A fragile beauty

shylock

(I apologize to dial-ups for images this size.) I've been playing around with mixed lighting and am slowly getting accurate shots of some toned copper. This is one of my favorites because it has a lot going on:

1. Beautiful and questionable toning
2. It's a rare 1859/1859 RPD
3. The reverse is more prooflike than many proofs
4. Looks incredibly undergraded in an ANACS MS63 holder (no net grade)
5. I'd have second thoughts about ever removing it due to a fragile looking planchet crack along the upper rim, causing it to lose a couple denticles already.

Reverse image

GaCoinGuy

WOW

coinlieutenant

Excellent coin. You wont hurt it by removing it. Hard to tell if the coin is undergraded or not. Eye appeal wise though, way over a 63!!

John

goose3

Yet another fantastic picture.

Paul.
I am curious. Approximately how long does it take you to photograph one coin on average?

Lakesammman

Looks great but still not as bright as I remember it. How about sharing the new photo/lighting tips?? Saw a awesome price on a lower graded S1 at CSNS last week - hang onto that sucker!!

toothpuller

The blue eye shadow on that lady makes her look especially attractive.


In this variety you can easily see the repunching of the whole date. Many of the 1900s IHCs show this characteristic [1900/1900, 1901/1901, 1903/1903 etc.] Is it unusual for just the 1859 to have the date completely repunched or is this uncommon among all the CNs?

BigD5

Ms/63????? Holy cow. Unless we are missing something from that fantastic image, like the suggestion of a previous dipping (I don't see that), that coin seems BLATANTLY undergraded. A superb strike for a copper/nickel coin. Sure there looks to be a tiny bit of chatter on Liberty's cheek, but nothing even close to obscene.
Possibly kept down for the planchet crack/lamination?
That's a heck of a coin!

Steve27

Beautiful coin and pics, but is it possible that the coin is correctly graded due to the loss of those denticles?

mdwoods

Nice photo Paul. Nobody does copper like you. mdwoods

Clankeye

A beautiful coin and an excellent photo, Paul. Thanks for posting it.

Clankeye

Zerbe

WOWEEEEEE !! I wish you worked for Heritage.

shylock

John/Goose3 - As per how long on each pic, it all depends on the coin and more specifically the fields. For me most RD coppers are fast but anything prooflike and toned drives me nuts.

Lakesammman - I'm using the Ott lights as ambient light and a 60 watt reveal bulb as adjustable close-up lighting. I'm also angling both the camera lens and the coin to capture the lighting better than a 90 degree table shot. Still, 90% of the shots look like crap. I'd like to get a better feel for it so I can image proofs more predictably away from home.

BigD5 and Steve27 - Even with deductions for the planchet crack it still looks a couple grades too low. I showed this coin to Mark Feld at FUN and he thought the color was questionable, a bit too bright. Maybe ANACS wasn't certain enough to write "recolored" on the label but decided to net grade it anyway.

ksteelheader

Exquisite coin! Great pics too...........Ken

coinguy1

I wasn't going to throw cold water on this coin/ thread. But, now that Paul has mentioned he had shown the coin to me previously and that I had questioned its originality, I will speak up.

Simply put, the color does not look right to me. It is a bit too pink/orange and is not the correct hue for a mint state 1859 cent. My best guess is that the coin has been dipped and that it retoned to the color you see now. Perhaps ANACS suspected that and downgraded it as a result. I would be very surprised if either NGC or PCGS would holder it. I think the coin is quite pretty, but, that is a different matter.

IrishMike

DOH I remember that coin now. It does have an interesting cud on it too or is that something else I see?

Lakesammman

Until this week, I would have wondered about the title. I talked with a dealer at CSNS that mentioned he had purchased a coin at the 65 level, trying for a 66. A planchet "defect" (or some such thing) fell off in the regrading process and it came back a 64. He took a big loss on the coin and blew it out wholesale. Never had heard of such a thing before but I guess they can be fragile.