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 Replies: 10 / Views: 866 |
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Valued Member
United States
58 Posts |
Hi All, I inherited a coin collection from my grandfather who passed in 1977. Some of the coins are graded but most are not. One is marked with PXTB. I'm mostly trying to figure out what that means. The coin doesn't look too good to me but it has a price of $6.50 marked on the sleeve which seems high to me.    Hoping someone can help me? Thanks! Sharon |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4472 Posts |
To my knowledge the letters are not related to the coin's attributes or grading. My guess is the letters were put on by a coin dealer as coin dealers often use code letters to tell them the price paid and information about the coin, so they can see their cost when negotiating a sale. Dealers often mark up their asking price and will negotiate. Looks like your grandfather may have wrote in Liberty nickel. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1780 Posts |
Hi, Sharongn &  ... don't know about the "PXTB", but, with the coin in this worn condition, it's value is maybe a buck or two ... it is very worn. Circulated coins are graded by how much original detail remains on the coin, & what, if any damages, such as scratches, cuts, nics, etc. are present on it's surfaces. ...the more detail, the more value added to the coin, minus any external damage ... post any other pics of your coins (your pic 1 & pic 2 are sharp, focused & clear ...kudos  ... ) ...lots of helpful folks here, so, don't be shy ...  Edited by mrwiskers
12/29/2023 10:32 am
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
36905 Posts |
It is code for either price and date purchased or just price. This one is very low grade so price probably would not be 4 letters.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
94367 Posts |
Agree, most llikely the previous owner's coded cost. to the CCF! |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
12057 Posts |
Yup, IGE nailed it
For an example of how this sort of a system works:
GREAT COINS (any words or letters will work as long as they don't repeat, you can even use ABCDEFGHIJ or Greek letters or whatever; when I was in sales we used BLACK WHITE)
G = 1
R = 2
E = 3
A = 4
T = 5
C = 6
O =7
I = 8
N = 9
S = 0
So if I wanted to price inventory where I could know the price at a glance but the customer would not, I could write "SCTS" on the flip = 0650 = $6.50, and this can also be used for dates: "GRRE" = 12/23. This is also used for cost (so that the dealer would know what they paid for a coin) so I could write "SROT" = 0275 = $2.75.
Member ANA - EAC - TNA - SSDC - CCT #890 "Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done." -- Louis D. Brandeis |
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Valued Member
 United States
58 Posts |
Hi Everyone, Thanks so much for the input! Sounds like the consensus is the PXTB is the seller coding. Probably means "Poor, Xtra [Poor] To Boot". LOL Interesting it has a price of $6.50 on it though. Knowing my grandfather, I doubt very seriously he would have paid that much for the coin. I sure would like to know but, it will remain a mystery. Grandpa also collected other V nickels for me. It appears he was working on collecting all the years. There are 11 years so far. I am thinking about continuing collecting these to complete the set. I'm not too worried about condition but, moving forward I will avoid purchasing ones like this one.  I'm glad the pictures came out good! Note: I took the picture of the sleeve after I had removed the coin, which is why it looks funny. lol I should have noted that in my original post. Thanks for the welcome and for all your comments! Sharon |
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Valued Member
United States
58 Posts |
Hi IGE and Paralyse,
This is a great point. One I should have thought of. I worked at a distributor of paint guns & supplies for years so am familiar with a similar type of coding. Many of our vendors used letters for date codes where letters indicated years and months. We used something similar for some of the product we sold for rotating stock, etc. I just didn't translate that kind of system to pricing.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4233 Posts |
Probably impossible to decode without a lot of effort, there are so many possibilities. As I said on your other thread, we used PATHFINDER at a shop I worked at long ago. I couldn't find a word with the letters PXTB so it could even be coded on the Greek alphabet - those are all also Greek letters rho chi tau and beta.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
36905 Posts |
You need a word with ten different letters in it. Each letter then becomes a number like paralyse made a good example of. If you code all your 2x2's on the back, you will always know how much you paid for the coin without anyone else knowing the answer. I still use the same code today that learned at the first coin shop I worked for in 1972.
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Valued Member
United States
58 Posts |
I'm glad price coding was brought up now that I'm just now getting back into coin collecting again. It saves me from having to go back and add at a later time. Ya'll are the best! |
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Replies: 10 / Views: 866 |
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Posted 12/29/2023 10:30 am
