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 Replies: 30 / Views: 6,582 |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
3831 Posts |
If you want to call it art or use it as a piece of jewellery - no one can stop you. But numismatic wise, once a coin is worn / damaged, no amount of 'repair' can fix it.
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Moderator
 United States
189033 Posts |
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I would image that to some extent, tooling a coin and then selling it as a problem-free coin could have legal repercussions, no? I can't wreck my car, fix it up, and then claim it's never been in an accident when I go to sell it.
I believe "fraud" is the term? I agree. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7390 Posts |
Defacing coins is perfectly legal. It's trying to repair collector coins to fool collectors that is a moral grey area
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Moderator
United States
189033 Posts |
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Defacing coins is perfectly legal. It's trying to repair collector coins to fool collectors that is a moral grey area That is a rather terse but adequate way to state it.  |
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Valued Member
 United States
51 Posts |
Yeah there really is so much to it, you can do whatever the heck you want with your coins from melting them down to painting them but it still small gray areas when you add the word" and selling", or" $500 penny" that break the grey area. So really just like with anything else, you have to be safe than sorry and get the most information you can about something before actually doing it and getting a $2,000 ticket in the couple years in jail. I once got a ticket because I turn my blinker on literally half a second after I was supposed to. Another example would be how T-Mobile had to give me a discounted rate because of the Miss representation of information. Gray areas can be a horrible obstacle.
From what I gathered it seems perfectly fine to try to repair your own coins but it's not valued by anyone except for me and also illegal to try to sell it as a coin that has not been repaired, so if I were to repair it and then simply state that it was a repaired coin could that possibly deter that illegal gray area?
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Moderator
Canada
10458 Posts |
However, there is a flip side to all of this... engraving and re-engraving coins has been done for at least 150 years, and some of those coins have increased in value... Love tokens come to mind... And then, there is this, with even more modern coins, that certainly adds value to the coin, as a work of art: http://www.instructables.com/id/Hobo-Nickel/"Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search." -- J. Robert OppenheimerContent of this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses...0/deed.en_USMy eBay store
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7623 Posts |
You can do pretty much whatever you want to YOUR coins.
It becomes a problem when you then take those coins and try to pass them off to someone else as something they are not.
The terms "fraud" and "deception" come to mind.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2917 Posts |
Probably just a good idea to strike the thought from your mind...
CRH Nickeloholic. 1,600,000 nickels searched in eight years! Have found FOUR complete Jefferson sets!
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
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so if I were to repair it and then simply state that it was a repaired coin could that possibly deter that illegal gray area? If you sold it with full disclosure of what was done to it yes that would remove the element of fraud. |
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Moderator
United States
189033 Posts |
Quote:However, there is a flip side to all of this... engraving and re-engraving coins has been done for at least 150 years, and some of those coins have increased in value... Love tokens come to mind... And then, there is this, with even more modern coins, that certainly adds value to the coin, as a work of art: http://www.instructables.com/id/Hobo-Nickel/ Ah, yes. Good point. And thank you for the link.  |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
4593 Posts |
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Perhaps not illegal, but certainly reprehensible. Becomes illegal when you sell without disclosing that you've destroyed the originality of the coin. The path to Heck is paved with repaired steps...-----Burton 50+ year / Life / Emeritus ANA member (joined 12/1/1973) Life member: Numismatics International, CONECA Member: TNA, FtWCC, NETCC, EveryCountry (online) coin club Owned by three cats and a wife of 40+ years (joined 1983) Author: 3rd Edition of the Sample Slabs book, https://www.sampleslabs.info/ |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4211 Posts |
As long as there is no intent to defraud you are safe with the laws.
Think hobo nickels etc. Have some fun with some common coins but don't try and make a valuable one "better"
with the intent to increase the value.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1314 Posts |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
I wonder how many coins have been messed with as to improving small details and the person that ends up with it doesn't ever know. For example you take a high graded Mercury dime that has no full bands. A very good jeweler could easily cut a small line in the Horizontal bands to make them appear full bands. Or the steps on the reverse of a Jefferson nickel. Why couldn't a jeweler simply cut the steps to make them appear as full? Odd that someone could take a rusted out pile of junk of a car, body off reconstructed it and it is now worth lots of money. And even saying so helps improve the value. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1314 Posts |
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Why couldn't a jeweler simply cut the steps to make them appear as full? That would create the illusion of a full step coin only to the untrained eye. Same for bands in dimes and bell lines in halves. The cutting deepens the coin surface and alters the relationship to surrounding metal. Any tool marks will be visible unless buffed out. Buffing will affect tone, surface texture and sheen. This is why some collectors have loupes of higher magnification and even microscopes. |
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Replies: 30 / Views: 6,582 |
First Page
Posted 12/19/2017 5:03 pm
