1887 Indian Head Cent

I checked with the seller about the picture and he said they're photographed pictures. I'll include my picture when I receive it. Does anyone think this coin is dipped?

My american retired coinseller friend send me following

Photograde lists the highest points on this coin as "above the ear" (presumably they're referring to
that lock of hair that covers the top of the ear - that's common of a lot of US coins) and the "lowest
curl of hair". I can see just enough slide in those areas that they appear to have been affected but
not worn at all. I don't see any slide on the cheek. The tips of the feathers look like they might have
gotten a bit of slide but according to the book they're lower than the points I mentioned above. . The book says
the highest points on the reverse are the "highest points of leaves and ribbon bow". Further, the
book says not to use the "diamond designs on the ribbon" because they were commonly poorly
struck and that's apparently what was affected.

Taking into account my inexperience in general and my lesser inexperience with copper, I don't see any wear. It seemed a weak strike to me, especially the ear curl and the apparant mushiness of the wreath. If it's a better strike, I think it could go to MS65 or even higher. If it's a dull strike, I still think it's a very attractive coin and, if graded as a 64, it would probably fetch a star from NGC, if they had graded it. Put it this way: I wouldn't turn it away for eating cracker (ancient chinese proverb via the Marx Brothers).

Well me and my friend have goldgrading from 300 dpi scan down to an art
Grading from foto's is a lot more difficult because slight cleaning can be glared out and slight wear can be lighted out etc
When a coin is offered on foto I allways ask for a scan and if refuses I nearly never bid

We have as diverse opinions on this IHC than on most other coins put up for our grading review, ranging from AU to MS-66 with everything in between. This is exciting and fun! I can't wait to see how it will actually grade out.

Fred

What a rip-off! I might presume the seller has no return policy since altering the coin images and no return go hand in hand. Is shatsi willing to post the auction or seller's username so we know who to add to the "avoid' list?

Fred

Good thing on his return policy. I'm happy that you're not going to get burned on the coin, shatsi. I looked at some of his previous auctions and he seems to be a grand master of image doctoring - his images are beautiful! I'm surprised he hasn't received any negative nor neutral feedbacks, but if his return policy is so good and he honors it so well, then must be he just puts the photoshopped coins out there and hopes somebody will eventually buy and keep them.

Here's another example: a great looking image of a 3-cent piece that, knowing what I know now, might not pass muster once in hand:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...m=8349367335

Fred