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 Replies: 27 / Views: 3,908 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2408 Posts |
This story is interesting for those who sell (and wish to sell) their coins on ebay or elsewhere. I've always graded my coins conservatively and made sure the images were truthful to the coins I'm selling. But that doesn't always work. So this is the story of my 5 cent 1925. Initially I listed this coin RAW - AU. I researched all the recent sales and looked for comparatives. Mine fit the profile... so I listed my coin close to others on sale. (they were close to $1k or over). I thought I was a happy camper. So... comes along an ebay bidder vforce I think his name was, and said my coin looked more like VF and would gladly pay $125 and LOL on my listing. Really? My coin was at the VERY least EF-45. Fair enough. I never had any of my coins TPG before and I thought this would be a great start. So I decided to send my coin to PCGS. It took a while to get this certified but I got it back - AU-55!!  MAN!! And I was ready to let it go for much less!! Of course this is not the end of the story... I'm still waiting for the coin to come back and will have to relist / sell the coin. But my position is WAY more comfortable than it was before. Too bad for vforce - he could have gotten the coin for $300. It's now a lot more expensive. Anyway... I just thought I'd share the story. http://www.pcgs.com/Cert/30480124.html |
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
5394 Posts |
anything that good should always be certified.
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Moderator
Canada
10458 Posts |
vforce is a 5-cent collector from Montreal... I suspect he knew what he was looking at...
"Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search." -- J. Robert OppenheimerContent of this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses...0/deed.en_USMy eBay store
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
2408 Posts |
Thanks SPP and Pacificoin I've learned my lesson!
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
3692 Posts |
Curious as to why you didn't choose ICCS or CCCS? Was it to reach an American market via PCGS? But it's a Canadian coin, our standards are a wee bit different. Looking at the coin, it does look VF-ish via the picture. Hairlines all over, faded details on the silhouette/bust, crown jewels and garment are faded, circulation "ding" above the 1st "A" in "CANADA". You're lucky it got over EF at all, IMO. Maybe I'm missing a detail or two. I think PCGS dropped the ball here in your favor, no? A case of buy the coin not the holder.
(Note: I'm an amateur coin collector, not a professional, not a coin dealer, so grain of salt, please, I could be completely wrong about this, just my amateur input.)
Edited by Libertad
08/04/2014 10:11 am
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Pillar of the Community
1844 Posts |
Im with libertad 100% .. Based on the fields , the mark as stated and the overall weakness I would be at VF 20 maybe 25 but no more...
The thing to do now would be to have it cross graded by ICCS to compare .. If they give you same grade then its a double whammy for you...You would have cred on both sides of the borders...
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2495 Posts |
I'm with artdio on this one. Also, I wouldn't be 'bragging' about my great grade since it's a US TPG for a Canadian coin, as they are famous for overgrading circulated Canadian coins. A knowledgeable Canadian collector won't be paying even 50% of trends for a PCGS au graded Canadian coin. I suspect ICCS would grade the coin somewhere in the middle of VF to AU as 'vforce' does know his nickels. |
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
9864 Posts |
PCGS is a little too liberal with their 55s and 58s.
I'd place this coin at 45-50. You did the right thing by having the coin slabbed, it'll bring you a greater return, but you may have been better off with an ICCS opinion.
"Dipping" is not considered cleaning...
-from PCGS website
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
3234 Posts |
You can't trust any of the grading companies ..."then or now".. ..from my limited experiences.
A well know Canadian grader stated that on any given day ..that his grade might go 55 and/or then go to 62 on the next day. Depends on how he feels at the moment. We see incredible grading fluctuations all over the grading companies and that's why we're always commenting on it here.
No science in coin grading as they're all over the board.
Do your homework..check a lot of the same ..and make your own amateur/professional conclusions and hopefully you'll come to somewhere in the middle and price it accordingly..
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2495 Posts |
Correct Devlec....."no science in coin grading" but given what happened in the good ole' days, I'd much rather have ICCS as the standard than some retailer who overgrades everything.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5394 Posts |
DEV you are correct there is no science in coin grading. However there are certain standards ,so we should all see things NEARLY the same. That said , along the way the US graders tend to see foreign (including Canada )coins in a far too liberal light. Would be interesting to see what ICCS would cross grade this piece as . I am betting VF 30... or if Scott and Brian are in a good mood on too much coffee !! LOL EF40. Cheers! Still a very decent five cents!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2408 Posts |
The problem is I can't sell ICCS on eBay/US. They are not recognizing ICCS unfortunately. As for the grade I got from PCGS, well I did my homework and got tons of images as comparatives from a variety of TPG, including ICCS. I'm not a professional grader but my coin does not look like the image below, not by a long shot.  EF40? not even close:  AU55 is definitely higher than I expected, but certainly goes to show the great divide when it comes to grading. At least now I have a certified one, not a fake and certainly not VF-20. |
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Moderator
Canada
10458 Posts |
canadian_coins, welcome to Canada's most difficult series to grade.
If it was raw, I would estimate that your coin was a really nice EF-45 or a AU-50, albeit weakly struck. Eye-appeal and strike really don't factor in as much with PCGS, in circulated grades.
Some things that people are forgetting here:
1. your coin is weakly struck, for a real gauge of wear, look at the leaf tips on the reverse. The preservation of lustre is quite good too and the rim has relatively few dings.
2. PCGS "true view" photographs are intended to capture the best elements of the coin, but more often than not, they are awash with light, which captures and highlights every little bag mark and circulation scratch.
3. You will find "problem coins" in ICCS flips... Canadian coin dealers snap up NGC and PCGS "Details" or "Genuine" coins up here like candy, crack them out and sent them to ICCS... I think you did ok sending it to PCGS.
Lastly, to the rest of you - if you have VF-20 coins that look exactly like canadian_coins - I'll offer to buy every one from you at full VF-20 Trend price...
"Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search." -- J. Robert OppenheimerContent of this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses...0/deed.en_USMy eBay store
Edited by SPP-Ottawa
08/04/2014 4:01 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2408 Posts |
Thank you SPP, I'm no expert in circulation coins but for sure mine has more luster than VF - and EF I looked at. BTW I just received my coin today! Came back from work and there is was. I am very pleased with the PCGS holder which let you see the rim.   |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1354 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2408 Posts |
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Replies: 27 / Views: 3,908 |
Posted 08/03/2014 9:52 pm
