Recieved a 1878 S VAM 141 (tripled star/open O in 'God'/DD in Liberty) today from eBay. Wondering what folks thought of the condition. Ad had it listed as XF/AU.It looks pretty nice to me with lots of detail in the hair as well as the eagle's breast feathers. Any input would be appreciated.
Just light wear, but I'm thinking the surfaces and especially the toning don't look "right". Cleaned and something more? Hopefully some more folks will chime in.
Well, that's not what I wanted to hear. Hopefully others will weigh in so we can get to the bottom of this. I agree that the toning looks 'different' but it comes is so many different forms that it didn't give me pause.
Whoops...my bad. How does an improper cleaning affect the value of a relatively low value coin such as this? Should I send the coin back to the seller for a refund?
It shouldn't affect the value much. I would never send a coin back unless it was fake, misrepresented or inaccurately described and I got something I wasn't expecting. I don't think that's the case here.
Seems this thread is getting views but few are commenting. I think more of the Morgan guys will surely weigh in yet. I offered my opinion as a... well... somewhat informed hobbyist, not an expert. The variegated colors in the rim toning make my flags go up, but we need more opinions here. The pock marks in the left reverse don't really look like circulation marks to me either. edit: I know I'm picking this coin apart, it's not harshly cleaned or blatantly artificially toned, if you paid xf/au money I wouldn't bother the seller with returning it. It's actually attractive.
Sure looks like v141 to me. I've seen worse in tpg holders. A vast majority of classic coins were cleaned at one point in their lives. Unless you get a harsh grader on a bad day it's got a shot at a straight grade. The question is, is it monetarily worth getting it into a low AU slab especially with the chance it may not. I'm not up on v141 values though
It's definitely a cool top 100 variety with a lot of interesting characteristics. With the population what it is I'm pretty sure it's not a value added variety. Looks mid AU and toning from an old dip to me.
No hard feelings...I like to fine toothed comb approach to analysis. I'm new to the hobby and in serious education mode so the more feedback the better. I love the look of the coin and paid less than $30 for it so I'm pretty happy overall.
AU53. I don't see anything damning regarding a cleaning. VAM 141 can be found with PL fields, and this looks like a lightly circulated PL coin. For $30, you have every reason to be happy. Is it worth a huge premium? Not really, as it's not terribly rare, but you still did well.
I have a hard time imagining a circumstance via which "natural" toning will begin to propagate just at the edges of the devices.
multicolored blobs on the obverse rim, then toning in the crevices and edges of the devices and reverse lettering. Just asking, how'd it happen?
The edges of the devices, lettering, &c., are protected against wear and surface contaminants that would retard, interrupt, or remove toning.
