Very Suspicous - Brown Box Ike sealed w/tape?

MrSpud

I stopped by a small coin store today. It is one I usually don't go to because they tend to overprice and overgrade stuff in my opinion. I was looking through their display case and a Brown Box Ike caught my eye. MrsSpud has recently expressed an interest in Ikes and this one looked pretty good and for a reasonable price too. It is a 1971S Proof that looks cameo with slight peripheral toning. I asked the dealer if I could look at it closer. He pulled it out of the display case and handed it to me. I started to try and pull the plastic case out of the box to get a look at the reverse and it resisted coming out. I turned the box over and noticed it had a cutout in it so you could view the reverse without taking it out of the box (I had never looked at one of these before). The reverse looked as good as the obverse so I bought it. At home I looked at it again I decided to push the plastic case out of the box and I saw why it resisted coming out at the store. The outer edge is sealed over with what appears to be tape or cellophane or something that made it fit very snug in the velvet lined box. What is going on here? Could this be some kind of original seal from the mint? Or is somebody up to funny business? Like maybe something like someone switched the coin or someone cracked it out to dip it and then put it back in or something along those lines? The coin looks nice so I can't really complain too much, but putting tape on the plastic case is a bit much. Oh, and the dealer also wouldn't allow me to look through his mint and proof sets too which, I noticed from another post, is to some people a sign of a non-customer friendly establishment.

So, has anybody ever seen a brown box Ike sealed with tape or cellophane around its plastic slab?

XpipedreamR

The cut-out in the back is normal. This "tape" thing is not...though I don't really have a good mental picture of what you're talking about.

Is the plastic case sealed? If the coin is nice then I guess it doesn't really matter.

sliderider

I have many of the brown, woodgrain boxes of which you speak. The cut out for observing the reverse is legit, the tape on the plastic holder is not. The coin was cracked out either for dipping or it was a DCAM that was submitted for grading and replaced with a lesser piece. I've cracked out a few myself, because they tend to tone an ugly brown color in the mint holders and I didn't like it so I dipped them and reholdered them in 2x2s.

MrSpud

Hmmm...very interesting.

Just to give a better mental picture, the plastic slab with the coin in it has what appears to be a very clear cellophane strip running the entire length on the edge of the slab. Just like if you opened up the slab like a clamshell then very carefully taped it back shut after switching and or dipping the coin. I found the end of the tape strip. I am afraid to remove the tape to see if the slab is cracked open at the seam because then it would be covered with sticky adhesive. I can't tell if it is opened or not, whoever did it did a pretty good job.

cladking

In all probability the coin had toned and the previous owner
believed that air coming in around the seam was the cause so taped it up. This could have even
worked but peripheral tonimg is common on the brown box Ike even if less so on the '71.

The plastic case is often very snug inside the insert even when not enlarged by the addition of
foreign material. Just push it the whole thing out of the box by pushing on the viewing hole, and
then distort one corner of the insert by pushing on the back of it while supporting the case from
the front. They'll come rioght out every time. It's unlikely the case was opened but these are
sometimes not well sealed at the mint.

Only the '74 is very difficult to find without toning but these often have very nice toning.

MrSpud

Thanks, that makes me feel a little bit better. I decided to remove the tape to check it out further. The tape came off and I cleaned off the adhesive with Goo Gone and Rubbing alcohol. The slab is not falling apart but it isn't sealed very well especially at the corners. I can put my fingernail in the seam at the corners and open it a bit but the entire slab still seems to be somewhat sealed. The dealer had some other brown box Ikes there that were much hazier than this one. Probably since I took the tape off it will start turning hazy