As some of you may know, I am a bullion investor and do not know much about numismatics. However I wanted to get your thoughts on a recent purchase. My local coin shop generally sells raw ASE's for $3-4 over spot. And I saw this PCI graded 1999 MS-67 toned ASE For $40. So for the same price as the regular raw coins, I figured I would buy it. A few questions I have.. 1: Do you think that this was a good buy? 2: I know MS-67 isn't very great for a common bullion coin, but this is better than a raw ungraded coin, right? 3: on the front of the slab, it says "100% White". What does this mean? 4: Do you think this coin was graded before it toned, or graded after it toned? Would a toned coin like this grade as good as this one did? 5: Is PCI fairly reputable? Thanks for the help. I look forward to seeing your input.
The good news is you bought it real close to spot and if you wanted to, you could toss it on eBay as An AWESOME RAINBOW TONED and probably get $60 or $80 or maybe even a couple hundred dollars for it, depending on how many fools it attracted.
This has got to be a last generation (pre-2001) green label where the border indicated a problem free coin. The "100% White" means the coin at the time of grading was blast white and although a liberal grade was most likely assigned during this time frame, they will be within a point, usually over. The tone pattern and color contrast looks normal for the ASE, I see nothing wrong with this one @ $40 PCI was around for a long time and changed hands numerous times with catastrophic results. When e-bay began to strictly enforce the top tier only...PCI suffered a rather quick death.
Regardless of whether ASEs are slabbed or not, they are still 1 oz. .999 fine silver nothing more. So $40 is not a bad price. Silver is currently at $36 and ounce, so you paid $4 over spot which is normal.
PCI Slabs are "known" to tone ASE's which, due to their purity, are very reactive. PCI was purchased by David Lawrence two of three years ago and renamed to DGI. DGI's grading was fairly tight but they've since succumbed to a lack of interest and DL shut the service down. IMO, PCI got the grades right on some of their coins but with SAE's what difference does it really make? BTW, here's an interesting photo: As for the OP, you got a great deal on 1 oz of silver which is really all that these pieces are anyway. Store that slab in the right conditions and maybe it'll turn into a Toned Monster worth hundreds.
According to this thread on the CU forum, these typically sell for between $50-$100 depending upon the attractiveness of the toning. Old Green PCI Box with 17 Toned ASE's IIRC, the reason they toned is because the white insert that PCI used was not inert. Mark
I think you did good consdiering I would pay you 55-60 bucks for that coin just because I like the toning
Exactly what I was thinking especially with the ASE's. I did by a nice 1922 D peace dollar that said 100% white on the label. It has a nice tone to it now.
I bought a couple PCI slabbed Morgans about 12 years ago on eBay. Time to go dig them out of storage and check them out!! Steve
Update. Sold coin for $85 shipped on ebay. (best offer). Not bad. Thanks guys, sgiorgis: Good luck, show us what you find. Sounds like they might be pretty!
