Lately, I've been looking at many of the double mint sets on ebay, and have found a very few which are in bright white, pristine shape w/ little or no toning or carbon spots, etc. My question is: Can one really trust that such pristine sets have not been dipped, whizzed, cleaned or otherwise tampered with? I do not believe I have EVER seen double sets this pristine when packaged in their original government cardboard. All I've seen have lots of tarnish, toning, spots or discolorization of some type. One ebay seller went so far as to describe his originally toned sets as "not like the dipped babies other sellers offer." This kind of reminds me of another ebay ploy- "unopened proof sets." Most seem to believe those never existed. Anyway, I just would like to get some opinions on pristine mint sets ebay sellers offer, and whether or not in your opinions they are truly original and untampered with?! Thanks for your opinions!
original sets should not be white. The original holders contained sulphur and toned the coins. I have never seen an original set that was white.
If the coins are white - they are not original. That being said there are varying degrees of toning. For example, here is an original '49 Mint Set. While every coin is toned, on some of them it is minimal. But here is a - '55 Mint Set - that has toned a great deal more. Be aware however that each of these pictures are scans so luster is minimal to begin with.
So then, if the coins are white, does this mean they've most likely been dipped? If so, are they then ungradeable by major TPGs? Could it be that early original owners took their coins from cardboard upon receiving them from the mint, and say put them into an old Seitz or other type holder? Wouldn't those be w/o much toning, maybe even white? Also, I wonder if some smart collectors back then just bought original rolls to form sets or maybe took them from circulation before they were worn. Anyway, I will remain somewhat suspicious of pristine coins from earlier years! Thanks for your responses!
If the coins are white then there is about a 99.99% probability that they have been dipped. That does not mean they are not gradeable though. There are literally millions and millions of dipped coins in NGC and PCGS slabs. It really wouldn't matter what type of holder they were in - the coins would still tone if they were exposed to the air. Yes the toning may be minimal as I illustrated in my previous post, but after 50 years there is going to be toning. Of course they did. But the point is that we are talking about original Mint Sets and there was no way to get the cardboard holders the Mint Sets came in unless you bought them from the mint. That being said, what has often happened is that some unscrupulous dealers and collectors would take a heavily toned Mint Set, remove the coins from the cardboard holders and replace them with other coins that had been dipped or else dip the original coins themselves. Bottom line, if you want an original set then the coins will be toned.
Likewise! But I might now CONSIDER A WHITE SINGLE SET, even though it most likely was dipped, because of the possibility that NGC OR PCGS might actually accept it for grading, as per info received from the very much respected GDJMSP, whose opinions I have come to value! Thanks everyone, as always, for your kind repsonses and great advice!
Don't misconstrue GDJMSP's comment to mean that NGC or PCGS would not slab toned coins from a mint set. They WILL slab toned minr set coins, and they will often receive grades higher than IMHO their eye appeal would warrant. And if you buy a SINGLE coin set, white or toned, do not pay anywhere near what the value of a double set in holder is worth, or even anywhere close to half of that amount. If it isn't in the mint set, then it is considered a "put together" set and worth very little.
