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 Replies: 36 / Views: 4,097 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
624 Posts |
I have been working on completing a life-long journey to have a complete Mercury dime Collection. After decades of stops and starts, I'm in the home stretch. To my surprise, I find that there are a lot of older/valuable Mercury dimes being sold on ebay that have been obviously polished. In some cases, the seller accuratly identifies the coin as polished. In other cases, there's a silly disclaimer, like: "our coins are between 50 and 100 years old. It is reasonable to expect that they have been cleaned at some point in their history." Is this a trend? The prices for these polished coins is usually lower than that of original finish coins, but it is a disturbing trend. I'm sure this is being done with other classic coins, but since I'm locked into the Merc's it's more noticable to me. Could a market for polished coins be emerging... ? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1812 Posts |
Quote:
Could a market for polished coins be emerging... ?
I do not believe there will ever be a market where collectors seek only polished coins, then again I could be wrong. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4337 Posts |
Does one exist? Well as a defined "market place", no. But as a trend that occurs for certain sellers to move coins, yes.
I know the exact seller(s) you're referring to on the bay. I've spoken to him over the course of time as well and he does what he does because he has buyers that will take his offerings.
People who buy those are either new or not serious collectors. If they are new, hopefully they will one day learn and realize the beauty of an unmolested AU/UNC when compared to a polished/dipped coin
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Pillar of the Community
United States
500 Posts |
theconsignmentclub eh? hahaha I have him on "ignore" for every search on ebay! There are several others as well that only offer polished/dipped silver in all denominations. I am disgusted by it personally - yet they SELL in high volume! Amazes me really. I think they should be booted yet they keep on attracting "suckers" daily. Just completed my merc album a couple months ago - sans the 16D as I refuse to fill that one. Looking for a couple of upgrades of some dullish ones now, but in no rush! Also just finished a MS66FB/MS67FB run from 1940 on up (45 is plain 67 tho until I win the lottery! LOL). High-end gem mercs are really dazzling! But then so is most gem silver from that era IMO! SLQ, Walkers, Peace - love those badboys! |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
624 Posts |
Buffalos... that's the guy! He pops up on every Merc search I do in ebay. EVERY coin he sells is obviously cleaned, polished, or plated. I hope that he's not altering these lower grade coins himself, but because of the volume he sells there really can't be any other reasonable conclusion. On a cheerful note... it's nice to know there are other Merc lovers out there. I love the series and have had hour of joy filling holes in my album. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
589 Posts |
I too love the Mercury dimes. I personally would like to know who to avoid on ebay so I don't buy any polished Merc's. And once I know who they are I can learn how to spot a polished up Merc. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Any seller that knows people will clean, polish, buff, etc. any coin to make it look pretty. There are many people out there that do not know coins well and if it is pretty, they just have to have it. This is not just with coins. Cleaned or shinny items always sell better than dirty old looking things. Think of yourself looking for a car. Would you buy a dirty one? In all auto places they spend a lot of money on keeping their cars clean since they know most people like the looks of a car far more than if it runs.
Same with almost anything. Furnature stores, clothing stores and especially food stores all do as much as possible to keep things looking clean and pretty.
I always remember one of my neighbors telling me she would never take any of my stuff from my garden since she saw flies, ants and bees on most of the stuff. At a grocery store that never happens. Everything is clean. Nuts, huh?
With coins over the history of collecting people have been polishing, cleaning, buffing, etc. to make coins sell faster. And it works.
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Pillar of the Community
1751 Posts |
It's tough and only getting tougher to find original, VF-XF specimens of earlier dates. My collection has really stalled with quite a few holes to go.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4337 Posts |
here's the completed page. I am 11 short on 1916 to 1931 page. I love a good looking AU/UNC unpolished, unmolested WLH Dime. sorry about some of the washout on the left side, light source and nothing more than an IPhone cam...they're plenty lustrous though and all original  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
624 Posts |
dsfreeworld... Beautiful! You got some very nice grade coins. I'm 3 coins short of a complete set (someday I'll get that '16D) and I'm working to upgrade lower grade coins I already have to the quality you have. That '36P and '39P are stunning!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
589 Posts |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
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Is this a trend? no, just the same speil sellers have been saying for the over 40 years. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
8516 Posts |
Oregon coin geek.....*** GO BEAVS ! ! ! ***
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Valued Member
United States
206 Posts |
52Raymo, as a newcomer, I'm curious: what are the signs that it has been polished? I can see there are lots of small scratches under high detail; I know that even uncirculated coins have some small scratches, but is there something different about these? Addition, something about the luster, especially on the obverse looks funny, but I couldn't identify what it is. The bands on the fasces also look to have experienced some wear. As I'm working on a 19th Century type set, I'd like to learn to identify polishing before I start working on any of the silver coins.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
8516 Posts |
I don't know exactly how to explain it but it just has that polished look that you can spot a mile away after you've looked at thousands of coins on ebay. Oregon coin geek.....*** GO BEAVS ! ! ! ***
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
14454 Posts |
when you see the design on the coin just as shiny as the fields thats a good indication it has been polished
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Replies: 36 / Views: 4,097 |
Posted 05/07/2013 09:29 am
