Anyone else enjoy taking a gamble on bad pictures when bidding on or buying coins? I do it all the time, and it works out well more often than not. Latest gamble result: $9.99 + $3.75 shipping on ebay Obverse has decent amount of red luster remaining. Reverse has a few spots, but also blue-green satin luster that does not come through in the pictures but is quite attractive in hand. Also one of the better varieties with raised line on ship hull and no gun ports.
I suspect that the reason you got it for $9.99 was because of the multitude of black spots on the reverse which were probably a turn-off to others. Chris
Really curious what the sellers pics look like. Honestly, you probably paid about what the coin is worth - the obverse looks like its been cleaned (that color is not what you'd expect for a 200 year old copper coin), and the reverse looks corroded (black and green are both colors you don't -usually- want to see on copper).
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1799-Nice-G...bd%2FcmwH0oZUjquQR5dY%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc I'm sure that is exactly the reason. Couldn't make out much of the reverse in the sellers pics aside from the spots.
Nah it hasn't been cleaned, probably stored in old material on the reverse though. The obverse is normal brown with some red remaining, but nothing unusual about it. It's very nice in hand, though the reverse spots are a little distracting. I've seen comparable pieces going for 7-8 times what I paid, sometimes more.
I took another picture with flash, on my iphone so it's not a great picture, but shows the surface contrast between brown and leftover luster.
