Help me decide please
Barry
Posts: 10,100 ✭✭✭
Received this coin in the mail today from a recent auction. I paid a little bit more than I probably should have, however it is a pretty rare coin. The description from the auction (bold added by me):
A well-worn but scarcely marked example of this rare and popular date among early Draped Bust dime issues. Long-term storage in an old-style album has resulted in deep splashes of gold, carmine, rose, pale blue, and electric blue on both sides. One of 10,975 examples of the date struck (though the reference on the subject by Davis, Logan, et al, suggests that more than that number may have been produced). It is worthy of note that just one dozen examples of the date have been certified finer than the present coin by PCGS, the finest of those being MS-62. A notable prize for an alert early dime collector.
The auction pic:
My pic:
Looking at the coin without magnification, it looks very nice. As soon as I look through a 5x glass, my eye is drawn to the X scratch on the bust, which looks very minor in the auction pic, but is more obvious in person. The long vertical scratch is fairly minor.
Should I keep it or return it? As an internet bidder I have that option, considering the description. Also, feel free to play guess the grade.
A well-worn but scarcely marked example of this rare and popular date among early Draped Bust dime issues. Long-term storage in an old-style album has resulted in deep splashes of gold, carmine, rose, pale blue, and electric blue on both sides. One of 10,975 examples of the date struck (though the reference on the subject by Davis, Logan, et al, suggests that more than that number may have been produced). It is worthy of note that just one dozen examples of the date have been certified finer than the present coin by PCGS, the finest of those being MS-62. A notable prize for an alert early dime collector.
The auction pic:
My pic:
Looking at the coin without magnification, it looks very nice. As soon as I look through a 5x glass, my eye is drawn to the X scratch on the bust, which looks very minor in the auction pic, but is more obvious in person. The long vertical scratch is fairly minor.
Should I keep it or return it? As an internet bidder I have that option, considering the description. Also, feel free to play guess the grade.
0
Comments
Russ, NCNE
">"http://www.cashcrate.com/5663377"
rainbowroosie April 1, 2003
I know that its a tuff dime, but if the scratch bothers you now, it will only continue to do so even more in the future. You should return it IMO.
It would bother me as a future buyer if offered to me lets say!
<< <i> guess the grading companies are pretty lenient with these? >>
Sometimes they are IMO. If it was just circulation marks although they can be distracting, the coins are old and thin and did indeed circulate. So that's not too bad IMO.
Case in point and I kinda know what you might be going through.... I had a 1795 Half-dime (Flowing Hair) sent to me on approval. I rarely return a coin and the thing was a beauty. Stone original with some very nice original color and surfaces. These things are small and thin, and it indeed had too many circulation marks in the face and the whole field, which is a very small coin so it covered most of the darn coin.
The clincher for me though was a scratch that went from the portrait out to the rim. I loved the coin and all this took me about 1 minute to decide to send it back. I also included 20.00 for the dealers shipping (which I thought was generous) and low and behold another dealer that can't give the courtesy to even let me know he received it back, let alone what I thought was a nice gesture. I've probably only returned 3 coins in the last year, so it's not like I do it all the time. I ask all the questions ahead of time to eliminate both of us wasting our time.
But like the coin you are deciding about, we can't tell how bad a scratch is until we eye-ball it for ourselves. Hope this helps with my long reply, rant?
When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.
Thomas Paine
<< It is worthy of note that just one dozen examples of the date have been certified finer than the present coin by PCGS, the finest of those being MS-62. >>
Stuart
Collect 18th & 19th Century US Type Coins, Silver Dollars, $20 Gold Double Eagles and World Crowns & Talers with High Eye Appeal
"Luck is what happens when Preparation meets Opportunity"
Of course no one should keep a coin they don't like.
Not an easy coin to find, and this is a nice coin.
I'm going with Stman with the net grading without actually net grading the coin scenario. The coin looks nicer than a vg, more like a fine, to me.
I'd have to go by what the coin cost me. If I feel like I paid under market a bit for the coin, and can hold onto the coin until another example comes along, I'd keep it, and when that replacement coin came along, I'd sell this one, knowing I was into it "right".
If you paid steep money, you may want to send it back (if possible), as most collectors would be looking for a type coin example of an early dime like this, and only more of a specialist would be lookng for the better date, and be willing to pay more money for it.
Just thinking out loud.
LSCC#1864
Ebay Stuff
Here's the reverse:
The smudge in the lower right is from a deep, wide scratch in the slab, not the coin. I don't think it's much of a net grade. VG-10 seems about right to me, without the scratches on the obverse.
BTW, what do the auction houses do when they get returns? Offer it to the next high bidder?
Jerry
If I got a good deal on the coin, or even a moderate deal on it, I would keep it. But if you really dislike it, you probably always will. Good luck with whatever choice you make.
12 bumped to 15 for color -5 for the marks =10. *shrugs*
Myself, it probably wouldn't bother me. But if it bothered you enough to post about it, it's worth sending back.
Marc