Recently I purchased and posted pictures of a 1925 official Calvin Coolidge inaugural medal. There are not a lot of these pieces around or offered so I have a few photos of examples that have been sold in recent years. I was surprised that the piece I purchased was the same one Heritage sold a few years ago. On the surface the Heritage auctioned piece looked totally different, but a detailed examination revealed that it's the same medal. A coin doctor did a lot of work on it to improve it. I know that doctors have a bad reputation, but in this case, I can't complain. The piece looks much better. Here the before: And here is the after. Check out the location of the remaining spot on Coolidge's coat collar and the residue of the other spots. Interestingly I paid less than half of what this piece sold for at Heritage.
"Coin doctor" seems like a negative connotation. I guess it's why the TPGs call it "conservation" instead of doctoring. I wonder if the TPG did it or the previous owner? Less than half price from $16250, gosh... previous owner took a bath on that one!
While the color seems a bit bright and "pink" in your pictures, I'm sure it will retone with time. In this case, it seems like there were some bits of gunk especially on the obverse that needed to be removed before they caused further damage (the spot on the lapel already seems permanent).
The piece is actually a little darker than the picture. The spot on the coat does not bother me, given the grade of the piece. Many Harding and Coolidge pieces have a lot worse than that. It's hard to figure out what the original finish was on these pieces. Many of them seem to be damaged. I know this is not it, however. It may have been more like this, which a 1929 Herbert Hoover inaugural medal. The mintage for this was 1,012, which is neither hard nor easy in the series. It has sold for just over $1,000 for a long time. If this were coin with that mintage, the price would be half way out of the solar system. By 1933, the Franklin Roosevelt medal had this look. The mintage was 1,500. The late FDR pieces had this look unless they were the rare and unusual Medallic Art Company darker finish.
I have never understood “pink,” but I have never been able to see “green” in gold either. I guess I’m color blind.
I've never used the term "pink" in a literal sense (its not actually pink)... its just a term that means stripped, fresh, bare copper. I think its a pejorative playing off the term "red" - which is original patina. I think the term "green gold" gets used a bit too loosely. There are some gold coins that have a distinct green hue to them (at least in my eye), but they are pretty rare. Sellers use the term because it attracts attention, even if it isn't really green gold. Kinda like many sellers toss out the term "prooflike" for something that isn't really, just because they think it will sell for more.
