Kennedy with Blue Hair

joejoe2001

I have 2 ms kennedy's with a neat blue/grey haze. They are 1987P and 1988P. I sort of like the blue hair. Straight on you can't see it but it really shows up tilting it. The 87 has it on the higher relief jaw and front 3rd of his hair, the 88 just on the hair below JFK's part all the way across. Has anyone else come across coins like this? I was thinking maybe mint set packaging but maybe it is only the Philly mint. Could it be grease or maybe the way the planchets were treated?

Joe

keithdagen

Joe,

I have a whole set of "blue hair" coins that came back from PCGS. The flips that most people use to submit the coins are not inert and cause the coins to haze over. Learned the hard way that the "inert" flips I had purchased weren't so inert after all.

Keith

Dennisl

Are the flips that PCGS sells inert? Has anyone had a problem with the PCGS Flips?

semicycler

I have an 88-S exactly like you describe. There are two separate blue/grey patches, one along the part in JFK's hair, the other on his entire face and ear. These patches are only on the obverse - nothing on the reverse.

keithdagen

Dennis, the flips that PCGS now provides are inert. I had been getting some from a local coin shop and always had a little mild golden toning on my clads when the MS coins came back from PCGS. I assumed it was from the Mint's handling of them in the Mint Sets. Wasn't until I submitted some proof coins that I realized what the problem was.

Keith

supercoin

The old "official PCGS" flips -- the kind with rounded edges that came 5 to a sheet -- were some of the worst on the market. If you opened a bag full of them you'd practically asphixiate yourself with "new shower curtain" smell! A clad proof unprotected in those flips would haze over in a matter of days. I had all manner of problems with them trying to work it out with PCGS, finally went with E&T Kointainer 2.5" flips (against PCGS wishes, but they took my money).

Ironically, the flips PCGS now sends out (with the free submissions anyway) are those same E&T Kointainer SAFLIPs, the best on the market in my opinion.

I assume that's what they're selling now too, can you confirm that Keith?

keithdagen

Tad,

I picked up a couple of boxes from Stanton. I didn't want to mess with PCGS this time around so that I could get my next batch of submissions out of the house before I changed apartments in a week. If I waited for them, I figure that I would have to pack everything up again and no telling when I would find the stuff to submit.

Keith