High-Value Raw Coins

What coin is this dealer selling?

Its possible, and its indeed possible that he's a bit more sleazy than you know or makes up justifications in his mind for what he is doing. NGC and PCGS have indeed toughened their standards recently, and sometimes are giving out unfair grades/problem designations (in my opinion, and I've gotten some overgrades too) and that could be part of the reason. A lot of dealers really are pretty bad, especially when they have a lot to gain. The economy is also poor and many people will hesitate much less than before when thinking about doing something unethical.

I'd say there's at least a moderate chance of one of the above scenarios you outlined.

This is especially true with specialist dealers. One that comes to mind is EAC dealer Tom Reynolds. His show inventory is >75% raw and he sells coins well above $10,000 but also coins in the low hundreds. Go to any of the regional shows he attends(and even some of the national shows) and he will almost certainly have the best copper coins available.

Well, I'm definitely not even close to being an expert at spotting fakes but I've learned that looking at as many genuine coins as possible and then looking at a lot of fake coins helps considerably. If what you collect isn't that expensive and isn't an area where there are tons of fakes (i.e Trade dollars) then chances are the coin is real. Most counterfeiters only like to reproduce expensive coins and the cheap fakes are usually simple to spot, and scale goes a long way to help. Always better to be safe than sorry, though. Here are some books on authenticating:

http://www.wizardcoinsupply.com/pro...n-detection/

The situation for a dealer having raw expensive coins verses a dealer with both raw and slabbed coins or all slabbed coins is as varied as dealers. By this I mean I've met many dealers that deal with slabbed coins exclusively and also some that may have some but would rather deal with raw coins. Not sure why but I've seen many dealers that have ALL coins in slabs and every one they acquire they send for slabbing. Many of their coins are not worth the cost of the slabbing service but since they deal with all slabs, that is their way of doing buisness. Dealers that do that have told me their buisness is bassed on having all authenticated coins. On the other hand there is one dealer at most of the shows I go to that has almost NO slabbed coins at all and in many instances he breaks out the ones he aquires from slabs. I've asked him about that and he says he does massive amounts of buisness and he credits it all to having raw coins. He is one dealer that has 3 tables at all coin shows. Dealers with all slabs usually have one table.
As to the possibility of a dealer with lots and lots of experience being taken with a fake, it does happen. One dealer I used to know had about 50 years or more in the buisness and told me he purchased a faked 1916D Mercury dime. So good he couldn't tell. However, he started to send out for authenticating and one TPGS sent it back as a fake, one sent it back slabbed.?
For me I think I've purchased some rather key dated coins that are raw only based on the dealers past record of time in the buisness. Although being able to tell a fake coin is not gurantee based on that.


As to your discription of a dealer. So far I've found many, many dealers at coin shows that appeared to be REASONABLY REPUTABLE and KNOWLEDGEABLE. But as I said this means nothing in reality. Since I must accept the fact that a coin dealer is sort of like a used car salesperson. their lively hood and living expenses are based on making a profit and not necessarily making you as a friend. In almost all instances the dealers you meet today may not even be in buisness tomorrow. Same as an used car salesperson.
If your a coin dealer or used car salesperson, don't take my statements wrong. It's just that I've no experience with an opposite example.