I just received this today and to my dismay, I noticed that it's scratched. With the bright luster, however, it's relatively difficult to see the scratch and the coin looks like it came straight from the bank. But to most numismatists, the scratch will be obvious. Do you think that this 1892 Columbian will receive a straight grade, and if so, what grade? Or, will it receive a Details - Scratched grade if I were to submit it to NGC? I'm also unsure if some of it is a struck through error on the reverse. Thanks in advance!
What are the horizontal lines on Columbus's neck? I think the 'dotted line' on the reverse is a scratch of some sort, but the curved line on the obverse may be a strike-thru. I almost think the scratches/struck-thru's wouldn't cause it to details, but I almost think it would get hit with an improperly cleaned. There is something about the coin that looks too perfect in the pics, and those lines on his neck have me wondering. There are lots of die polishing lines, which is good, but something about this coin has me wondering. If it were to straight grade, I think 65 isn't out of the question, but most likely a 64.
Beautiful coin. Almost too clean (re fields). While I cannot say for certain, the coin almost presents like a modern fake.
It looks off to me as well. If the pictures represent the coin in hand accurately, then I would suspect it has been messed with.
Yeah, something is very off about it. I've decided to return it. In the seller's original photo of the coin while in a flip, you can barely make out the outline of the scratch, but it's there. It's like night and day. The edge also appears like it's been circulated yet the whole coin looks bank fresh. Here's the edge, which has a condition that's in contrast with the rest of the coin. I believe that this gives it away - to me, it makes no sense that the edge has this level of circulation while the rest of the coin is supposedly bank fresh.
You can clearly see metal pushed up along the edge. If it was a strikethrough, this wouldn't happen. Chris
I couldn't say definitively either way, as lighting/photos can be deceiving. I also think it's a very weird shape for a scratch. I have a T$1 that has a strike-thru with a similar shape, but I don't have any coins that have such a squiggly scratch. I am not saying it isn't a scratch, just that I wouldn't commit either way based on the pics.
You can clearly see metal pushed up when you enlarge the image, especially near the bridge of the nose. Chris
Yeah, I can also see that the scratch is on the bridge of the nose. If it were a die scratch or maybe even a struck through, I don't think it would strike like that. And, it's more prominent of a scratch on the device there.
Looks too new. Just doesn’t seem right and I can’t perfectly put my finger on exactly why. Either fake or heavily altered surfaces/whizzed
I'm suspicious of any Columbian expo commemorative that shiny and white. These coins tended to age into a darker patina. I cropped a couple images and placed arrows pointing to locations which show tell-tale signs of whizzing. I suspect both scratches are tool marks. The halo around the brow is evidence of altered surfaces. Often these halos are seen on whizzed coins after the doctorer attempts to remove built-up metal that has been pushed around the devices. The yellow arrows point to places where manipulated metal has built up around the devices, especially obvious on the '1'. The area inside the red blob shows one place where the whizzing is most evident. Flow lines don't look like the stripes on the US flag. They are caused by metal moving fluidly. They move like water across a car's windshield while driving down the highway. They are always looking for the path of least resistance: they split apart, they join together, sometimes they run out of flow.
Now the shape of that scratch makes sense as being due to whizzing. Looks like the Dremel got away from the user. In this pic, you can see the tell-tale signs of a rotary type tool -
