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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;-jeffB, post: 2719165, member: 27832&quot;]We&#039;ve all seen them -- &quot;Coins of the Twentieth Century&quot;, &quot;Coinage of World War II&quot;, &quot;Vanishing Coins of Yesteryear&quot;, yadda, yadda, yadda. Cardboard templates with text, images, or faux woodgrain textures printed on them, enclosed in a plastic snap-case or even framed behind glass.</p><p><br /></p><p>Littleton and the like crank out the little plastic ones by the millions, it seems, and fill them with heavily circulated common dates that would be hard to sell otherwise. I think the larger ones are usually sold empty, and filled by collectors of all sorts. They&#039;re often filled with coins that we would call &quot;cleaned, polished, AG details&quot;, and the seller calls &quot;shinny&quot;. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie11" alt=":rolleyes:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Sometimes, though, you&#039;ll come across one that has some better coins in it. They&#039;re still likely to be cleaned or otherwise troubled, and often unattractively toned, because the cardboard usually isn&#039;t low-sulfur.</p><p><br /></p><p>I came across this set last year on eBay, and it&#039;s taken me a long time to get around to doing something with it. This isn&#039;t the original photo, but it&#039;s comparable in detail to the one I was looking at when I set my bid.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]615429[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The first thing that caught my eye when I saw this was that many of the coins were showing significant detail, and they weren&#039;t all the ones I expected. I particularly zeroed in on that Barber half, although I was pretty sure it would be another polished F-details 1894-S (a surprisingly common date). I was still pretty sure that everything would turn out to be cleaned, but based on the closing prices I&#039;d seen for high-details Barber halves and SLQs, I decided to bid pretty aggressively.</p><p><br /></p><p>When I got the set, I quickly determined that:</p><p><br /></p><p>1) Yes, most of the coins (except for the low-grade and post-1960 stuff) had been cleaned. Not brutally, but more than enough to be ungradeable.</p><p><br /></p><p>2) The details on the Barber half and SLQ were <i>very</i> high indeed.</p><p><br /></p><p>3) Those two coins in particular, and a few of the others, had picked up some pretty psychedelic toning from the cardboard backing.</p><p><br /></p><p>Most of the stuff isn&#039;t very interesting. That Walker might have started out uncirculated, but it&#039;s cleaned. So are the dollars and the Franklin. I&#039;m not sure about the Buffalo, but it&#039;s a common date. Nothing especially interesting in the cents, other nickels, or dimes.</p><p><br /></p><p>But here&#039;s the Barber half. (I hope -- my browser&#039;s acting up and showing a corrupt image, but I think it&#039;s just the browser. Let me know if the obverse image looks corrupt for you.)</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]615460[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]615457[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>And here&#039;s the SLQ:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]615458[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]615459[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Both the half and the quarter are hairlined. But the half doesn&#039;t show much wear, and I can&#039;t see <i>any</i> on the quarter -- not even on the kneecap, never mind the shield or head. The SLQ has plenty of luster on both faces.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, has anybody else found upside surprises in a display like this? If so, post them here...[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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