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Has this copper been messed with?

KSorboKSorbo Posts: 124 ✭✭✭
edited October 22, 2024 6:11AM in U.S. Coin Forum

I just picked up this 1795 Talbot piece. I took a gamble on a listing that was in the wrong category and had bad photos. When I got the coin in hand I immediately noticed an unusual color pattern on the obverse. It’s much darker in the center than on the periphery. It doesn’t appear to be corrosion or foreign substance, but I’m wondering if it could have gotten that way after being slabbed. A bad cleaning perhaps?

It’s straight graded by PCGS as an F-12.

Comments

  • 291fifth291fifth Posts: 24,323 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The plastic slab itself is what needs to be messed with. It has too many scratches.

    All glory is fleeting.
  • AUandAGAUandAG Posts: 24,754 ✭✭✭✭✭

    coin appears okay.

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  • ms71ms71 Posts: 1,537 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Wow, that slab is a real detractor.

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  • CryptoCrypto Posts: 3,673 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Def been exposed to something. If I had to guess not messed with but exposed face up in a folder or face down in a tray and the contact of the felt or paper toned the highpoint

  • johnny9434johnny9434 Posts: 28,271 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The coin is ok but the slab, 🤔

  • TomBTomB Posts: 21,178 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Given its age, what it is and its metallic content, I would suspect that the coin would straight-grade nearly every time at PCGS or NGC and that it looked like this when it was submitted for certification. It's an old, worn piece of copper and copper is reactive. Somewhere, at some point in time, something came in contact with the coin and eventually turned it this color. My opinion is that this is stable.

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  • KSorboKSorbo Posts: 124 ✭✭✭

    @Crypto said:
    Def been exposed to something. If I had to guess not messed with but exposed face up in a folder or face down in a tray and the contact of the felt or paper toned the highpoint

    I wonder if a leather wallet or coin purse would have done it?

  • DCWDCW Posts: 7,258 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Pretty sure the OP is asking about the dark center of the obverse, not all the scratches on the slab.
    In my opinion, that is just unattractive toning in which the high relief of the figure came in contact, face down, with something like leather for a very long time.

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  • CryptoCrypto Posts: 3,673 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @KSorbo said:

    @Crypto said:
    Def been exposed to something. If I had to guess not messed with but exposed face up in a folder or face down in a tray and the contact of the felt or paper toned the highpoint

    I wonder if a leather wallet or coin purse would have done it?

    Maybe but I doubt it would have been only one side in a wallet.

  • Namvet69Namvet69 Posts: 8,949 ✭✭✭✭✭

    You might be able to buff the scratches out with Plastx. Good luck

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