One of my first coin buys of the year arrived. In pieces. [Sad emoji] This highlights the danger of sending coins in paper envelopes. The rollers of the sorting machines will crush them like a peanut shell. Solution? Always send coins in padded mailers to prevent them going through the crushers. Share your story of coin abuse. Rasiel
Wow so sorry Ras. I've been lucky. Nothing broken but I did buy a broken coin that was repaired at a discount.
I had that happen to me before as well. It was only a British half crown. Seller just put the coin, with not even a flip, into and envelope, and slapped a stamp on it. The envelope arrived with a coin-sized hole in the corner. The best part was, the seller had the audacity to charge $3 for shipping. I got my money back through paypal at least.
My god this is a very fine Trachy isn’t it ? What a pity and any serious seller know that this coin need to be very careful with. I received one Alexis 1er Choice XF trachy Alexander 1er last week and it was protected like a masterpiece hopefully.
I hopefully never got any story like that as I buy to serious dealers and top auction house , I pay more on postage 6 to 20 usd that include insurance. Many have contracts with UPS, FEDEX, DHL. I never buy on eBay or even on Vcoin. sad for this nice Trachy.
Anyone have any recommendations? I don't have the heart to put it in the garbage but I can't do anything with it either. Had this happened to me ten years ago when I was broke I probably would have attempted to superglue the pieces back together LOL
Superglue works, but you've got to apply it to one edge with a needle, using only the smallest amount, so that it doesn't squeeze out from the seam when you press the pieces together. I've had the same situation once. And get your money back from the seller who didn't bother to package it properly!
Looks like you purchased it from a dealer/ auction house. I would send them the picture/post link and ask for some kind of refund. I'm not sure how the mods would feel if you outed them, but that might be the next step with a new thread. Whenever I've received coins in a padded envelope, they were in a plastic flip, then between two pieces of stiff cardboard. I certainly would not throw it away, just keep it near to remind you of dealing with that company.
The auction description said broken and reattached so no big deal just glue the pieces together and of course complain to them for the packaging asking for a serious discount
It was Nomos. They did the right thing and offered to give me a refund. The problem is just the alert of what can happen when coins are shipped in paper envelopes. In this case the coin was inside one of those peel-apart sticky cardboards but that offers almost zero protection. Rasiel
I can understand how you feel! A couple of years ago, I received an envelope from Plovdiv, Bulgaria containing a Julia Soaemias denarius I had ordered from a seller located in Belgium. The coin was in the thinnest possible peel-apart cardboard sleeve inside an unpadded envelope. It wasn't even in a flip, but had been placed directly inside the cardboard sleeve, held in place with a piece of tape applied to the coin -- the tape had come off -- with no other protection. It arrived looking like this. Yes, it was possible to fit the pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle, but that did me no good at all. It's not as if I was going to try to glue it together! Fortunately, I had purchased the coin on Vcoins and had paid via Paypal, so after I took photos and sent them to the seller (with a very annoyed cover email!), I received a refund. I asked the seller for an explanation of why the coin was sent from Bulgaria if he was in Belgium, and he told me that Bulgaria was where his consignor was located. (I must say I'm not familiar with the practice of a consignor actually keeping the coin in their possession during the selling process, and mailing it to the buyer, but apparently that's how this seller did business.) I was a bit reluctant to buy the coin in the first place given its stated weight of only 1.9 grams, but it never occurred to me that it would be packaged so carelessly!
Bummer. That is a lovely coin... Over the years, I've had at least two empty non-padded envelopes arrive with coin-size holes in the seam and no coin. I did recently get a broken World War II Japanese sake cup - one broke in a lot of six, which is a miracle - they should've all been busted. They were boxed okay, but stacked against each other without padding - not good for ceramics, even well-boxed otherwise. As for eBay, I'd say 90% of the coins I buy are well-packaged. I bought my first coin there in 1998. Lots and lots of coins. Just sayin'.
I've taken to mailing coins in small boxes. They are rigid enough that USPS never tries to run them through the automated equipment like they do occasionally with bubble mailers and they're not that much more expensive to mail either. I wish more dealers would do this. May not make sense for a $20 coin but when you're talking $100+ for a coin most of us are fine paying $5 for shipping.
The UV transparent epoxy is commonly used in jewelry and gemstone repair, and once fully cured with a UV light or sunlight is close to invisible ( unless a person has a rough touch). That's what I would do, although I have never received a coin broken like that! jim
