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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;johnmilton, post: 5716804, member: 101855&quot;]I get emails everyday from a couple of coin dealers who offer me expensive U.S. coins. It’s bad form to go after a dealer’s offerings while they are for sale UNLESS it’s a counterfeit. So I will keep it general.</p><p><br /></p><p>This dealer offered me an early large cent in an MS-65 holder. Given that this piece has a Sheldon number, it is possible to match the piece with photos I have in a book by Bill Noyes. The thing about many early high grade large cents is that they have an ownership trail that can often be traced. There are not that many of these coins around. </p><p><br /></p><p>Sure enough, I found this one. In 1974 a major auction house sold this coin as an EF-45 for less than $500. In 1989 another major auction house sold it in a major grading service AU-58 holder for less than $3,500. Now it’s in a major grading service MS-65 holder with a price to match (high 5 figures).</p><p><br /></p><p>This is one of the reasons why prices seem to be going down. Years ago, the same coins were in lower grade holders which brought lower prices. Now they are in higher grade holders at higher prices, but you are getting the same coin. I guess the coin “grew back” the areas that were rubbed, and the tiny marks on it can now be ignored.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you own a similar coin in a lower MS holder, I guess the time has come to crack it out and spin the grading company wheel of fortune.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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