Anyone ever crack a details coin, wear it down a bit, then resubmit for a straight grade?
scotty4449
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Over the years I have noticed some very attractive early US coins in a details holder because of light to moderate cleaning. I always wondered if you could crack one out, carry it around for a while as a pocket piece, then resubmit for a straight grade. Has anyone had any success doing this?
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I almost bought a nice looking 20c in a details holder to do this, so I’m open to the idea in the right circumstances. The coin in question had spirited bidding and sold for more than I found comfortable for this experiment.
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Based on my own experience, it is almost impossible to do. Eg, a relatively lightly cleaned coin will still look cleaned after many years of pocket piece wear.
One way to find out...keep us posted.
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OP I am not going to say. 😯
You might live long enough to do it, but I suspect you'd lose it first.
bob
I'm sure people have had success to some degree. There are some coins that just need a little wear and griming up to be market acceptable. I've heard of other, more aggressive, ways of wearing the problems from a coin that sometimes work and sometimes don't. Word to the wise is that whatever method you use, don't submit a bunch of coins all treated the same way unless you want your entire submission nuked.
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I'm sure it has been done before somewhere out there but I've never seen it done personally.
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There are also times I've found details coins that have much better eye appeal versus a similarly or higher priced straight graded coin. I have purchased detail coins for my collection as long as the problem isn't a huge distraction to me. Light hair lines or an obscure scratch that make a coin unacceptable to others I sometimes don't find to be a distraction ESPECIALLY if I can get the coin at a deep discount. Of course if you do this you can't expect to get top dollar when you go to sell a coin. Some problems I won't buy are washed out coins where the color is off, holed, graffiti, tooled, etc.
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Back in the pre-slab era, a fellow coin club member sent some coins to ANACS for grading and a circulated Lafayette commemorative silver dollar came back with "cleaned" on the photo-certificate. He carried it around for a few months with his pocket change and resubmitted it a couple months later and it came back straight graded. I didn't see the coin before he sent it in the first time but I'm guessing it was only lightly cleaned and was a borderline case that may have come back with a straight grade even if he didn't carry it around. Carrying a cleaned coin in your pocket may be counterproductive since the other coins may give it a burnished look. You're probably better off just keeping next to your favorite TV chair and picking it up and rubbing your oily dirty thumb over it occasionally while you're watching your favorite TV shows to give it a dirty natural look.
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One of the show managers said he would turn a cleaned coin into a market acceptable one for a price but I didn't take him up on the offer. I've heard a dealer say that the details holder coffin slab is the kiss of death for sales. I was looking at an AU details Isabella yesterday in an NGC holder and was thinking if there was a way to make it M.A.. Too much cleaning already, would talcum powder rubbed in the fields "fix" it? Doubtful. You'd have to know what you're doing.
Yes, @PerryHall, I have no personal evidence, but it would seem that carrying around a pocket piece would always keep the surfaces stripped and continue the cleaned look. Circulated coins look that way because of tarnish, oils, dirt, the effects of dirt and times when they are not rubbed at all. That’s not easy to duplicate in a relatively short time. Also removing enough metal to flatten out hairlines involves more wear than you might think.
A very tricky area.... Pocket wear, with other coins, is unlikely to remove a lot of hairlines. If a mild burnish, perhaps it could be improved that way. Vibratory action, with a suitable media is possible, but if not careful, it can develop a polished appearance. Cheers, RickO
It’s awfully rough on the pooch, as well.