Thank you to all that took time to contribute their opinion. Rather than taking weeks, this little adventure is at a point I can give the whole story now (I hope!). I did buy the coin off
ebay. I had been looking for a lightly chopped
Trade dollar to complete a 7 coin Capital Plastics "Liberty Seated" set and the two well placed chops on this coin were exactly what I was looking for. While not the best photos, they showed well enough what looked like the kind of
Trade dollar typically found on
ebay... circulated but not worn slick, perhaps once cleaned, nothing extraordinary except the kind of chops I wanted. The seller has 500+ positive feedbacks and not one negative. A "No Return" policy was balanced by assurance that any problem would be taken care of. I felt relatively safe venturing a bid and won the coin. When it arrived I opened the package and was astounded. It shined like my Army belt buckle!
I believe the coin is genuine, just polished like crazy. It is the right diameter and weighs 26.5gr. (97.38% spec.). A good point was made about chop damage reflecting through to the opposite side of the coin. It is there but mostly polished away. There were a couple comments on the rims. I think it is just the high-gloss finish in the photo because they look OK in hand. I don't have any explanation for the pitting other than it may have been corroded before it was polished. Thanks again for all the input. I learned some with this. Lots of good ideas and some good laughs at the lighthearted comments.
The seller balked at a refund at first but has come through with it so this coin is no longer my problem. The seller is not a coin dealer or collector and didn't think it was particularly shiny. I don't think there was any intended deception on their part just a lack of knowledge of what they were selling.
Now, my next and last comment here may open a whole can of worms or line of conversation. The seller had a lot of confidence in the coin's Certificate of Authenticity from the Washington Mint. They thought the COA meant that if the coin was good enough for professionals it ought to be good enough for me. I had never heard of the Washington Mint but now I would guess that they are the kind of company that would be selling slicked up
Ike dollars for $0.95 plus $9.95 P&H on late night TV and in Sunday newspaper flyers. You know the line, sacrificing some sort of coin collecting treasure at an amazingly low cost to you just so you have a little piece of our American heritage to pass down to the grandkids. BUT WAIT! Get a second whatever for just.... yadda, yadda, yadda... Goodness only knows what they sold that
Trade dollar for.
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Posted 11/26/2011 5:13 pm
