I have posted about my rare 1838 Newcomb-16 before. I had it pegged as an AU cleaned. Well as of Monday morning Bob Grellman has examined the coin and has graded it UNC with a past light cleaning with an EAC net grade AU 55. I was blown away. I am such a pessimist and with the strength of the red color in my coin I thought would next grade about an XF40. Bob's word is pretty much the final word and he pegs my coin as probably the 4th best known. I have an offer of $2500. Should I take it or hold out? A (albeit problem free) XF 40 last sold for $3400 at auction.
How much did you pay? Would you rather have $2500, or the coin? If you don't need or want the money, then you hold onto the coin a few more years. If you don't need or want the coin, then you take the money. You have to answer these questions. No one can tell you what you should do.
Well, if you do take the deal at least post some pictures before you do. Personally for that rare of a coin, I would hold onto it if your not in a financialy difficult stage. Thanks, Jacob
To be honest, if Bob gave it a net 55, I think you may do a bit better than 2500 assuming you're willing to place it in an auction like Goldbergs (and maybe EAC). Slabbing it sounds like it won't help fetch a better price, so those are the best options for raw coins in my opinion. However, there is inherent risk in placing it in an auction, and one must consider all associated fees (along with having your money tied up for several months after). In the end, it really depends on the coins eye appeal. Since Bob didn't take a large deduction, I'm assuming it's still a nice looking piece. In that case, 4k at auction would seem reasonable (with you taking home around 3200). But I also don't think 2500 is unreasonable, either, especially if this is a coin you cherried.
The coin is obviously worth more than $2500 to the right individual. If you need the money now, you already have an initial offer at which to start, and new information with which to negotiate. That may not get you any more, but it certainly won't get you less. If you don't need the money right now, I'd ask Mr. Grellman if he'd like to broker the coin for you. You'd likely come out with more funds than placing it in a major auction, and likely in less time.
I like this answer - if you can hold out see if he would broker the coin for you. I did that with Rick Snow and it took maybe a month to move a coin and it only cost me 10%. I am not sure how quick your coin will move and how long do you want to wait. Good Luck!
PS - if you wait there could be others found that might drive down the price. I do not think that will happen, but something to keep in mind.
Coins been posted before in this thread here https://www.cointalk.com/threads/1838-newcomb-16.303918/ or the pics from that thread below
Grading it would help in an auction format hence thing like the Missouri Cabinet collection get graded and not sold raw now. Now the exception would be if you thought it's get uncirc details or au detials, but even then the raw buyers wouldn't care. The grading opens up extra buyers to it but @ToughCOINS gave the best recommendation for a one off coin that would likely net him the most money, get a dealer to sell it for you and you'll lose a lot less than the auction houses charge.
If you can broker it through Mr. Grellman (or one of the other bigtime copper guys), slabbing will not be necessary. Early copper collectors aren't all that enamored of slabs, and it won't be difficult to find players at this level who don't care about the plastic if Grellman says it's so.
If you have any money left over from this cherrypick, maybe you can pay @Clawcoins back the money he says you're (ahem) "holding" for him. Just a thought.
If I needed the spendable cash now I would likely take the offer.... Only because the pot of my gut tells me high grade coin prices may be softening a bit.... I have absolutely no data to back that up. Just my feeling.
I disagree on this specific coin. A lot of big EAC collections get grading prior to the sale. I notice that grading helps the common high grade stuff because those are bid on by generalists as well as specialists. The rare stuff, unless it's also a red book variety, generally sells for the EAC grade regardless of slab. An 1838 N16 falls into that category, and would sell for a significant premium over common stuff at that grade. Slabbing it likely won't do much. In terms of value, the Holmes coin was AU58/60 and considered the finest known when it sold for $6,325 back in 2010: http://images.goldbergauctions.com/php/lot_auc.php?site=1&sale=59&lot=537 I believe price have come down a bit since this sale, and additional coins have come to light making your AU55 around 4th best. I see a vf25 sold at heratige in 2016 for $3400: https://coins.ha.com/itm/large-cent.../1233-3504.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515 If it were my coin I would be shopping it at around $5,000. Assuming it went to auction and I lost ~20%, i would be likely take an offer around $4,000. Unless you need the money now, I think the offer is too low, although not unreasonably low.
