My other recent eBay gamble was this "Silver Coins Lot From 1865,1929,to 1941". It had a blah 1941 Merc, a blah 1929 SLQ, and a... well, a shiny 1865 three-cent nickel. Fuzzy pictures, but it looked like the thing at least had nice details, even if it was polished. After looking at what higher-level detail coins were getting on eBay, I set a snipe north of $70, but won at $30.11 shipped. Here's what the nickel turned out to look like: Incredibly lustrous, light-gold-toned surfaces -- but with that little bit of abrasion on the cheek and hair, I don't know whether it would make MS or get a 58. I also don't know what graders would make of the apparent planchet flaw running from the bust right to the rim. Here's a closeup of the rub: There's a lot going on with this coin. Like many (most?) 3CNs, it's got a pretty bold clash (doubled here), and a substantial die crack on the reverse: It's also got something odd going on CW from that crack on the reverse rim; it looks like a big scuff, but it seems to have the same luster (and toning) as the rest of the coin, so I'm wondering if it was something in the strike. The general inconsistency of the reverse rim worried me, but I see that the CoinFacts image for this issue seems to have the same kind of appearance, so I'm guessing it was just that the Mint hadn't yet figured out how to deal with the harder alloy. Until I looked at this under magnification, I was thinking I might have landed a gem. I'm terribly afraid that that obverse abrasion came while it was sliding around in a hard-shell case sized for a larger coin. But it's still a really nice piece, even if it's not silver.
Thanks for the reassurance, everyone. Any thoughts on whether that abrasion's enough to take this out of MS contention? (Until I saw that and the planchet weirdness on the obverse, I was wondering if this might pass the gem threshold -- it really wowed me, even under magnification.)
The "planchet flaw" on the obverse is a die crack that is trying to develop into a retained cud. (there are actually two cracks there, one running across the base of the bust thru the hair to the rim by A and one from the bust dwon through the field tothe 5. There is also one from the rim by S2 that branches going to the top and the middle of the coronet. and finally one from the rim through the F to the hair bun than then to the middle of A2. The dies also shows heavy die wear over the entire coin.
I think that is a great coin...I love the die cracks. It does look to have a touch of wear, probably a higher end AU. But for the price, an excellent score.
Just came across this old thread while looking for "bad photo" material, and figured I ought to tell how it came out -- I sent this to ANACS a few years ago, and they pronounced the coin "MS60 details, cleaned". When I got it back and was trying to figure out what in the world they were seeing, I saw that there were more hairlines on the cheek than I'd first noticed. I still don't think it was cleaned, but I also don't think anybody else would straight-grade it. It's still nice-looking enough to keep, IMHO.
