Grade This 1888 IHC

I think this one's around VF25. Hard to say if cleaned from this pic, but I might expect some more crud in the devices.
Of course, if this is a Snow-1, the cleaning is really immaterial. PCGS has slabbed far worse coins as problem-free.

The coins both arrived this morning, and I can't make an overdate out of it. There's so much crud around the legends and devices that if it was there, and was light .. I'd never be able to make it out. The Cud shows up in the pictures every time, but I can't see it with my loupe. I'm seein' ghosts perhaps.

I think we can put that "been cleaned" thing to bed though. You guys are seein' ghosts too. The current market attitude toward cleaned coins has got everybody so spooked that everything looks "cleaned". The one thing these coins have going for them, is they are original.

On a brighter note, the 1934 Washington DDO I bought for 9 bucks arrived. It's the DDO.



Chance

When people use too strong of lighting and improper camera settings it's easy to make a coin look cleaned. Looking the picture in the 2x2 it's easy to see the coin has not been cleaned.

Didn't mean to get anuybody's knickers in a knot. I do think that there's a wee bit too much concern about circulated material that's been cleaned, especially since nearly all of it has been. Sandblasted or buffed at the local body shop is one thing, but this coin didn't have that appearance.

I knew somebody would say it was ... and stated exactly that in the first post, and included the 3rd picture as evidence that (I felt comfortable that) it had not been, but even in that picture some see it as "cleaned and retoning".

Fortunately, there are collectors for every grade of coin, or we'd all be fighting over an ever diminishing pile of coins.

I'm happy with it whatever the outcome, but I am going to send it to Rick on monday. I just can't trust my eyes anymore anyway.

For what it's worth, my opinion is just as justified as anybody else's. I won't back away from what I said. Some folks just see the boogie man everywhere. It's more a matter of whether you see the glass as half empty or half full. I tend to see mine as "half full"

Chance

--I don't see any signs in the pic you took--you got a good coin for the money.
As for the overdate, I had my doubts because the date position in relation to the point on the bust was different.
Also the marker inside the top loop of the last 8 is missing--like the Cud, that's also on every one of ~25 known examples.
Still...a good coin to check out, and you didn't lose anything by trying. I've done the same several times with this date.

Chancellor, that one really does seem like a gamble. That coin has to be at least an XF to be worth $10 and the picture really doesn't speak to that. It does indeed look to be off center, then you may have made a decent buy. Did you get it from someone who sells many coins? Such an individual would have the knowledge to disclose the fact the it was off center as that would increase the bids somewhat. If you got it from "some guy" you may get lucky, if you got it from a frequent coin seller, you probably got a VG in a distorted pic.

On the off-center thing on this second one, I'm afraid I don't see it. I do think I see what appears to be a straight clip running along the rim at the 1:00-3:00 position. Then, again, I think I've seen better pictures of flying saucers, so you don't want to hold me to any of that.

You're not going to get killed for $10. I think, on a seller-description like that, I'd take a chance, too. Do show us what it looks like when you get it, you've at least got my curiosity stirred.