Do you ever buy "details" coins?

Not always but when I do..................

 

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I generally stay far away from "details" coins, especially when it's an old coin that's shiny clean. However sometimes the "details" fault is not something that detracts from the coin. For a while I searched for a 1813 50C/UNI Bust Half Dollar. I like the stories of when someone at the mint goofs. I found a nice toned XF at a great price in a "details" holder. It had a scratch from decades ago that had toned over and was not noticeable. I can show this coin to a rookie coin collector as an example of the UNI mistake without having spent a lot more on a similar coin without the slight scratch. I also am interested in Classic Head cents with slight environmental damage. They look great in my Dansco 7070 book and can be bought without breaking the bank.

 

Cracking the case with an auto mechanic’s pick ...

 

And ready for its photo shoot.

 

And, after a quick stop under the camera and through my automation program, we see it better. The first image has full color fidelity while the second has automation (but a .gif only has 256 colors).

Thoughts?

 

"I'm free! I'm free!"

 

While I did see the bottom reverse of the 1911-D,
that looked more like a cleaning rub than ED.
But since the rest of the coin is chocolate, I don't think it is a cleaning rub.

 

Do I buy "details coins?"

Almost never. The only "details" graded pieces I have in my collection are poltical tokens.

I bought this 1868 U.S. Grant campaign token in a Heritage auction. It is not listed in Sullivan - DeWitt, and it's the only one I have seen. I have been collecting poltical tokens for 30 years. The buyers' fee cost me almost as much as my bid!



The second is an 1832 Andrew Jackson token. There are two minor varieties of this piece. The common one is seldom seen, and this one is rated as a Rarity-5, 31 to 75 known, but it's got to be on low end of that number. My guess is that there might be 30 of these around, but there aren't many. All of the examples I have seen had one problem or another. I bought this one in a Stacks' sale.

 

I posted the photos back in post #25, after more replies were added, so please don't miss them by accident! And, let me know if you find the "Wrap Machine DMG" that detailed this coin.

My real point on this thread is to examine when a Details coin is good enough for your purposes. I like to see the designer's intention so I stay mainly with uncirculated and well struck coins when I can. If it turns out that I somehow got a Details coin that turns out to actually be undamaged, that's a ridiculously lucky side-effect of the thread.

 

And that fast it's back to a straight grade from where I'm sitting!

 

Perhaps...



@Insider

 

That walking liberty would be more than welcome in my collection. Very nice coin.

 

My pet fantasy theory: They had two in the grading room at the same time. The one with the damage got this coin's label, and the owner was very happy. This one got the details label... Otherwise, how to explain what I see?

 

Thanks, @CoinCorgi. I can see those marks now. They are certainly smaller and less conspicuous than the contact marks all over the Morgans I see.

That makes a really good case for folks to seriously consider Details coins along with the straight graded ones. The point the buyer needs to consider is, if there is damage, what is it, and how bad, and do I really, really care?

In this case it's really hard to care!

 

By the way, if this were to straight grade, and I think it should, let's talk about the loss in value to the seller and the advantage to the buyer. @Insider could just tell us the grade (but I'm not sure he's at liberty to do that), so I went to Heritage and did some comparison shopping.

An MS65+ looks pretty comparable from their photos, and auctioned at $1140. The PCGS price guide is $1430. This Details coin I got at $112.50.

That is 90% of the value lost by the Details designation.

A 10-1 price ratio is a good reason to at least look at the Details offerings.

Edit: I picked 65+ to make the arithmetic nice. This MS65 is a better comparable.

 

No. I don't buy Details coins or currency. That is just a matter of choice.

 

I'm not seeing the damage on that Walker either. Might be worth resubmitting.

 

I don't see anything that is out of the ordinary with the 1917 half dollar. The looks okay to me.

 

Yes, damage.