Need some opinions on this Albanian coin - here's the story

MadMuffin

This is a coin that I bought on Ebay not long ago. It was described as uncirculated, but when it arrived I was rather disappointed. Please tell me what you think as to the grade and overall condition of it. I will fill you in with the details later.





Marcel

GDJMSP

Well I certainly wouldn't say it's Unc.

MadMuffin

No, I also got to that conclusion at first glance.

Marcel

dingding

A very common coin of Albanian Kingdom, always found in BU condition, but thie piece looks cleaned on the surface.

MadMuffin

I agree that the coin appears cleaned. The scanner didn't catch it so well but it has a lot of tiny parallel scratches on both obverse and reverse.

It is not always found in BU, though. To my knowledge it is very hard to find this coin uncirculated, that's why I bid on it. Most are in the VF to XF range.

Marcel

MadMuffin

Here's the story:

I bought the coin as uncirculated. The picture in the auction wasn't all that great, but the seller had good feedback and many of his customers noted his precise grading.

When I recieved the coin I could immediately see that it was far from uncirculated - light, but obvious wear on both sides would make it VF. Besides that the scratches from cleaning were so deep that they could be seen with the naked eye.

At first the seller was full of bad excuses - "perhaps the coin has been damaged in the mail" - but when I suggested that I post the coin here along with his name and the full story (just to get a second opinion on the coin ) he suddenly decided to give me a full refund. That is why I do not post his name here.

Today I recieved a letter from him with a few coins and an apology. So everything ended well - and I might just buy from him another time IF he can supply me with some decent pictures.

Marcel