I'll stick to US Trade Dollars since they were the most frequently chop marked coins that I would encounter. A Trade Dollar with no other "changes" to its original surfaces other than chop marks and "normal" wear will NOT be slabbed as DETAILS or Genuine. Is this correct? Does it apply to all reputable TPG's?
I don't know the specific answer to your question today. Chopmarks have had a weird go of it, from being about the worst damage on a Trade dollar to today being "a part of the coin". I don't buy it personally. Unless a chopmark is from a governmental agency revaluing the coin, I view chopmarks as damage. They might be interesting damage to some, but its PMD by definition. If the chop was to revalue, (making this up), the Trade dollar to 1,000 Yuan in Shanghai by the local government, then the "coin" would be a 1,000 Yuan Shanghai coin on a HOST trade dollar. Short of something like that, and its PMD and I would be sad to think TPG's do not label it as such.
I bought a cheap 1877cc Quarter with a chop mark only payed $5 figured it was worth it. I also own a 1855o with chop marks, however it's been in my family for generations. However I do consider chop marks to be damaged. All coins I've seen slabbed that have chop marks have been marked as damaged or genuine. To answer your question it is not correct. Hope this answers your question.
I can't be certain of NGC, but PCGS has recently(within the last couple years) started giving straight grades to chopmarked trade dollars. I am personally of the same opinion as medoraman that it is technically damaged. There are coins though that were counterstamped by the controlling government. The Philippines used Spanish coins with countermarks as circulating coins in the early 1800s. I also believe that there are U.S. coins with counterstamps from Puerto Rico that I would consider genuine.
I'm biased because I like chops and appreciate the story/history of them. I think they should be judged differently than a coin run over by a tank or one where somebody took a pen knife and scratched their initials on it. The coin should be graded as if the chops weren't there, AU50-F details/cleaned - whatever, then noted 7 chopmarks or whatever. I think this method would balance all the information needed to understand and assess a given coin.
So let me ask you this, why should chopmarks be treated differently than a US merchant stamping a coin, or a young man creating a love token out of a coin, or someone punching a hole in a coin? Why are chinese chop marks somehow superior to other forms of PMD? I am with you, I think they are interesting, but that does not change the fact they are PMD caused by private companies. No matter how interesting, they are not any different than a boy scratching his initials in a coin. Any TPG otherwise is completely destroying every single definition of what PMD is. Just because I like some coins with PMD does not disprove that it is, in fact, damage caused after it left the mint.
You think it's ok if the Philippines stamps a crown YII on Spanish or Peruvian coins to monetize them. Or any other government puts their counterstamp of approval on a different government's coin is OK because it is standardized and repeated. I think chops are similar where Bob and his knife or a jeweler making a love token damages a coin in a "random" and most often not repeated fashion. You are correct that by definition chops are PMD and I agree. I just think that it is a different class of PMD and as a group could be treated differently.
Not because it's standardized sir, but because they are governments. It's get back to the very definition of what a coin IS, a piece of metal authorized by a government agency to circulate as legal tender. Yes, chopmarks are similar to US countermark applied by stores. Those are interesting too. They both are a separate subclass of PMD that by definition is more collectible than most other types of PMD.
PCGS will certify a chopmarked Trade dollar as problem-free in a regular holder if they think that it is otherwise fine. I have no issue with this stance since Trade dollars were specifically produced to be used in the Far East and the US Mint and government knew at the time that acceptance of the coin by its intended market would lead to chopmarked coinage. Of course, I have no issue with someone disagreeing with my stance, either.
I collect trade dollars I consider it damage although part of its history and still collectable in its own right I feel no different about a chopmark then a merchants counterstamp or even a potty dollar. I have no problem with calling one say au chopmarked. As long as it's noted that is not an unmarked coin. Though I collect them unmarked and as high of grade as possible and most important original skin I have no problem with the history of the chopmarked trade. It was their original intended purpose and they were counterfeiting them as soon as they were made. And still are! Even with fake chops. Cac will even sticker the exceptional chopmarked trade too
You are correct; CAC will put a bean on a chopmarked Trade dollar. My coin is only an F15 and it has something like 31-obverse chops and three reverse chops, yet it is in a PCGS problem-free F15 holder and received a green CAC sticker.
But it was not very many years ago, less than 10, that the TPGs would not grade and slab any coin with chopmarks. They wouldn't slab Trade dollars, they wouldn't slab Spanish colonial, they wouldn't slab any coin with chopmarks because chopmarks were damage. And Trade dollars may have been specifically made as "trade coins", but Spanish colonial coins certainly weren't. They were minted for use in their home countries and for shipment back to Spain. So that argument doesn't really hold water with me. Well, as with so many other things, the TPGs did a sudden turn around. Because so many of their customers wanted these chopmarked coins slabbed & graded, the TPGs granted their wishes. What had absolutely been considered damage, overnight, became acceptable. Does that mean it isn't damage anymore ? Not to me it doesn't.
They probably had a quarterly earning call they needed to hit, so went back to the whole "coin collector piggy bank". Need to boost profits? No problem, throw those stupid coin collectors under the bus again. Btw, I agree about the other chopped coins. I have seen literally 50 different world coins having chinese merchant chops. Only a few were "Trade Dollars", (US, British, French), the others just being silver crowns from around the world that at one point circulated in China. Why didn't the TPG just come up with a different damage number, and grade these XF details , chopmarks? Same difference, and they wouldn't have to lie that these aren't PMD.
To me it's damage too. One of my main criteria for coins is eye appeal. Which is why my 15 or so trades none have chopmarks
