Uncirculated downgrade to Circulated I was browsing through eBay this morning and found a coin that I liked. The seller included the following statement in his description: "AS YOU CAN SEE THERE IS A CONTACT MARK ON THE OBVERSE. WITHOUT THIS. THIS WOULD DEFINITLY GRADE UNCIRCULATED. WHICH IS WHAT IS WAS GRADED WHEN I RECEIVED IT" The coin is listed on the auction page as Almost Uncirculated / Uncirculated Being a stone cold rookie to this hobby I am a little confused. After looking at some grading descriptions it seems to me that even uncirculated coins can have marks on them (bag marks etc. I figured coins fall into two distinct categories Circulated and Uncirculated. Can an uncirculated coin be downgraded to circulated?
You are correct - uncirculated coins can show contact marks - in fact most do. The second part of your question is a bit more complicated. Typically contact marks would not drop the grade of an unc coin to AU - only wear will do that. But what some may call a contact mark may not be a contact mark at all - it may be damage. And damage will keep a coin from being graded as unc. It may even keep the coin from being graded at all by some grading companies. Others will net grade the coin as Unc details - Net AU or Net XF depending on the severity of the damage. So there are several variables at play here - and without seeing the coin there is no way to say what the correct grade should be. Can you post a link to the auction so that we may see it ?
Hi, The URL below is to a Yahoo photo album. Doubleclick on photos to enlarge. Thanks!! http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jvh99/album?.dir=/7fce
The coin appears to have been scratched - possibly twice. So those are not contact marks. Based on the pic it also appears to show very slight wear - so I would say the seller has correctly described it when he calls it AU. This coin is what they call a problem coin with those scratches - as such I personally would not buy it. Some of the major grading companies may not even slab it.
I don't believe the coin would be considered uncirculated even without the scratches. There seems to be a flat spot on the hair above the brow, which can indicate wear. The opening bid is fair enough, but $3.49 for uninsured First Class S&H is a little high. Of course the seller's "No Return" policy means that he will never have to worry about me returning a coin. I'll never buy anything from him anyway.
Pictures can be tough. The scratches may be more evident in real person, or less. Unless the price was very attractive for an AU coin, I would avoid this one.
