1836 Capped Bust Half -- Cleaned?

Hi Coinhistory,

Do you have the coin in hand yet? This point was already mentioned, and I think it is so very important, but highly understated.




This is so true. Photos can bring out the absolute worst in a coin, and it can bring out the absolute best in a coin... when you have the coin in hand, please let us know...

Well at least you got to witness a first class debate. Sorry if it strayed from your original subject but that discussion needed to be had. One of great benefits of CCF is that we are able engage in important dialog that isn't censored by the admins.

I would send it back. That is NOT the look of an original XF-45 coin. You can do much better than that. Again, PCGS has deemed it to be 'market acceptable'. Just because they did doesn't mean you have to. It has the details of an AU coin so they probably docked it a grade or two for the cleaning. Vote with your wallet.

I don't see any problems, in the second pic it looks like the light was reflecting off the coin.
Nevertheless, send this coin back immediately. It is definitely NOT original, uncleaned.

I have talked with several (honest) dealers about this, and I firmly believe that there is no way that a grader can know who owns what coin. The coins are handed to the graders without any form of identification. Just order numbers to keep the coins together. They can certainly make inferences based on the size of the submission or the coins involved, but there is no way to tell for certain. Keep in mind that I do not like the TPGs, yet I defend them in this case.

The only time I can think of when a specific lot of coins was overgraded across the board was when NGC graded the Stacks' 57th Street hoard. I've found coins in those slabs to be around 10 points high.

I have gotten overly generous grades before, so it is not just a major dealer thing.