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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;mamooney, post: 147926, member: 2724&quot;]If you need help attributing, you might want to take a look at the following:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.anythinganywhere.com/commerce/apprais.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.anythinganywhere.com/commerce/apprais.htm" rel="nofollow">ANYTHING ANYWHERE LINK</a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>APPRAISAL, ATTRIBUTION, &amp; AUTHENTICATION SERVICES</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I&#039;ve appraised some large and valuable collections, for which I was paid well.&nbsp; I&#039;ve also identified hundreds of items for clients.&nbsp; And I&#039;ve authenticated over 40,000 items for clients. </p><p>7/15/2006 </p><p>IDENTIFICATION SERVICE </p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 2 years ago I put out a notice for a forthcoming subscription service.&nbsp; That service was conceived as an online catalog of coins and banknotes with enough oomph in terms of content and mechanics that the average collector would have a reasonable chance of being able to identify and possibly get some background on most numismatic items.&nbsp; 2 years later we are still working on it, and it seems that we are indeed making progress. </p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; At the same time (last several years) I have been getting emails regularly from the world asking me to identify numismata, and almost always I can.&nbsp; My policy until now has been to allow some small number of idents at no charge, after which I threatened to bring remuneration into the process, and to date no one has ever been charged, even though perhaps some should have been. </p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Lack of time has brought me to the point at which I feel that I must begin to charge for attributions, so, starting from when this is posted, all attributions will cost $1.00 per item, payable through paypal only.&nbsp; Or, if you wish, you can set up a prepaid account by various methods which we can discuss.&nbsp; There will be a discounted fee if you prepay for multiple items: $10 gets you 11, $20 gets you 24 identifications, $50 gets you 63 items, $100 gets you 133 items.&nbsp; Here is how it will work: </p><p>1. OFFER: I will identify any coin, token, banknote, or other numismatic object.&nbsp; “Identify” means I will tell you, at a minimum,&nbsp; the country, denomination, date of the thing.&nbsp; I will offer information on metal content, approximate value (whatever that means), commemorative aspects if any, and any other information I might have.&nbsp; You can try me on other items not numismatic, but no promises. </p><p>2. EXCLUSIONS: I will not grade and I will not authenticate from pictures or descriptions.&nbsp; I can give my opinion on those aspects only if you ship me the object for physical inspection.&nbsp; See below for details. </p><p>3. METHOD: </p><p>&nbsp;A. Either send me a picture or give me a good description.&nbsp; The best pictures of coins, medals, etc. will be scanner images at 150%, 300 dpi, extra sharpness, taken on a black background (easily produced by leaving the cover off).&nbsp; White background will tend to produce too much contrast.&nbsp; The best pictures of banknotes will be on a scanner at 100%, 200 dpi, normal sharpness.&nbsp; Take pictures of both sides and send as uncompressed jpgs attached to an email.&nbsp; You can send up to 6 jpgs totalling about 2mgb per email.&nbsp; You can send me other types of images (camera, etc.) in other formats, but they may not </p><p>work for various reasons. </p><p>&nbsp;B. If you send me a description I want to know as much as possible of the following: </p><p>&nbsp;-metal content and/or color </p><p>&nbsp;-size (millimeters preferred to inches) and shape </p><p>&nbsp;-description of the major design elements of both sides </p><p>&nbsp;-the legend on both sides.&nbsp; If in a foreign alphabet (non-”Roman,” which is the one used for English, etc.) try to figure out what alphabet it is and tell me.&nbsp; If it is Greek or Russian with a lot of letters similar to Roman then try to “fake it.” </p><p>&nbsp;C. I may ask you more questions </p><p>&nbsp;D. When I am done I will send you one of the following messages: </p><p>&nbsp;-I have identified your item(s).&nbsp; Pay me $x through paypal and I will send you my results, or </p><p>&nbsp;-I’m sorry, I can’t identify your item, you don’t owe me anything. </p><p>&nbsp;E. You will pay me and I will send you my information. </p><p>4. NO REFUNDS for any reason. </p><p><br /></p><p>Let’s try this and see if it works, OK? </p><p><br /></p><p>GRADING AND AUTHENTICATION </p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; You must realize that anything I might say will not have the cachet, though it may have the accuracy, of the big grading services, but my opinion might turn out to be worth something, and I will do work on objects that the agencies will not touch. </p><p>METHOD </p><p>A. I must have the object in hand.&nbsp; You will pay the shipping costs both ways, and I will charge you $5.00 for a grade opinion and $5.00 for an authentication opinion.&nbsp; You will get a signed letter from me giving my conclusions.&nbsp; The item will be scanned or digitally photographed and that picture will be reproduced on the letter.&nbsp; That and a couple of bucks will get you a cup </p><p>of coffee.&nbsp; Occasionally, however, you might run into someone who will take my word for something, and on that basis will buy something from you that otherwise maybe they would not. </p><p>B. The turnaround time will usually be short.&nbsp; If there is a problem that requires research or consultation I&#039;ll let you know. </p><p>C. At the moment I do not have an &quot;application form.&quot; I&#039;ll make one when the traffic demands.&nbsp; For now just get in touch and we&#039;ll work out the details. </p><p>D. For authentication you will get a &quot;real,&quot; &quot;fake,&quot; or &quot;I can&#039;t tell&quot; from me.&nbsp; You will not be charged for &quot;I don&#039;t know.&quot; </p><p>E. For grade you will get a standard &quot;word&quot; grade (very good, extremely fine, etc.).&nbsp; Detractors will be mentioned.&nbsp; Split grades will be mentioned, as will grading peculiarities specific to that item, country, type, year, etc. if I know them (such as the fact, on German minors of 1873-89, that unless the little shield on the eagle&#039;s breast has some detail the coin is not better than VG no matter how nice the rest of it looks).&nbsp; So you&#039;ll get blather if necessary, but you will not get numbers.&nbsp; I don&#039;t do numbers.&nbsp; It will be &quot;uncirculated,&quot; not MS60. </p><p>F. All of this stuff will be my opinion only.&nbsp; I may be wrong.&nbsp; If I am I will apologize and retract my opinion in writing, but I will not make a refund. </p><p><br /></p><p>APPRAISAL </p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I have done a number (more than 6, less than 400) of collection appraisals for collectors or their estate.&nbsp; The largest was 40,000 items, several were more than 10,000.&nbsp; I produce a written report, details to be arranged by negotiation, telling you what you wanted to know.&nbsp; Typically this will be what you have and what it is &quot;worth.&quot;&nbsp; &quot;Value&quot; can be described in terms of relaceablity or potential sales value were one to sell to a dealer.&nbsp; &quot;Retail&quot; or &quot;market&quot; prices are subject to market forces, and I will be glad to explain why I think an appraisal giving values in these terms is not a good idea.&nbsp; &quot;Catalog&quot; values are useful in some series, not in others, and I can explain my views on this as well.&nbsp; I will travel if my expenses are paid.&nbsp; I charge by the hour, but I work very fast.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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