Oh the humanity!!!

coinpictures

So I'm sawing wood deeply at about 10:00 this morning (gimme a break, I was up until 3), and the phone jars me into wakefulness. It's my local coin dealer, and he says "You'd better get down here. I just bought some really nice foreign coins." *yawn* *stumble* *shower* *drive*

I get to the shop and he pulls out this stack of world crowns that had just walked in. He was right... some nice types that don't normally show up in Podunk, IL.

One small problem...

Every last one of the coins had been cleaned, some of them quite harshly. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

The travesty was an 1895 Puerto Rico peso. It was a low-end UNC, probably MS61 or so, with nice peripheral toning... if it were not for the cleaning. My dealer still wanted UNC money for it, so that one was not an option.

I did pick up a few pieces though, despite the cleaning. Cleaning is less of an issue on coins graded VF and lower, in my opinion, especially material from the 1600s and 1700s. I'd be shocked to find a lower-grade circ that wasn't cleaned from that era. I also picked up a few XF-UNC pieces that had some nice peripheral toning, which offset the cleaning a bit. On the XF-UNC pieces, I was able to get them for about a grade lower, due to the cleaning.

I shudder to think how nice these coins might have looked if not for the cleaning... it's enough to make ya cry!


Netherlands 2.5 Gulden, 1847. Would be a nice XF if not for the cleaning. Probably the harshest cleaning of the coins I bought (some I left behind were worse).




Spain 5 Pesetas, 1885 (87). This one is a travesty. Lovely UNC details, but then they had to feck with it.




Spain 20 Reales, 1859. Nice XF/AU details on this one, and the cleaning isn't quite so harsh.




Denmark Krone, 1677 GK. I call this one a nice Fine. A much better date in the series (Krause = $270 in F).





Great Britain Crown, 1671. I've never owned one of these early crowns, and since this one was cheap, I decided to snag it. I grade it Fine. Opinions?

TheKidCollector1991

Wow!

How much did you get the last two for and the first one for.

Brilliant except for cleaning.

Still brilliant.

TKC!

Ricke

Looks like the Netherlands piece has started to retone somewhat nicely.

Unfortunate about the rough cleaning.

Just curious - were they stored in the blue envelopes when you purchased them?

Aethelred

Darn shame about that Charles II Crown!

coinpictures

<< <i>How much did you get the last two for and the first one for. >>



No offense intended, but I'd prefer not to divulge that. Some of these may be up for resale here shortly. None of them were cheap enough to be considered "steals", and at the same time I believe I could resell them and make a small profit.



<< <i>Just curious - were they stored in the blue envelopes when you purchased them? >>



The dealer had put them in 2x2s. The collector who sold them had them in old brown multicoin display holders.