Here is a nice 1812 CBH. What grade & comments would you say about this coins grade and condition? Oh, as a potential buyer let's say. Thanks Ben
Ben: We might as well get it over with: Fine, cleaned, AT, polished, ugly. That said: Nice coin, XF, and I'd buy it. Did you check the Overton variety?
As a buyer I would say, about good, altered , fake, nasty. If you would like me to take it off your hands so you don't have to look at it any more I would gladly pay shipping.
In my opinion, the coin was Horribly Cleaned no luster left, vastly more so than the 1828 which was posted here yesterday. That being said (and I have some who agree) I'll post this picture: Which clears up any questions as to whether the TPG felt compelled to reject it as cleaned. BTW, it's something I would have done had I been the grader, mark the flip XF-45 cleaned. Ben
HOWEVER, I suppose having the coin in hand is the secret in this instance, because just going by pictures all I can come up with is, a cleaned XF-45. http://www.vcoins.com/us/yellowriver/store/viewitem.asp?idProduct=509
I'd give it an AU50, and if it's been cleaned I can't tell that from the images. I also suspect that the luster is better in-hand.
I would never have guessed ms. I would be curious to see it in hand to see how the cleaning looks. I dont mind a cleaned coin as long as they didn't use a brillo pad to do it.
If it's purchased as is (MS-63, PCGS) the buyer would have one heck of a cleaned coin. BTW, here is that 1828 with a little brightness removed and placed on a black surface. I can't tell where it's been cleaned either... AU-50 hands down.
Au53, I would not call it cleaned, but then again, so many bust halves have been cleaned and have naturally retoned very nicely. In my experience, grading services take this into account. thoughts?
I've taken the liberty to circle some areas which raise alarms with me and when compared to the coin without the red areas you can see there are also areas which should also be lightened and aren't for some reason. As you can see the reverse is substantially lighter than the obverse, but the cleaning pattern is the same. Probably a good dipping that didn't get into all the crevices and crannies...
Valid points, but the fact still remains that grading services give certain series like Bust Halves alot of slack on coins that have been cleaned and retoned. As we know, the Bust series is notorious for this and grading services do cut them alot of slack, especially coins that have retoned nicely and naturally
Agree, but liquid silver luster or something easily purchased and simlar hasn't been on the shelves very long. Maybe only for the past 20-30 years. Certainly not back into the 50s and early 60s. My mom would have killed for some then, LOL. I'd venture to say 80% of Bust Coinage cleaning has occured within this (30 year) timeframe. As far as the TPGs realizing this and taking it into consideration.... The smart ones that know a happy customer is a repeat customer; know it very well...
Bonedigger: I agree that most of the cleaning on bust coinage has taken place 1970+. having said that, Commercial grading has evolved to take eye appeal heavily into account. I think their mentality was probably. "If it has great eye appeal and not harshly cleaned, pass it and grade it. " thoughts? Case and point. I submitted three 1916D Merc Dimes that were cleaned (G4-AU) and they all got graded. Preferencial because I am not aware of many 1916D mercs especially from G4-AU which have not been cleaned.
Well, there are those here who say it doesn't happen, there are those here who say it does, and then there are those here (me and aa few more) who think there is beauty in the ring of silver on a wooden table. I don't care either way. I'm not a slabber... Take Care Ben
I agree, plastic is a storage device. Learn how to grade first and buy the coin first and not the plastic. Having said that, in some cases the authentication aspect of slabbing is something that I find very valuable, especially on key dates like 1916D Mercs, where I don't want to take the chance.
Those highlighted areas could just as (or more) easily represent those which didn't tone as deeply as the periphery. That is not at all unusual on a non-dipped coin.
"Those highlighted areas could just as (or more) easily represent those which didn't tone as deeply as the periphery. That is not at all unusual on a non-dipped coin." A real possibility.