So there's this 1804 half cent that appears to have AU details, with what appears to be corrosion to the left of the date. Would NCS be able to make this a problem free coin? I don't think it's been cleaned previously? I have verdi-care that I think would work on this, but I don't want to clean the coin and then find out it comes back cleaned when I could have sent it to them and actually receive a numbered grade. What are your thoughts? Would NCS help, is it XF/AU?
I'd talk to NCS, first, and find out if you can specify whether or not to cancel the conservation if, in their opinion, it would not receive a problem-free grade. At worst, you would only be required to pay the examination fee if it could not get a problem-free grade. Chris
I think the amount of perfect color you have speaks to keeping the coin as-is. While some coins warrant conservation, I think this piece could be screwed up in efforts to lighten the darker areas.
The purpose of verdicare is not to lighten the color but to combat and remove any verdigris. With this in mind, I would treat the obverse of the coin, since, as far as I know, verdicare will not trigger anything that would lead to a determination as "cleaned". Perhaps Thad could address this.
Conserving copper is quite tricky I hear. the coin already seems to have an odd color, but I don't know much about EAC. don't forget, PCGS now conserves coins too.
do you agree with my grading of the coin? The seller is asking $450 obo, but if it doesn't grade clean, I don't think it'd be a good buy.
I can't tell from your picture, but with copper, it's important to know whether the issue is ON the coin or IN the coin. If the problem you're looking at is on the surface, you might have a chance of improving the coin with proper conservation. However, there are many issues that have already done damage to the surface over the past 200 years, and conservation will leave behind obvious signs of the former issue. As a side note, removing discoloration (I.e. carbon spots) on copper coins is nearly impossible, unless you plan to strip the coin and recolor it, which I don't recommend.
That'd go in my 7070 just fine as is sorry I don't have anything better to add to the conversation than that [emoji14]
I would call it XF-40, but the color is questionable and the strike is quite weak. I like the work that NCS can do except on copper coins. They never look natural and always look cleaned even if the coin receives a numerical grade. At the price, I would pass on this one.
Looks a bit like my old one....which I bought for around $150 this year. I don't think the strike is all that weak, but the color is odd to my eyes (could be the camera though). It's very common for these to be cleaned and re-colored and while 1804 is a cool date, it's the most common for this design. At that price point & raw, I wouldn't buy it, the odds of it coming back "details" are just too great.
BigTee44, If you are going to get involved with early copper, you should join EAC http://www.eacs.org. For grading early copper, they publish http://www.eacs.org/GradingGuide/GradingGuide.html (at a reasonable price) that every copper collector should have. Using EAC standards, I'd guess the details grade to be VF-20 (possible VF-30, but I'd need better images). To determine price, I'd need to determine its Cohen (variety) number. Can you post sharper images of both obverse and reverse?
Cohen variety can make a huge difference in price. Does the reverse have stems? Cohen-2 and Cohen-4's (both quite rare) will run in the 10's of thousands of dollars in grades of VF, even with that (what appears to be to be) carbon spotting
Sorry, BT, I didn't read your original post carefully enough. I was under the impression you already owned it. With the condition factor and what the seller wants for it, I would pass. Chris
You could be right, but it has that old Tarn-X flat look to me. Of course the images may have something to do with that.
