Grade/Value #2

I struggled a lot with grading and how to recognize altered coins. There are lots of resources out there, but the book, "The Art and Science of Grading Coins" by Jason Poe
explained things very clearly. I highly recommend it.

 

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Thanks I'll look into it.

 

You bought a Morgan dollar for $5?

 

Of course he did! He said so. He wouldn't pay more than that for a buffed coin.

 

I see metal flow lines caused by brushing all over the coin. There are different ways to whizz a coin, perhaps you are only considering the one where the metal is all pushed in one direction, pushing it up to form edges of the design higher usually by a spinning wheel of fine wire.

This one looks like it was done by a brush such as found on a drill.

 

David Setree Rare Coins, posted: "I see metal flow lines caused by brushing all over the coin. There are different ways to whizz a coin, perhaps you are only considering the one where the metal is all pushed in one direction, pushing it up to form edges of the design higher usually by a spinning wheel of fine wire.

This one looks like it was done by a brush such as found on a drill."

Thanks for your reply. I gives me the chance to explain whizzing a little further to other posters as you seem to know what it is.

In the early 1970's the ANA's formal definition of "whizzing" was a chemical treatment... Obviously, this was NUTS! The ANACS authenticators (using a stereomicroscope) put an end to this nonsense. They found that alterations made to the surface of a coin by a mechanical method rather than a chemical one OCCURRED IN DEGREES. Cleaned coins are not whizzed, buffed coins are not whizzed, and polished coins at not whizzed. Since the 1970's (in every thing I have read and in every grading class I've attended) The term "whizzing" ONLY APPLIES TO coins meeting the criteria you have posted: "the metal is all pushed in one direction, pushing it up to form edges [on one side] of the design."

Yes, the coin we are writing about is brushed. It may have been done with a moving wheel (I was not there when it was done); however, this surface has not been "whizzed!"

 

Words have power........and some have definitions.

 

OK. I stand corrected. We always used the term looser as to indicated any done with a wire brush or wheel. If the current definition indicates one direction only, I will go with that until it changes (if I live that long).

My first whizzed coin was an 1883 Liberty nickel that I thought could be a proof. remember that there were not the hundreds of published sources nor the internet like today.

ANACS, the only authentication service in the 1970's showed me that I was incorrect.