Anatomy Of A Coin Scam Gone Bad. (1801 Cent NGC MS-62)

I have to agree with the above sentiments about friscomint1793.
I've done a few purchases from him and have never been disappointed with his coins.
He is one of the more astute early coppers specialists with experience and knowledge to back it up.
I have a hard time even with these facts presented here to believe that friscomint1793 is shady.

It amazes me how some of these coins get such high grades.....IMO someone know someone @ the grading SERVICE and they are being taken care of. Just an opinion, but how else can there be such a variance, esp when the coin is supposedly grade verified by other graders?

I spent some time today with Chris McCawley (CVM) and specifically asked about this coin, and the situation it was in. Lucas Baldridge ( ebay - friscomint1793 and CVM's nephew) may have made a mistake in not removing the coin off ebay the first time it was up for sale, after the Goldberg auction ended, and ebay's automatic re-listing took over. The coin did not sell through friscomint1793, CVM originally bought it at the Heritage Mervis sale, sold it to a private collector who kept the coin for awhile, then consigned it back to CVM (where it did not sell), during this time CVM let Friscomint1793 list the coin on his ebay store page, after it had not sold in a reasonable time, the owner agreed to consign it, to raise funds for another purchase, through CVM at a Goldberg's auction, where that said owner, did indeed take a loss of over $1K with the 17% sales commission added in after the coin sold to yet another collector. The coin has been shipped out to the newest owner from Goldberg Auctions. Neither CVM nor Friscomint1793 has the coin any longer. CVM said if anything like this ever slips through again, just give him a call, he will see to it that the coin is promptly removed, as it should have been in the first place, mistakes happen, and a double listing was never intended.

CVM is a very upfront guy, and gladly spoke with me on this very issue after I asked him about the Mervis 1801 Large cent. He remembered the coin right away and said he no longer had it. After that, is when I told him about the CCF discussion on it. He thanked me for turning him on to the CCF as he had not heard of this forum, he says he's really much to busy to spend time on coin forums online anyways, and other than an occasional read over at the EAC member forum, he doesn't participate.

CVM said he did not think the coin was over graded at all, however we all know grading isn't exactly something everyone agrees on. He did say that all 1801 S-216 varieties come lightly struck with central weakness, and one thing is that CVM does do well is grade early copper(my opinion, of course)!

CVM is a good guy in this business full of sharks. Besides getting to talk some early copper with him today, I also got to get a few really COOL 1794 high grade coins in my hand to look at, along with some amazing pedigree coins from Husak, Mervis, Col. Green, Naftzger, Adams, Davy, Brown, collections, CVM has one heck of an amazing inventory! Can anyone say multiple chain cents in F-12 or better, at a local coin show? Now that's something you don't see often.

Unfortunately, there are some people that will refuse to see a scammer because they are friends with or infatuated with such scammer.

jdmern, I agree with your premise. There are only 2 possibilities here, based on the facts. Either the seller was purposely trying to commit a scam by trying to sell a coin that he no longer possessed, or, the seller is an incompetent business person and screwed-up royally and should not be conducting business until they have gained the proper skills to do so. Either way, this was not good.

g048406, first, let me start off by saying I greatly respect the work you have done in exposing crack out artists and other legitimate scammers on ebay. It helps out all those of us who try to do things the right way.

That being said, I think you are flat out wrong and out of line with such serious attacks on this seller. Neither you nor I know exactly why an ERROR was made in the listing a SINGLE coin. Only the seller knows that.




To accuse what by all appearances is a respected member of the numismatic community of being a trying to commit a scam or of being an incompetent business person, because of an error that in the grand scheme of things in quite minor, is ridiculous. If I found myself being bashed mercilessly over a small error by someone over the internet, I would be LIVID.

As I believe I have stated earlier in the the thread, I once sold a coin privately and did not realize I still had it listed on ebay. No ill intent nor scamming was intended on my part, nor am I an incompetent businessperson. I luckily caught it before it sold, but it remained on there for a couple of weeks. According to the logic you are using, that ERROR would mean I was either a scammer or an incompetent businessperson.

Clearly, these internet forums can do wonderful thing for the collecting community. They can also lead to unsubstantiated witchhunts and real damage to a person's reputation. I believe I stated earlier in the thread that I think even the title of this thread out of line.

Perhaps I am in the minority here, or maybe I am flat out wrong. I do not know the seller, nor the OP. However, I am vehemently opposed to the internet butchering of a seller based upon, at best, flimsy internet speculation of the INTENT of an error.