United States: copper-nickel Indian Head cent, 1864

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It looks original, with some of the crust bordering on corrosion. There are some minor rim issues and a gouge in the center obverse.

As with most of the 57th St hoard, this coin was overgraded by at least 10 points. I see it as a VF30 at best. This hoard was an embarrassment for NGC.

Apologies for the brutally-honest answer, but you did ask for opinions

 

I think ever coin that NGC certified for the 57th Street Collection is over graded.

 

@lordmarcovan
OK now I went back to read the other comments.
1-boiler room telemarketing hype BINGO
2-piece does have some minor imperfections I can assure you if Rob or I sent this in it would have come back as "DETAILs"
3-Prior provenance to Stacks-Bowers Galleries that alone added points.
4- and the TPG say they don't know who sent the coins in Interesting

 

I gave it a 3. I hate to be a negative Nellie and I'm going to display a bit of my irrational prejudice here.

I don't like the look of the Cu-Ni small cents, primarily because of the color. The FE and early IHCs have to be in really super MS condition for them to appeal to my aesthetic. That's just my personal preference.

That said, I agree the coin looks over-graded and I do not like the battle scars above Liberty's ear and along the jaw. Even though they wouldn't merit a details grade IMO, they are still in the major focal area of the obverse.

 

I like the crusty original surfaces. For a difficult date coin, it looks really good. Is it massively over graded. NO. Are all the Stack’s coins over graded by NGC? Utter nonsense. Some of them got the benefit of generous grading, but all of them? No way. I would call this coin XF 40, instead of 45. That is no travesty.

 

I only voted "3." The coin is over graded by at least 5 points going by sharpness alone. Beyond that, the darker areas are corrosion. While it's currently arrested and indicates that the coin is original and has not been cleaned, it's not the sort of thing that I would put my collection.

 

Love this one Rob. Crusty original civil war era indian head cent that lived.

 

When I view this type of wear, my first thought is the history of the date, and the person that may have carried it....on the field of battle...a salve escaping to the North.....a family fleeing from carnage and the coin as part of a survival kit...a good luck piece a soldier kept in his pocket...a remembrance of war by a veteran, etc.

It is way my mind works.

 

That coin looks nice enough to add to my collection.

 

Well said, same here.

 

Thank You. A fellow history Geek
A clarification on my post, though: I meant to type slave, not salve.
The coin may or may not benefit from salve, but it doesn't matter.
The condition of the piece allows me to mentally build a story of the times.

 

That is not totally the point. When a grading service puts a grade on a coin, it placed a floor value on the piece, at least for some collectors. This is especially true when PCGS and NGC do it.

When they goof up and over grade a coin, it hurts their image, and it can hurt collectors whose grading skills are not up to par.

 

It is an opinion. The buyer should never base the purchase on the opinion, nor should the buyer be buying if their ability to grade is limited to what the TPG declares by their opinion is the Grade.

The market, the buyer and the seller, establishes the value, and the TPG or 4PG does not in any manner place a floor value relied upon by buyer and seller. My opinion, of course.

 

I wasn't commenting on goof ups, TPG's or overgrading. I wasn't commenting on how it affects their image or other collectors. I was simply commenting on the coin itself. It's a nice looking coin. I like it and I would add it to my collection.

 

Not XF in my opinion. Also, scratched, rim bump and overall porous. I hope you got it cheap.

 

As I understand it, the coins in that hoard came out of bags stuffed in the back of the store that had stuff dumped into them for many years. I.e., they were coins that Stacks didn't really think were worth their time.