are even less knowledgeable than he is (to put it charitably), or he is selling fakes that the dealer wouldn't buy, or he doesn't want to bring attention to himself.

Then we have the jewelers who obviously don't know anything about coins, polishing up a Trade Dollar to make it all nice and shiny again. "There! She's good as new!"

Then we have the dealer who supposedly worked for PCGS but is "80% certain" that a highly questionable Trade Dollar that isn't even standard weight, is real. I guess we know now why he doesn't work for PCGS anymore.

And then there are the guys in the gold and silver shop who plunk down $65 for a trade dollar of dubious integrity.

Man, o man. I need to know where this town is so I'll know never to buy coins from there.

 

glad I could entertain you. now go find someone else to focus on. The LCS owner correctly diagnosed the house fire reason for the damages to this coin and the 9 Morgans in the same lot. You however did not so his eye was better than yours so no need for you to belittle him too. I don't give a rats ass where you buy your coins. You seem to think you know everything so I am sure you will do well.

 

Everyone just calm down please.

Jerry, I will be honest and say I am suspicious of the trade dollar as well. TBH I hope I am right and it is a fake that got destroyed.

I am suspicious of if because:

1. Its a trade dollar found nowadays
2. Softness of devices
3. Some telltale signs of artificial treatment being done by chinese counterfeiters nowadays,

I am also suspicious of a "former PCGS grader" saying something like "80% chance" of it being good. I have talked to these men, in fact have met the founders of both PCGS and NGC, and have never heard such things being said. In my experience, they either like the coin, or refuse to say. I have never heard them give percentage chances of it being real, but I am not saying they couldn't.

Trade dollars have been faked a long time. Heck, I could get a decent fake back in the late 80's. My suspicion is this is a fake that might have been mixed in with morgans and then had smoke damage. People think fakes had to have been made last week. Fakes have been around as long as coins have been made.

Its the internet Jerry. Don't let people get under your skin, and you will last longer around here.

 

Interesting thread...nah. Whiney griping (seemingly) endless ends with OP selling something most think was fake and making money and patting himself on the back. Blech!

 

When I first posted this thread I wanted to get an approxiate value on the coin. If I buy a lot of silver coins for bullion I will look through them to see if any of them might be worth more than melt. Anyone else I think would do the same thing. As far as patting myself on the back goes it is nice to make a little money on a sale. There were nearly as many folks who thought it was real as there were who thought it fake. Lots of the people who said it was fake did so because of what I paid for the coin. Too good to be true I guess. I became upset with some of these posts because I didn't need the no cleaning lessons so profusely put out. I also did not like the comments made by people who did not ever see the coin in hand and thought they could make definitive statements by my very so-so images. I do not remember any whining. Maybe bantering back and forth but anyway it is time to move on from this thread.

 

So... because some metal buying business supposedly bought it from you, this is proof that the dealer was correct; not only about authenticity, but also about how the damaged occurred? Interesting....

 

I agree. To be told over and over that should shouldn't clean a coin borders on the ridiculous as far as I'm concerned. I believe you got $65 for your trade dollar because it was cleaned.

 

If you didn't need the lessons, why did you let someone clean the coin?

If you took a coin that, if genuine, was worth perhaps hundreds of dollars, and turned it into a coin that, if genuine, was worth less than a hundred, do you expect us not to say "that was kind of a bad idea"?

 

The coin was never worth hundreds of dollars. My guy I bought it from is a collector of Morgans mostly. Do you think he would have sold me a trade dollar for melt if it did not have serious issues? He is not an idiot. Have you never messed with a coin to try and make it look better? If it had low value to begin with I bet you have. That coin looked very bad in hand. Lots of dents, rim dings, pitting etc. The color of it was so bad you would question if it was even silver. So no I don't feel bad about making it look at least like the metal it started out to be.

 

I just wish you cleaned it in a less harmful way . Many a YN would love a TD in their collection , heck even some adults . I think that's all people are saying . Polishing is one of the worst things to do to a coin . Here's to learning from our mistakes .

 

I do hereby promise to never polish or let someone else polish a coin again!

 

Cross your heart and hope to die and look the devil in the eye?