| Author |
 Replies: 26 / Views: 2,731 |
|
Rest in Peace
United States
5375 Posts |
I bought a pretty rare coin for 63+ awhile ago (I checked it out pretty well), and it's worth quite a lot. I brought it to another dealer, who said it was a 'slider' (AU 58). He seemed to be thinking that I would sell it, so my question is have you had similar experiences? I don't know if this kind of downgrading is common or not.
BTW, I knew what was going on and didn't sell it, the coin is worth well over 500 and I would never part with it for something like 180. Edited by coinguybrian
07/05/2007 10:39 pm
|
|
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
834 Posts |
Coin grading is very subjective and it is an opinion of the person grading it. How that said, there are some dealers who might give a lower grade two pay out a lower price. I am not saying that the dealer you went to did that but remember grading is only an opinion.
Bruce.
|
|
Moderator
 United States
6563 Posts |
We all make mistakes here. Some are pricey some aren't. But here you can learn with us about grading techniques and what to look for. Once you have a good idea of how to judge for yourself the grade of a coin you can walk into a coin shop and buy the coin that you see based on the price and not based on the sellers grade.
|
|
Rest in Peace
 United States
5375 Posts |
I have a fairly good idea of how to grade coins, and did quite a bit of it awhile ago. Of course, I'm no professional.
These guys seemed a lot more shady than the ones I had went to for quite awhile, and me and my father examined it for wear before I bought it. It's pretty easy to say something is a 'slider' because regardless of the lack of bagmarks and without wear condition it still is technically under the uncirculated mark.
Meh, I could try to get some pictures here, but I'd need my dad's camera because mine is a POS.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
764 Posts |
the best advice I can give you is to do your homework on coin grading. there are several books out there that can help you accurately grade your coins. knowing what you have is the most important thing.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
3233 Posts |
Sliders can be a bit tricky to detect from UNC's. You need to tilt them in the light just right to see if there's rub/wear. Sometimes, the lack of luster on a high spot is due to coins rubbing against each other. An AU58 is a coin that has seen very little circulation but will show evidence of slight circulation in the fields along with slight rub/wear on the high points.
The dealer has it in his best interest to be careful when buying coins that his buyers will also equally scrutinize. The spread between AU58 and MS63 can be quite large as you see. You might have to shop it around to other dealers. Or, you might want to get it professionally slabbed. Then, there will be less argument amongst dealers and it will trade fairly easily at the grade on the holder (PCGS/NGS/ICG/ANACS).
Pictures would be nice, though.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
1173 Posts |
Shadow...it's difficult to answer your original question without seeing the coin. Here's possible scenarios...and forgive me in advance if scenario 3 is inadvertently insulting to you and your dad!
Scenario 1: the dealer you bought this from overgraded the coin.
Scenario 2: the dealer you took the coin to for confirmation of its grade, thinking you were interested in selling, low-balled the grade hoping to buy it cheap from you.
Scenario 3: the coin was MS63 when you bought it, but mishandling by you or others since then has lowered the grade, so both dealers were honest.
Scenario 4: both dealers are completely honest, and simply see things differently; what one considers "slight rub" from circulation, the other sees as normal bag wear and feels the coin is uncirculated.
Scenario 5: the coin was dipped, steamed or otherwise cleaned at some point in the past and it fooled the original dealer, but with the passage of time and some natural toning, the rub marks are more readily visible.
I'm sure there are some other possible scenarios that could readily explain the difference in grading.
Best wishes...
|
|
Rest in Peace
United States
5375 Posts |
Well, I do have one coin grading book which I used at the time, it was pretty helpful. Both 1 and 2 are plausible (I hope not 1) I can tell you that I've never really handled it and it went straight to a showing book. I pretty sure that it's not cleaned, and four is equally plausible too.
I used to have some pictures up here, but they're gone so I'll ask for some more today.
Edited by coinguybrian
07/06/2007 11:09 am
|
|
Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
My leaning would be towards hunter20ga's choice #2. Is the coin of a type which requires relatively specific knowledge to grade, i.e., not a Morgan?  |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
2540 Posts |
There are creeps everywhere.
|
|
Rest in Peace
United States
2884 Posts |
AU58 to MS63 is a big spread! However, I had a $1.00 Gold Piece that was graded by PCGS as an AU58. I could never see wear on the coin and while making some other submissions to PCGS I decided to crack it out and re-submit the coin. I was hoping for an MS60 as this was a type two gold dollar and the bump would have been a major coo. Well lo and behold it came back an MS62!!! My $700.00 type coin jumped to a $4500.00 coin. So, the moral here is even the "big guys" make mistakes. AU58 to Mint state can be a tough call. I find it the toughest area in grading because as mentioned above so many variables come in to play. Mike |
|
Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
Golly, Mike. You spend more time on your sigs than I do on my pictures. |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
2443 Posts |
People need to remember that slabbed coin grades are just a persons opinion. There is almost never going to be an agreement on a grade if you show it to 100 people. Also, the graders are human, they make mistakes and have bad days. Mike gave a perfect example of this. Hey Mike, can you post some pics of the coin?
|
|
Rest in Peace
United States
5375 Posts |
" My leaning would be towards hunter20ga's choice #2. Is the coin of a type which requires relatively specific knowledge to grade, i.e., not a Morgan? " It's an 1828 13 star capped bust half dollar cent. |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
936 Posts |
I have been to a few coins shows (at least one a month in the summer) and have found various grading scales. Some over grade, some under, some use a blanket grade. I have bought some on impulse only to regret it later once I got home and saw them under ideal lighting. Although I have never tried to sell something, I imagine that not all dealers know every types grading scale, what might be AU in one series might be MS in another.
|
|
Rest in Peace
United States
5375 Posts |
Yeah, I bought a few lesser valued coins at coin shows, I'd never buy something in the hundreds of dollars without really knowing what I was doing, and I saw some stuff which was really overpriced. Good thing I examined this under a good light. I have the Official ANA grading standards for US coins book, does anyone else have it and do you find it helpful? |
| |
Replies: 26 / Views: 2,731 |
Posted 07/05/2007 11:20 pm
