Posted 03/22/2010 12:16 pm
People who talk about "upgrades" are usually people who only want to keep just one of each "different type" of coin, however "different type" might be defined by that collector, yet nevertheless end up acquiring a second example of a certain type, and decide to replace their original coin with their new one. It's not really an "upgrade" if you're going to decide to keep both of them anyway.
"Upgrades" can be either deliberately acquired (because you know that the coin you just bought is better than the one you already had) or acquired accidentally (for example by being among a bulk lot of coins purchased for other reasons than the presence of an upgrade). The inferior specimen, the one that has been "upgraded" or replaced in the collection, is usually no longer wanted and is usually sold or given away.
A personal example: I recently purchased this bunch of Chinese coins off of GO here in the CCF auctions forum; I've only just now finished going through them. Of the 79 coins in the bulk lot, I already had 29 of them - most of these 29 coins I consider to be "duplicates" and will be disposed of in due course, probably at my local coin club auction.
But four of those duplicates were actually better than the coins of those types I already had in my collection; those four coins were "upgraded": the newly purchased coin takes the place of the coin that was originally in the collection, and the original coin will join the other duplicates in the future sale. The database entry for that coin was upgraded with the new coin's condition and acquisition date. Each coin in the database is given a "Sap Number" (yes, that really is what I call them) and the Sap Number for upgraded coins is given an "r" suffix to reflect its "replacement" or upgraded status. Two of the four upgrades in this lot were given an "r2" suffix, meaning that I've already upgraded this coin once before, and this was my second upgrade for the type.
So, the statistics for this bulk lot were: 50 "keepers", 4 "upgrades" and 25 "duplicates". That's a pretty good ratio for me these days... which is why I was attracted to the lot in the first place.
Absolutely; they're your coins, so if/when you upgrade you should keep the coin that you personally like the best, irrespective of it's assigned or technical grade. Many times I've "upgraded" a coin with a new coin that actually had a technically lower level-of-preservation grade but nevertheless appealed to me more, either because of toning (rarely) or the absence of particular defects on the old coin that were bothering me, like a distracting nick or edge knock or a small corrosion spot.
"Upgrades" can be either deliberately acquired (because you know that the coin you just bought is better than the one you already had) or acquired accidentally (for example by being among a bulk lot of coins purchased for other reasons than the presence of an upgrade). The inferior specimen, the one that has been "upgraded" or replaced in the collection, is usually no longer wanted and is usually sold or given away.
A personal example: I recently purchased this bunch of Chinese coins off of GO here in the CCF auctions forum; I've only just now finished going through them. Of the 79 coins in the bulk lot, I already had 29 of them - most of these 29 coins I consider to be "duplicates" and will be disposed of in due course, probably at my local coin club auction.
But four of those duplicates were actually better than the coins of those types I already had in my collection; those four coins were "upgraded": the newly purchased coin takes the place of the coin that was originally in the collection, and the original coin will join the other duplicates in the future sale. The database entry for that coin was upgraded with the new coin's condition and acquisition date. Each coin in the database is given a "Sap Number" (yes, that really is what I call them) and the Sap Number for upgraded coins is given an "r" suffix to reflect its "replacement" or upgraded status. Two of the four upgrades in this lot were given an "r2" suffix, meaning that I've already upgraded this coin once before, and this was my second upgrade for the type.
So, the statistics for this bulk lot were: 50 "keepers", 4 "upgrades" and 25 "duplicates". That's a pretty good ratio for me these days... which is why I was attracted to the lot in the first place.
Quote:
...so I go off of what I think looks good and what looks good to me may not look good to another collector and vice versa...
...so I go off of what I think looks good and what looks good to me may not look good to another collector and vice versa...
Absolutely; they're your coins, so if/when you upgrade you should keep the coin that you personally like the best, irrespective of it's assigned or technical grade. Many times I've "upgraded" a coin with a new coin that actually had a technically lower level-of-preservation grade but nevertheless appealed to me more, either because of toning (rarely) or the absence of particular defects on the old coin that were bothering me, like a distracting nick or edge knock or a small corrosion spot.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
Thats funny "BUT SO TRUE" 
