TPG submissions (NGC Ancients, NGC World, PCGS World)- PCGS Trueviews are up now!

Predict the grades if you so desire.

The people with the closest, most accurate predictions win bragging rights.

These ancients are going off to NGC this weekend. They have recently been reshot by a top-tier professional photographer, but I have not uploaded those pictures yet.

Ancient Greece (Ionia, Phokaia): electrum hekte, Athena and quadripartite punch, ca. 478-387 BC


Ancient Greece (Corinth): silver stater featuring Pegasos and Athena, ca. 345-307 BC


Ancient Greece (Spartans in Taras, Calabria, Italy): silver drachm, Athena and owl, ca. 302-281 BC


Ancient Roman Empire: silver "Capricorn" denarius of Vespasian, struck by Titus ca. 80-81 AD




This hammered gold florin is going to NGC to attempt at a straight grade. It is currently in a PCGS "XF details/filed rims" holder, but I personally see no evidence of clipping or filing on it, so I'll crack it out and give it a try with NGC to see what happens.

Netherlands (Gelderland): "St. John" type goldgulden (florin) of Arnold van Egmond, ca. 1423-1472




These World coins are at PCGS right now, and I'm looking forward to seeing the TrueView images.

Turkey (Seljuq Sultanate of Rum): silver "Lion & Sun" dirham of Kaykhusraw II, AH 638 (1240-1241 AD)



Belgium (Brabant): gold florin (Carolus d’or) of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, ca. 1521-1545


Spain: gold half-escudo of Ferdinand VI, 1759, Madrid mint
(I got an awesome bargain from a foreign dealer on this attractively-toned little beauty- can't wait to see the TrueViews!)


Lundy: bronze 1-puffin coin, 1929
(This was part of a generous giveaway package from @H8_modern- sorry for the quickie photos. I'm hoping for MS63 RD.)

 

Thanks!

I hear you, and totally "get" the aversion you and so many others have to plastic slabs for ancients. They do serve my purposes for storage and display, though, since the rest of my collection is slabbed. But yes, I do miss the tactile "hold it in your hand" experience. That is the biggest downside to slabs.

I have recently thought about trying to find some way to maybe fit an Air-Tite style capsule inside a little card that is about the same size and shape as a TPG slab - or even fitting the AirTite inside one of those snap-lock "do it yourself" slabs - so I can put my ancients in them and store them in the slab box in a somewhat consistent fashion, while not permanently entombing them. I'm open for suggestions on that. I think the "AirTite inside a snaplock slab" idea might only work for smaller coins, though - wouldn't work for a sestertius or someting.

Then again, the slabs do look nice, and having David Vagi and staff at NGC pronounce their opinion on a coin doesn't hurt. They've spotted some issues with some of my past coins (filed rims, etc) that I had not.

 

Well, the PCGS results are in, and quicker than I expected!

TrueViews are not showing up just yet. Perhaps they'll appear sometime in the next 24 hours or so. That has often happened.

As far as I'm concerned, the results were ...

Lose (or maybe just a neutral outcome)
Lose
Win
Win

​

The Seljuq dirham got "No Service/Not Holdered". I suppose it must be an ineligible type, though I could've sworn I've seen them in PCGS holders somewhere. I hope I get a credit/refund for that one.

The Carolus d'or got a "details" grade for "damage". I did expect VF range for the grade, but the qualifier is a disappointment. Like the Gelderland florin in the OP, it's now a "problem" coin according to PCGS. So I'm 0 for 2 on hammered gold. Apparently it's time for me to go back to school on this stuff, or PCGS is just fiercely strict on it ... or both. I might try this along with the Gelderland at NGC one time in hopes of a straight grade, and then cut my losses if both have similar outcomes there. But first I suppose I need to carefully examine both coins.

The 1759-M/JB half-escudo is a big win, and I can't wait to see the TrueViews. In TPG plastic with an XF40 grade, this is now a $500.00 coin, per NGC/Krause, and the nice toning is just icing on the cake. Plus it is the key date for the type. Furthermore, I paid only $194.90 for it (plus the slab fees, now). Yay. So I suck on hammered gold, apparently, but I'm doing OK on the milled gold.

The 1929 Lundy Puffin was another win. As expressed in the OP just 24 hours ago, I was hoping for MS63 RD. It got MS65 RD. Yay! I knew it it was nice, but underestimated how nice. Again, I eagerly await the TrueViews. My wretched, quickie cellphone shots above do it no justice. It is a $60.00 coin in MS63, but I've seen people asking a good bit north of $100.00 on eBay for nice MS slabbed examples. And you see more of the half-puffins than the full 1-puffins like this. A Gem MS65 RD example is nice to have, and I think that makes this one worthy of joining the "Eclectic Box" for a while. And this was just one of several sweet coins I won in @H8_modern's giveaway a while back, so once again, I am in his debt. Normally this might not have quite been worth the expense to slab, but since I got the coin for free, I figured "why not?", and now I'm glad I did. This was the first Lundy piece I've had. Always liked 'em. I wonder if @stlnats has one - he should. (Click that tag and look at his avatar picture.)

Thanks for looking, and thanks again to @H8_modern for being my "Puffin Pal".

 

I was talking to Phil Arnold at PCGS and he said yes, I will likely get a credit. In fact, I might even get a free TrueView out of it, but we'll have to wait and see, because those still have not posted to the cert pages yet.

If I get a free TrueView image, then the Seljuq coin, despite not holdering, will be a minor win instead of a loss. At least a neutral outcome, anyway.

PCGS has indeed holdered many Seljuq coins, though they seem to mostly be gold dinars. I'd be surprised if this was an ineligible type (which seems to be the case), since it is such a popular type.

Phil says the submissions that include "not-perfectly-round" coins sometimes take a little longer to get their TrueViews. I suppose that's because they have to be Photoshopped into the TrueView templates like everything else, and their being imperfectly round makes that trickier.

 

Maybe I'll send the Brabant Carolus d'or off to NGC with the Gelderland florin when I send the latter for a second opinion. I like both of these hammered gold pieces enough to try them each at least once at a different service.

Normally the crackout game is not my cuppa tea, though. It gets expensive, and I find sumbitting coins a hassle, so I only do it once a year or so.

 

TrueViews are in! Wheee!

Here is the Carolus d'or. I'm wondering if maybe there wasn't an old mount removed, which might've been what caused PCGS to "genny" it.

Think I should just take my lumps and accept the "VF Details/Damaged" assessment, or try for a straight grade at NGC, like I've been planning to do with the other hammered gold piece (the Gelderland florin in the OP)?


And here again is the seller's photo.


The half-escudo. Pop 1/0! The only one PCGS has graded.


Here again is the earlier seller's photo.


And the puffin. Pop 5/0! So tied with four others for "finest graded". It appears PCGS has only graded those five, however. All MS65 RD.


And here for a laughable comparison are my wretched, quickie cellphone shots again.


It appears there might not have been a TrueView made for the unencapsulated Seljuq coin. I'll ask Phil Arnold about that.

The Ancients above should be at NGC now.

 

What comes around goes around, brother. So once again, I owe you one.

 

My unencapsulated Seljuq did not get a TrueView, but Phil sent me the image of it. It has "CoinFacts" in the filename, so evidently it may become a CoinFacts plate coin? Dunno. Anyway, I'm thankful to see another picture of it.

 

After more than two months and two emails, I finally have results from NGC on the ancients. The first four are mine. The others belonged to piggybackers sharing my submission.