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 Replies: 11 / Views: 2,104 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1302 Posts |
I bought a PCGS PF70 quarter off of ebay and in hard lighting I can see with my naked eye metal grain in the mirrored fields and what appears to be tiny specks of perhaps dust on the coin. My understanding was that PF70 was a perfect coin, perfect strike. How could visible details like this not degrade the coin? I have a PCI PF-70 quarter that I bought fifteen years ago that looks cleaner than this. If I had a half way decent camera set up, I'd post pics. But do any of you feel let down when you see a supposed perfect coin with distracting elements on it? |
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Valued Member
344 Posts |
Well dust can be blown off. But did you check the serial number? A big majority of high end PCGS slabs are fakes from China.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10982 Posts |
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...metal grain in the mirrored fields... Could these be flow lines in the metal? They do not effect the grade. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7629 Posts |
They very likely are flow lines, and I agree they do not affect the grade.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1302 Posts |
Yes, they are indeed flow lines. The more I look at the coin, the more I like it. I'm just surprised at how I have an MS-69 specimen that looks flawless... and the MS-70 has this characteristic. I've never really been the type of collector to really split hairs over 69 and 70 and bought a particular coin in order to see what differentiated the two grades in PCGS's eyes.
That being said, do you guys really see the difference between the two grades? Other than its effect on your pocketbook?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3283 Posts |
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Other than its effect on your pocketbook I suppose it would be nice to have a coin someone else deemed to be perfect; but not something I would care to get involved in. That's just me though. |
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Locked
822 Posts |
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A big majority of high end PCGS slabs are fakes from China. A big majority? I highly doubt that. |
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Valued Member
344 Posts |
You shouldn't. For instance a slabbed MS 65 1932-D quarter would be very very rare. There are an estimated 650 MS-65 or better 1932-D out there, and out of those there's probably not too many that are PCGS slabbed.
However in china they make literally thousands of counterfeits of that exact coin in counterfeit pcgs slabs then ship them out to other countries. So now what there was once maybe 50 in existance theres now 1050. Sounds like a majority to me.
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Locked
822 Posts |
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You shouldn't. For instance a slabbed MS 65 1932-D quarter would be very very rare. There are an estimated 650 MS-65 or better 1932-D out there, and out of those there's probably not too many that are PCGS slabbed.
However in china they make literally thousands of counterfeits of that exact coin in counterfeit pcgs slabs then ship them out to other countries. So now what there was once maybe 50 in existance theres now 1050. Sounds like a majority to me. Please show me where any of this story is documented. How in the world can anyone estimate how many specific grade non-certified coins are out there? Sheez... Shoot, I can throw numbers out there as well as anyone... doesn't make them anything but a guess. |
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Valued Member
United States
154 Posts |
I was aware of "Chinese" and other countries that were also producing fakes (Lebanon and other places of origin). However, in doing my "research" on the internet, I did not come across any concrete numbers. I am curious as to where you came up with those figures.
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New Member
Netherlands
31 Posts |
So there is a chance that my recently with Heritage Auctions purchased PF69 coins in PCGS slabs could be fakes? That would really be the end of it, since Heritage charged me for shipping with mega $$$ (watch out for them!). The coins itself look good (although some cents have cracks at the top of UNITED STATES lettering, where the steel core is showing). And a PR70 cent has a bit of dirt inside the slab. Removal of that dirt in future should probably reveal a stained spot. Consequently the coin should in my opinion not have been graded PF70. On the other hand I bought a PF69 silver State Quarter that is virtually perfect and probably should be graded as PF70. Now I'm hoping I did not fall into the Chinese "copying trap". |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
12437 Posts |
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So there is a chance that my recently with Heritage Auctions purchased PF69 coins in PCGS slabs could be fakes?
The chance of that happening is almost zero. Please ignore the unsubstantiated ranting of chris beatie, he is absolutely wrong. Yes, counterfeit coins are a serious problem, but they certainly do not come even remotely close to outnumbering genuine coins on the market. If that were to ever happen, Numismatics as a hobby would completely collapse and only academic specialists and museum types would continue on. It is also worth noting that the vast majority of fakes on the market would not pass muster with even a moderately educated collector, there is still a big difference between a cheap hunk of base metal stamped out in a Chinese sweatshop and a finely crafted product from the US Mint. IMO, it was VERY IRRESPONSIBLE for him to state such a ridiculous thing and I wish he would have bothered to try and defend his words but he just received a forum suspension a couple days ago so he will not be defending anything here anytime soon  |
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Replies: 11 / Views: 2,104 |
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Posted 10/16/2011 04:02 am
