This Coin Is Beautiful, But Not FBL

Even if the lines are there on the left, there are still two huge gashes in the upper right set.

 

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Your point is taken -- but now give me an actual comparable auction house with better images than GC? Images from any of the other people you mentioned are definitely better than GC, but none of those people are auction houses. Even airplanenut doesn't have the throughput of an auction house.

The capability of producing good images and the effort needed to consistently produce good images at the throughput levels of an auction house are two different things. My point was that you were dogging on GC, who IMO has the nicest photos of all of the auction houses.

 

I would say exactly like a technical AU 58 gets bumped to MS because it is a superb coin, even though there are clear signs of rub.

Mike

 

PCGS does. Don't they only have like 2 photographers? I think 2 is a reasonable number of numismatic photographers for an auction house the size of Heritage to employ, given how many coins they sell.

 

Yes, and PCGS isn't an auction house either. You pay for the images from PCGS -- thus they can take the time to give you glamour shots. I personally don't care for the images that PCGS takes most of the time. They are overly optimistic visions of the coin's true look, and the color is consistently red-shifted (as has been discussed many times on many forums).

Heritage sells thousands of coins per week -- there is no way 2 full time numismatic photographers could give the coins the kind of attention that any of the previously named individuals give each coin. I don't know how many coins PCGS images per week, but I'd safely bet it is substantially fewer than Heritage.

 

I don't have much experience with them, but I think Legend Morphy's photos are better at least for toned coins.

 

That's possible...their images are decent. Again though, super small throughput compared to places like Heritage and GC. Also, I hate to judge the photos of auctions sites (as you seem to) based only on their ability to photograph toned coins. The majority of coins sold are not tarnished in "purdy" colors, so I'm much more interested in their ability to consistently capture luster and surface conditions -- not just toning.

And, for the record, as it has been for nearly a year now, it's just "Legend" -- they dropped the Morphy association quite a while back (May 2014).

 

Fair enough. I picked toned coins because it was the subject of the thread, and I often think it is more difficult to capture toning well than to photograph most blast white pieces. And re Legend, I know, but for whatever reason, I still always forget to take away Morphy.

 

My thought is that PCGS would have thrown it in a 65+ or 66 holder for the color. I must also say that I am surprised that the coin sold for more than $900. That's not too far away from the price of a 67 FBL (maybe $400-$500 or so).

 

I paid only $260 for my nicely toned 1958-D NGC MS66FBL type coin -- and mine has 100% Full Bell Lines! I don't think the coin in the OP is worth nearly 4 times mine, but what do I know.

 

I agree with you that your coin is nicer and that the GC piece sold for a ridiculous premium. I paid a similar price ($220) for this PCGS MS66 FBL: