Grading - Decoding The Information On A Grellman Tag

This is a great thread filled with lots of new knowledge for me - thank you all for contributing.

Great looking large cent, I'm at AU55++

Here are the two CVM sales with photos from 2006 I have with plates of the coins, first up was early in 2006, the Evan L. Kopald Collection fixed price list.



Send was also early 2006 EAC Auction Lot 469 another 1852 N3 in MS60 it realized a sale price of $240.00



Neither coin appear to be a match to yours Blastenpene4. Oh well nothing more I can do but it's always fun trying to match a plate with a coin. I've found a few out there. One give away on yours beyond the hit on the cheek is the rim on the reverse, note how it raises up like a railroad track at the top around 11:00 through 5:00 helps in seeing against the poor printed images found in catalogs from that era.

Just for fun, here's another coin - same year, same dealer. Lower grade (slightly), but a prettier coin (shame about that cheek hit). Price is $275 for this one - again, seems a bit on the high side. Messing with trying to figure out his 10-letter word for price code.

Really nice second 1852, I did not find this one in any of my CVM sale catalogs.

Still looking for an answer as to whether the Grellman tags appreciably increase the value of coins. These are nice coins, but seem expensive for the grade. Thanks

Would agree that Grellman cards add a small measure of value, but so does any provenance with early copper. That's why many in EAC are fastidious when it comes to retaining original envelopes, tracking purchase dates and previous owners, etc. when possible.

Nice early copper will always bring a premium in and of itself from early copper enthusiasts, sometimes many multiples above price guide values, especially for scarcer varieties. Finding choice examples can be a very time consuming process for high rarity coins - many are "off market" and if they do appear there is usually quite a bit of competition from copper enthusiasts. So I would posit that the reason the coins are expensive for the grade is that they are "nice coins" as you stated. (Also, EAC grade and TPG grade don't align in many cases, so if you're looking at a Grellman net 35 large cent and thinking "man, that's a lot of money for a 35", you might should be comparing it to a TPG XF45-AU50 coin instead when pricing.)

Same thing with Eagle Eye Photo Seal for graded Flying Eagle & Indian Head varieties. If Mr. Snow has verified the attribution and especially if he's given the coin a high PDS score, this adds more to the value for collectors who specialize in the series; but a random collector who just likes a particular coin that happens to have an Eagle Eye sticker and doesn't know what it means might not be willing to pay a premium if they can find a similarly nice coin for less money at some other dealer.