I was looking on eBay and found a 1883 mogan dollar graded by CSI MS67. I never have heard of CSI so could you guys give me some info on it please. Also could you tell me the value of this coin.
CSI is not a grading company that I would have any faith in. This is the one that grades coins according to their own standards...not according to the Sheldon Scale. So, when they say MS67...that could mean anything. A lot of these lower grading companies greatly overgrade...so a 67 would probably be a 60-63 or so. However, since these guys completely ignore the Sheldon Scale, it could be anything (but, to their credit...at least they admit they ignore the Sheldon Scale-on their website, but not on the coin). I assume this is the coin you are looking at: http://cgi.ebay.com/1883-O-Morgan-S...ryZ39465QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem This is not a rare date, you can get a nicely graded example for a pretty good price. Plus, this coin looks funny to me...I don't know if its just the picture, but the color seems odd. Its kind of a small photo, but it looks like it has been heavily dipped to me (I don't see much luster remaining) but perhaps it has been cleaned or something. This is a coin I would stay away from...I would avoid the grading company as well. The only grading companies I really would buy from is PCGS and NGC...they are the best, next on the list is ANACS. Of course, as everyone says..."buy the coin, not the holder."
That coin, if it has original surfaces (which I STRONGLY question), would be a 64 at best IMO, and worth no more than 40 or so dollars.
I thought I remembered reading somewhere that you can send your coins into CSI and have them put whatever grade on it that you want on the holder. There coins are usually junk that is cleaned and either AU or very low end uncirculated.
Exactly. There's a reason for that. Avoid 'em like the plague, at least for valuable coins. For low silver like this one, you can get this piece for less than meltdown - I suppose it's OK. Here's another interesting fact... take a look at several Power Player auction houses ... Teletrade, Heritage, Superior.... All of them deal in coins slabbed by NGC, PCGS, ANACS, and ICG... only. Nothing raw, and no other TPGs. That says a lot. Even if I had another TPG which I thought was "up and coming" and doing a great job - which I don't - it still wouldn't matter, for two reasons... The marketplace has spoken, and it's a lot bigger than me. We seem to have settled on those four, with NGC and PCGS clear leaders. I deal with the market on the market's terms... I don't get to make the rules. Someday, I will pass away. I want it to be as easy as possible for my heirs to liquidate everything. As long as I deal only with The Big Four slabs, all they have to do is send everything in to a major auction house and wait for the check. It will be easy on them. If I live to a ripe old age, I will liquidate everything myself so they don't have to mess with it. But if I should go unexpectedly, I want it to be easy on them.
CSI = Coin Scam Institute did you see this guys other coins "QVC" "SGS" "NNC" "CSI" "NTC" then has a ANACS and A NGC
