Background: I’ve told my story here before but, again, I put quite a number of coins away, long ago, and now am getting them sorted, and the better ones graded, etc. I knew enough back then to buy some nicer coins, but in many ways I am a novice because I never really knew what I was doing, so I would appreciate some advice. My question today is about eye appeal. I have a large number of Franklins, some in the higher grades. Rick Tomaska is a resource that I came across, who seems good on Franklins. Here is a piece, posted on the PCGS site: https://www.pcgs.com/news/why-franklin-half-dollars-of-the-same-date-and-grade Note the three 57-D Franklins. The two on the right have more value to him. I have a number of nice coins that look better than the one on the left, but still are pretty dull in hand. Sort of a gun metal grey look, in the early stages of what I think is meant by “white” coins...? Tomaska says that the dull sort of toning that I am wondering about won’t affect the grade that the TPG will put on it. But there will be considerably less market appeal. Easy enough to make such coins look like the one on the far right. So I ran an experiment. I took one of my low grade Franklins, bought some silver dip, and dipped it. You can see the before and after photos (colors not quite accurate). The dipped version has more appeal to me, and I presume that if I did this to my dull, higher grade Franklins the result would be even better, as they have seriously more underlying luster. Also pictured is a 63-D FBL that has better and unbroken luster but looks uniformly dull and lifeless (although the underlying luster/cartwheel is obvious, in hand). I have about a dozen of these sorts of coins that are worth submitting. So, to dip or not to dip, that is the question. The goal, at this stage, is not personal satisfaction. The goal is to sell for maximum value. And I have to decide what to do, before I get the coins encapsulated. Recommendations appreciated.
If a coin has dark surface toning, a dip (eZest) can uncover luster, but too long a dip can destroy the luster. Perhaps @GDJMSP will chime in
OP... I am like you. A sparkling white coin screams eye appeal to me. But then I am of the old guard. One of my big surprises since joining CT is that eye appeal is a vastly different thing to today’s coin collector. If you are doing this to put the coins at market, you may want to reconsider as today’s collectors tend to prefer coins with an original skin. If you are doing this for your own enjoyment, I totally get it. I don’t think that eye appeal will affect a TPG grade, I could be wrong.... The ugliest eye appeal coin I ever owned was an MS65 SLQ that was black as night. It was butt ugly to me but when it went to market I was stunned at the bidding war that ensued.... Just be careful when you dip but it already seems as though you have that down.
Yeah, times change. And I think you’re right, what I am looking at wouldn’t effect the grade. TPGs see these things all day long and can tell what the coin is. I never was much into dipping coins, even back when shiny was popular. No need, as sellers did it before I ever bought them, grin. And BTW how come none of my coins aged with grace (unlike me, lol). I put these coins away over 40 years ago. I stored them either in 2x2 flips, hard 2x2 plastic, or plastic tubes. In the Midwest. After all this time there is not a one(!!) that developed anything resembling the attractive toning that I see on web sites. My coins are either basically unchanged. Or a few have gotten spots or streaks. Or they just got uniformly blah like the one I pictured. The nicely toned coins that I have were toned when I got them and haven’t changed much, if memory serves. My experience makes me wonder if there are more artificially toned coins out there than people realize. I got some better lighting conditions last night, so I got a better picture of what I’m talking about. This coin has clean surfaces and nice underlying luster. But it has a look as though it was sitting out and got a light layer of dust over it. Totally uniform, lifeless. But I guess that it’s better than black and butt ugly, Randy, and butt ugly sells. I suppose I will just ignore the Tomaska comment and send these coins in, as is, and take whatever it is that the market gives me. Incidentally, this is what a coin can look like, that has been sitting for 40+ years in a tube of BU coins and was probably put away shiny.
Howdy Will - I could write half a book here and still not cover everything so I'll try and keep it as short as possible. To start, the decision to dip or not dip any coin has to be made based on that individual coin, especially given the reason you are thinking about dipping them. And making the correct decision, well, that's the hardest part. And it is the hardest part because there's several factors that must be considered. First of all you have to decide if the coin is a good candidate for dipping - can it actually be helped by doing so ? Then you have to consider what the grade of the coin would likely be, and be right. And then you have to consider if it's going to be worth paying the cost to do all this. And of the coin doesn't grade at least 65, AND get the FBL designation, then you might not even cover grading cost at sale. To help with that part, consider what Tomaska said in that brief article - "When I attended a major coin show 25 years ago, I would typically come home with a full double-row box, about 150 coins, of superb cameo proof coins of the 1950 – 1967 era. 15 years ago I was down to about 75 coins, 10 years ago 30-40 coins. At the last FUN show I came back with 17 coins – all denominations!" What he's telling you is that there aren't many coins out there that are good candidates and or worth it - most of them were picked over years ago. Then consider that this article was written an additional 10 years ago. And then consider that in those 10 years prices in the US coin market have done basically nothing but go down steadily. Shrinking to prices not seen for almost 10 years BEFORE that article was even written. In other words, the odds are stacked heavily against you for a multitude of reasons. Now even if you beat the odds and everything goes your way, then you must consider your potential buyer pool. And that, well that's a pure chocolate and vanilla thing. The only ones interested are going to be those that like blast white coins. Pretty much everybody else will just look away. Now throw in the fact that dipping a coin is always a crap shoot - you never know what you're going to end up with - never !
If you dip it may help the coin. Older collectors prefer a blast white coin but newer collectors want it to be all original. Over dipped coins only hurt the coin. You must consider each coin before you dip it. I'm not sure about having the ones you posted graded. I doubt any of them would grade high enough to recover your costs. None of them have full bell lines. This is one of mine. Please note the PCGS grade and compare to yours.
