1793 Chain Cent, S-4, You Vs. PCGS (Educational) - Last Page

Posted 12/31/2022 4:39 pm

I remember Q. David Bowers telling the story that for decades there was a small, tight knit group of dealers that attended every major coin auction as he was coming up in the business. The reason for this is because they were to:

(1) view and examine the coins in person and keep careful, private notes about the characteristics of the condition of each individual lot that they were interested in in order to adjust their bids accordingly. This is information that can only be gleaned if you are on site at the public viewing hours. This is part of being a professional dealer and the basis for their consulting/advisory work for their wealthy bidders/clients.

(2) to gauge the appetite in the room on auction day for being aggressive on the bidding. Just looking at who showed up in person gave an indication of bidding depth.

Technology cuts down this divide because there is so much more information that is publicly available, including censuses, photos, videos, provenance, etc. But at the highest levels there is still a lot of buyer representation for coins

Quote:
Just a note: the coin posted above is not on an auction, I was just using that as an example of how things might not be as obvious when you are caught up in the race.

A number of years ago I was bidding on a choice-looking VG+/F 1814 large cent, bid was pretty low. Great chocolate surfaces, smooth planchet, couple of what looked like minor old scratches, and no corrosion or ED which is a tough find for a Classic Head. Photos were about as good as PCGS Trueview but this was a raw coin. Seemed to be flying under the radar with only a couple of lower bids.

I snuck in a last minute bid at what I thought was a good number and won the auction for a fair bit back of what the coin should have sold for, which should have been a sign. I didn't need the coin, or the variety, but right price, choice looking early copper - yeah, pull the trigger...!

When it came in the mail a week later, I found out the "light scratches" in the photo was actually a carved initial (graffiti) and a couple of degrees worse than "light." Seller had a no-return policy. Oops. Not a particularly expensive mistake (relatively speaking) but definitely made the coin worth less than I paid for it in my opinion.

So I will add to Numismatic Student's most excellent list the following:

- When a coin you want and can afford is up for auction, with limited photos, and the price seems really low compared to what you think it should be selling for, and/or bidders are staying away, the next question you should ask yourself is "why?"

IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS
THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
My coin website:https://fairfaxcoins.com

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