As I type this, it's on ebay. Not sure if it's tooled or not. Of course it's got a high asking. It states "mint error", but we know ebay. I just found it amusing.
It was sold by Roy's Coins (Vcoins dealer, don't know the date of sale). He said it was due to a cud. In the eBay listing the images are better and it does look more like beard hair. I guess it could just be a funky die break, or maybe some previous owner carved the edges of the break to make it look more beard-like? https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/ro..._looks_like_she_has_beard/643614/Default.aspx
Ahh, some of my better coins came from Roy, he's great with layaway. I vaguely remember seeing that listed at the time. Reverse looked like it was smoothed too, if you compared Roy to ebay. Lines in the fields seem gone.
LooLL! I love it! The reverse should be a spa treatment table, laser machine, technician and all the other stuff they have at the salon. Okay... so, I speak from experience. And seeing this coin reminds me it's probably getting near time to hit that salon again.
It's a die break. The Ebay image is from CNG, where it sold late last year (for $130). I had intended to bid on it myself, but missed the auction. https://cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=327073
I see no reason to suspect anything out of the way here. Die cuds happen. Proper photography would show such a coin to advantage. Roy's description was spot on; his photography was terrible. The matter of the coin doubling in price when offered with such a photo is just one of those things that makes the hobby frustrating. The next time it sells, $50 would seem in keeping with the market fluctuations. I'm not trying to sell my turtle with cud but if I were should I describe the cud as a baby Great White Shark chewing on the side of the turtle? It is all in the marketing...right?
Since VCoins does not date their listings there is no way to know the progression of sales in this case, but I would assume Roy sold it first. Comparing his to CNG's photo it does appear that the coin has been smoothed. So I would assume Roy sold it to someone who smoothed it and consigned to CNG (or maybe Roy did both himself). There just isn't any way to know any of it unless someone enlightens us. Also, keep in mind a coin listed as 'sold' on VCoins does not record actual sales prices. If I list a coin at $100 and then add a discount of 20% to it, the system displays the default price of $100 in the sales record. Like I said, I liked the coin and intended to bid myself (because I like odd things like this), but wasn't willing to go over $100 anyway (and there may not be too many others like me who pay premiums for weird stuff).
This is a good point. I love weird stuff but rarely pay a premium for it unless it can be classified as weirdest of the weird. I do, however, buy coins that have faults when I find that fault interesting and may pay an asking price when I would not have paid that much for a perfect coin. What is the multiplier added by a beard on a woman compared to a beard on a usually beardless man or a random lump out in the field somewhere? How do these values compare to a coin exactly like this but with a normal face?
