3909402
lordmarcovan
Posts: 43,530 ✭✭✭✭✭
This is order #20261843, submission #390942, for those who watch such things and have any interest in other people's submissions.
A lot of this stuff I submitted simply because I decided I wanted it in plastic- it is not particularly high-end, and is the sort of stuff that is really more raw album type set material. But... eh, why not. Will I have some pleasant surprises, or get a bloody nose? My past track record is mixed, but mostly OK overall. I guess maybe 75% of my past submissions (to PCGS, NGC, and ANACS) have come out about like I expected, with 15% disappointing me and the remaining 10% being pleasant surprises. I've tried to be realistic in my expectations, and you can judge for yourself from my "Minimum hopes" below.
Do let me know if you see the results- I think I clicked this so it would show up on the public, "shared" page.
Line 1: 1853 large cent with repunched date. A past forum poll voted it XF45 by majority vote. I personally think it is a solid AU all day long. I bought it as an AU from Steve Vanaman ("Collectorcoins") completely sight-unseen off the BST forum. He's one of those who doesn't post pictures with his threads but I have always done well with his coins in the past and he's one of the very few people I will buy a raw coin from, sight-unseen. Will I be eating crow soon? We shall see. Here is a sorry LordM photo to supplement the scan. Minimum hope: AU50. I don't really expect them to note the repunched date on the label, but if they do, that's great. I don't know what Newcomb number this is. Initially, when I posted the poll, I was thinking AU55-ish that is probably far too exuberant. I'll settle for AU50. Even if PCGS agrees with the majority and says XF45, I can live with that, and admit my overoptimism. But this one looks better in hand than in either the scans or the photos. Steve only charged about XF45 money for it, anyway.
Line 2: 1859 Indian cent. No scans yet, and I forgot to save the seller's pics. Purchased raw on CoinZip from The Reeded Edge, as I recall. If I remember correctly, they called it XF45. Even if one were to discount that a bit, the price wasn't bad. I think the diamond pattern on the ribbon is not quite complete, though. Minimum hope: XF40. VF35 wouldn't shock me. If PCGS agrees with the seller on it being XF45, great. I don't know how much stock they put on the diamonds being complete.
Line 3: 1861 Indian cent. Purchased as a raw XF40 from Eagle Eye- here is their photo. Minimum hope: XF40. Hey, if Rick Snow can't grade an Indian cent, who can, right? This is the key date for the copper-nickel Indians, and as I recall when I shopped the Eagle Eye website, it was maybe the only raw coin offered, and quite possibly the only thing in my pricerange. There were some great Indians there, but you don't need me to tell you that.
Line 4: 1853 silver 3-cent piece (#1 of 2). A nice trime I got on the cheap from a local customer who's primarily a Darksider and not that interested in US stuff. I figured I might as well slab it, since the downside risk is so small. This one has a little bit better strike than the second one, which I added to the submission as an afterthought, on Line 16. A third one dated 1852 came in the same inexpensive lot, and that was my "ChristmasTRime" giveaway coin. Minimum hope: VF20. I guess. These are tough for me to grade. I reckon anything VF-EF on this. I'll go out on a limb and take a wild guess of VF35. This and its near-twin below both have some luster under that goldish coloration, which does not show in my scans.
Line 5: 1830 Bust dime. This was in my antique mall inventory. I don't remember who I got it from- maybe Michael Swoveland ("Aethelred"). It's a bit low grade to be slabbing, but again... why not. I called it a F15, personally. I would be happy with that. Minimum hope: F15. F12 from PCGS would not surprise me, though. Anything lower than that and I'll moan. Maybe on a good day it could be considered as high as VF20, but I won't hold my breath. Regardless of technical grade, it's a nice little type coin with a great original look. Who can tell me if it is "Large 10c" or "Small 10c" on the reverse?
Line 6: 1875-S 20-cent piece Again, a pretty low grade coin, but hey, it's a 20-cent piece. Those go three figures in almost any acceptable grade these days, and that alone makes this slabworthy. Minimum hope: G4. It's a solid G4 coin and I don't see how they could call it anything else, unless they want to be generous and give me a G6. Low grade or not, I like the coin for its no-nonsense CircCam contrast and lack of distractions. I bought this on eBay.
Line 7: 1831 Bust quarter. A nice grey example. I hope the small scratch on the headband is not enough to drop it down to no-grade status. I think it has a pretty shot at grading. As to what I'd call it, I'd say it's a high end VF, from the feather detail on the eagle. Minimum hope: VF25. Five points give or take from PCGS (in other words, VF20 or VF30) would not surprise me much. I bought this from Robert Miller ("commoncents123"). Here are his photos of it: obv. rev. Note that you can't see that scratch at all in his pictures- I suspect the light from my scanner exaggerated it.
Line 8: 1838 No Drapery Seated quarter. I paid nearly VF money for this early Seated quarter, and it isn't a VF. I considered it worthy of a worthy premium, though, because I love the look of this piece with its strong CircCam contrast. It has garnered some admiration on the forums, too. I suspect the technical grade on it will be in the Fine range if I am lucky, and LIBERTY might even be a tad weak for that. Minimum hope: VG10. Technically VG10 if you want to be strict on the lettering on the shield, I guess, but otherwise I would call this coin Fine. This one isn't about the technical grade, anyway. If PCGS puts it somewhere in the Fine range, I'm happy. If they went VF20, I'd be exuberant, but then I'd worry about their graders needing stronger eyeglass prescriptions. Not all toned coins worth a premium are monster color toners- to me, these black-and-white CircCams are worth an extra buck, too. Maybe I overpaid on this particular one, but we'll see. (With PCGS slabbing fees included, I definitely overpaid.) Like the Bust quarter above, this came from Robert Miller ("commoncents123").
Line 9: 1877-CC Seated quarter. Even without the CC mintmark, I would have fallen in love with the dark grey-black "crusty" attributes of this coin, which is not as strong a CircCam as the previous Seated quarter, but a contender, nonetheless. The price was very attractive, too. I got this from Michael Laskosky ("tydye"), and after this purchase, he went on to become one of my Top Ten favorite forum sellers (maybe even Top Five). He is a good source of nice CircCam 19th century type at very fair prices, and I've been back to him more than once since. Minimum hope: VF35. I think this coin has a shot at XF, but for the price I paid, anything VF-ish would be OK. Mike was nice enough to let me lasso this one individually out of a five- or six-piece lot he was offering on the BST forum. Here is a temporary picture I made from his photos before I had it in hand to scan it.
Line 10: 1819 Bust half. I bought this on eBay and forget if the seller called it XF or what. I call it "Black Beauty". It's a nice "Crusty Bustie", for sure. Minimum hope: VF30. I'd say it has a shot at XF, maybe. That would be nice. I don't think it's an overdate, so it would be the "normal" 1819. I never looked it up in my Overton book, which I've passed on to "TexasNationals". He's promised to be my "go to" guy on Bust half attribution, now that he has my book- I'm gonna have him look at the the pics here.
Line 11: 1826 Bust half. I got this one from Mike ("tyedye") in a recent deal. Minimum hope: VF35. I didn't scan this beforehand and do not have it here to guess the grade on, but it was VF++ to XF, anyway. To give you an idea of how much I trust "tydye", I just sent him 250 bucks and told him to send me some nice type coins... period. I said, "Surprise me. You know what I like." As usual, he sent a nice group for the money. This 1826 half was the best of the three coins he sent. I would say it is XF-ish, and if it is, I'm sitting pretty on the whole lot. The second coin in the lot was a CircCam 1812 half in a PCGS G06 holder, which I sold for $90, so I only have $160 to make off the other two coins before I'm in the black. If this one goes XF, it's like I got the third coin for free. That third coin was an XF-ish details 1858-O half dollar which would be worth an easy 3-figure pricetag if it wasn't holed. It is such a nice holey, though, it might actually make it onto my Holey Coin Vest. Not a lot of holeys are vest-worthy these days.
Line 12: 1836 (lettered edge) Bust half. Here is another nice VF+ to XF Bust half. I bought it on eBay, and the seller might have called it XF45. I forget. It's in that range from upper VF to XF-ish, anyway. Minimum hope: VF35. Here are the seller's pictures I originally saw on eBay. I forget what I paid, but the price was not too bad.
Line 13: 1863-S Seated Liberty half. A somewhat less-expensive coin I got from Mike Laskosky ("tydye"), as I recall. It's one of those that might not really be worth slabbing but... eh, why not. Again, depending on how strict PCGS is about grading Seated coins by the LIBERTY on the shield, this could be technically as low as VG10, but if it makes F12 I'm happy. I think this one has a small chance of a no-grade for old cleaning, but hopefully it will grade. I'm not really sure why I decided to slab it, besides the desire to burn one of my Platinum grading voucher slots. In or out of plastic, it's a nice enough low- to middle-grade coin, even if it probably belongs in an album more than it does a slab. Minimum hope: VG10.
Line 14: 1897 Barber half.. I bought this one on eBay because I liked its nice "crusty" original look. Because it was a Buy-It-Now, the price was no screaming bargain, but it looked like a nice coin and I think it is. I believe it is easily VF, as did the seller, and if I get some added points for a VF25-30, so much the better. I think VF35 to XF40 might be a bit much to hope for. Minimum hope: VF20.
Line 15: 1899-O Morgan dollar. Just another generic, blast-white UNC Morgan dollar. The only Mint State coin in this submission. Since I use a scanner, there's plenty of blazing cartwheel luster you don't see in my images. This piece looks every bit as nice as a near-identical white PCGS MS64 of the same date that I just swapped away. I don't have very much invested in it, I guess, and don't remember who I got it from, but it's nice, albeit a generic "widget" of sorts. Minimum hope: MS63. MS62 or less would annoy me, MS63 would be par for the course, MS64 would make me smile, and MS65 would make me dance and sing.
Line 16: 1853 silver 3-cent piece (#2 of 2). The slightly softer-struck counterpart of the coin above, on Line 4. I added it to the submission as an afterthought, for the same reason as the coin above (I bought it for a song, so why not). Minimum hope: VF20. Again, I don't really know- these are hard for me. Like the first coin, I reckon somewhere VF-EF. This one has mushier letters than the other, but is still a pretty sharp little coin. I'll go out on a limb again and guess VF30.
Line 17: 1860-O Seated Liberty dollar, ex-PCGS VF25. Purchased from Shane Miller ("Millertime"), one of the Dansco #7070 type set collectors. Shane had cracked this one out of its former PCGS VF25 slab, to keep it in his 7070. He sold it to me with the original label. I added it on to this submission and tried to just pay the $10 reholder fee to get it put into a new holder with the old label, but they wouldn't do that and have stuck me with another 20 bucks to grade it all over again. If it grades less than the previous VF25, I will be highly upset, since they are not returning the original label to me. However, it should be just fine, I would think. I do worry a little that they might VF20 it, though. Minimum hope: VF25. If it surprises me and goes VF30 or VF35, then the extra 20 bucks is well spent. Come to think of it, I already paid them ten bucks to reholder it, so why are they charging my credit card another $20.00? Shouldn't it be another $8? The grading fee is what, $18 for Economy tier, right? That's a lot of money for slabbing this kind of circulated stuff I deal in. You can see why I don't submit very often. If I dealt in key dates or supergrade stuff or gold more often, OK, yeah, but on stuff like most of what you see here, you have to ask, "Why slab it?". Well, because I want nice affordable 19th century type in PCGS plastic, that's why, and buying it in the slabs can be difficult or pricey. Sometimes you just have to make 'em yourself. You see a lot more of this kind of stuff in ANACS holders, perhaps for the simple reason that a lot of it isn't worth paying $18+ a coin to slab, with the tight margins involved.
A lot of this stuff I submitted simply because I decided I wanted it in plastic- it is not particularly high-end, and is the sort of stuff that is really more raw album type set material. But... eh, why not. Will I have some pleasant surprises, or get a bloody nose? My past track record is mixed, but mostly OK overall. I guess maybe 75% of my past submissions (to PCGS, NGC, and ANACS) have come out about like I expected, with 15% disappointing me and the remaining 10% being pleasant surprises. I've tried to be realistic in my expectations, and you can judge for yourself from my "Minimum hopes" below.
Do let me know if you see the results- I think I clicked this so it would show up on the public, "shared" page.
Line 1: 1853 large cent with repunched date. A past forum poll voted it XF45 by majority vote. I personally think it is a solid AU all day long. I bought it as an AU from Steve Vanaman ("Collectorcoins") completely sight-unseen off the BST forum. He's one of those who doesn't post pictures with his threads but I have always done well with his coins in the past and he's one of the very few people I will buy a raw coin from, sight-unseen. Will I be eating crow soon? We shall see. Here is a sorry LordM photo to supplement the scan. Minimum hope: AU50. I don't really expect them to note the repunched date on the label, but if they do, that's great. I don't know what Newcomb number this is. Initially, when I posted the poll, I was thinking AU55-ish that is probably far too exuberant. I'll settle for AU50. Even if PCGS agrees with the majority and says XF45, I can live with that, and admit my overoptimism. But this one looks better in hand than in either the scans or the photos. Steve only charged about XF45 money for it, anyway.
Line 2: 1859 Indian cent. No scans yet, and I forgot to save the seller's pics. Purchased raw on CoinZip from The Reeded Edge, as I recall. If I remember correctly, they called it XF45. Even if one were to discount that a bit, the price wasn't bad. I think the diamond pattern on the ribbon is not quite complete, though. Minimum hope: XF40. VF35 wouldn't shock me. If PCGS agrees with the seller on it being XF45, great. I don't know how much stock they put on the diamonds being complete.Line 3: 1861 Indian cent. Purchased as a raw XF40 from Eagle Eye- here is their photo. Minimum hope: XF40. Hey, if Rick Snow can't grade an Indian cent, who can, right? This is the key date for the copper-nickel Indians, and as I recall when I shopped the Eagle Eye website, it was maybe the only raw coin offered, and quite possibly the only thing in my pricerange. There were some great Indians there, but you don't need me to tell you that.
Line 4: 1853 silver 3-cent piece (#1 of 2). A nice trime I got on the cheap from a local customer who's primarily a Darksider and not that interested in US stuff. I figured I might as well slab it, since the downside risk is so small. This one has a little bit better strike than the second one, which I added to the submission as an afterthought, on Line 16. A third one dated 1852 came in the same inexpensive lot, and that was my "ChristmasTRime" giveaway coin. Minimum hope: VF20. I guess. These are tough for me to grade. I reckon anything VF-EF on this. I'll go out on a limb and take a wild guess of VF35. This and its near-twin below both have some luster under that goldish coloration, which does not show in my scans.
Line 5: 1830 Bust dime. This was in my antique mall inventory. I don't remember who I got it from- maybe Michael Swoveland ("Aethelred"). It's a bit low grade to be slabbing, but again... why not. I called it a F15, personally. I would be happy with that. Minimum hope: F15. F12 from PCGS would not surprise me, though. Anything lower than that and I'll moan. Maybe on a good day it could be considered as high as VF20, but I won't hold my breath. Regardless of technical grade, it's a nice little type coin with a great original look. Who can tell me if it is "Large 10c" or "Small 10c" on the reverse?
Line 6: 1875-S 20-cent piece Again, a pretty low grade coin, but hey, it's a 20-cent piece. Those go three figures in almost any acceptable grade these days, and that alone makes this slabworthy. Minimum hope: G4. It's a solid G4 coin and I don't see how they could call it anything else, unless they want to be generous and give me a G6. Low grade or not, I like the coin for its no-nonsense CircCam contrast and lack of distractions. I bought this on eBay.
Line 7: 1831 Bust quarter. A nice grey example. I hope the small scratch on the headband is not enough to drop it down to no-grade status. I think it has a pretty shot at grading. As to what I'd call it, I'd say it's a high end VF, from the feather detail on the eagle. Minimum hope: VF25. Five points give or take from PCGS (in other words, VF20 or VF30) would not surprise me much. I bought this from Robert Miller ("commoncents123"). Here are his photos of it: obv. rev. Note that you can't see that scratch at all in his pictures- I suspect the light from my scanner exaggerated it.
Line 8: 1838 No Drapery Seated quarter. I paid nearly VF money for this early Seated quarter, and it isn't a VF. I considered it worthy of a worthy premium, though, because I love the look of this piece with its strong CircCam contrast. It has garnered some admiration on the forums, too. I suspect the technical grade on it will be in the Fine range if I am lucky, and LIBERTY might even be a tad weak for that. Minimum hope: VG10. Technically VG10 if you want to be strict on the lettering on the shield, I guess, but otherwise I would call this coin Fine. This one isn't about the technical grade, anyway. If PCGS puts it somewhere in the Fine range, I'm happy. If they went VF20, I'd be exuberant, but then I'd worry about their graders needing stronger eyeglass prescriptions. Not all toned coins worth a premium are monster color toners- to me, these black-and-white CircCams are worth an extra buck, too. Maybe I overpaid on this particular one, but we'll see. (With PCGS slabbing fees included, I definitely overpaid.) Like the Bust quarter above, this came from Robert Miller ("commoncents123"). 
Line 9: 1877-CC Seated quarter. Even without the CC mintmark, I would have fallen in love with the dark grey-black "crusty" attributes of this coin, which is not as strong a CircCam as the previous Seated quarter, but a contender, nonetheless. The price was very attractive, too. I got this from Michael Laskosky ("tydye"), and after this purchase, he went on to become one of my Top Ten favorite forum sellers (maybe even Top Five). He is a good source of nice CircCam 19th century type at very fair prices, and I've been back to him more than once since. Minimum hope: VF35. I think this coin has a shot at XF, but for the price I paid, anything VF-ish would be OK. Mike was nice enough to let me lasso this one individually out of a five- or six-piece lot he was offering on the BST forum. Here is a temporary picture I made from his photos before I had it in hand to scan it.
Line 10: 1819 Bust half. I bought this on eBay and forget if the seller called it XF or what. I call it "Black Beauty". It's a nice "Crusty Bustie", for sure. Minimum hope: VF30. I'd say it has a shot at XF, maybe. That would be nice. I don't think it's an overdate, so it would be the "normal" 1819. I never looked it up in my Overton book, which I've passed on to "TexasNationals". He's promised to be my "go to" guy on Bust half attribution, now that he has my book- I'm gonna have him look at the the pics here.
Line 11: 1826 Bust half. I got this one from Mike ("tyedye") in a recent deal. Minimum hope: VF35. I didn't scan this beforehand and do not have it here to guess the grade on, but it was VF++ to XF, anyway. To give you an idea of how much I trust "tydye", I just sent him 250 bucks and told him to send me some nice type coins... period. I said, "Surprise me. You know what I like." As usual, he sent a nice group for the money. This 1826 half was the best of the three coins he sent. I would say it is XF-ish, and if it is, I'm sitting pretty on the whole lot. The second coin in the lot was a CircCam 1812 half in a PCGS G06 holder, which I sold for $90, so I only have $160 to make off the other two coins before I'm in the black. If this one goes XF, it's like I got the third coin for free. That third coin was an XF-ish details 1858-O half dollar which would be worth an easy 3-figure pricetag if it wasn't holed. It is such a nice holey, though, it might actually make it onto my Holey Coin Vest. Not a lot of holeys are vest-worthy these days. Line 12: 1836 (lettered edge) Bust half. Here is another nice VF+ to XF Bust half. I bought it on eBay, and the seller might have called it XF45. I forget. It's in that range from upper VF to XF-ish, anyway. Minimum hope: VF35. Here are the seller's pictures I originally saw on eBay. I forget what I paid, but the price was not too bad.
Line 13: 1863-S Seated Liberty half. A somewhat less-expensive coin I got from Mike Laskosky ("tydye"), as I recall. It's one of those that might not really be worth slabbing but... eh, why not. Again, depending on how strict PCGS is about grading Seated coins by the LIBERTY on the shield, this could be technically as low as VG10, but if it makes F12 I'm happy. I think this one has a small chance of a no-grade for old cleaning, but hopefully it will grade. I'm not really sure why I decided to slab it, besides the desire to burn one of my Platinum grading voucher slots. In or out of plastic, it's a nice enough low- to middle-grade coin, even if it probably belongs in an album more than it does a slab. Minimum hope: VG10.
Line 14: 1897 Barber half.. I bought this one on eBay because I liked its nice "crusty" original look. Because it was a Buy-It-Now, the price was no screaming bargain, but it looked like a nice coin and I think it is. I believe it is easily VF, as did the seller, and if I get some added points for a VF25-30, so much the better. I think VF35 to XF40 might be a bit much to hope for. Minimum hope: VF20.
Line 15: 1899-O Morgan dollar. Just another generic, blast-white UNC Morgan dollar. The only Mint State coin in this submission. Since I use a scanner, there's plenty of blazing cartwheel luster you don't see in my images. This piece looks every bit as nice as a near-identical white PCGS MS64 of the same date that I just swapped away. I don't have very much invested in it, I guess, and don't remember who I got it from, but it's nice, albeit a generic "widget" of sorts. Minimum hope: MS63. MS62 or less would annoy me, MS63 would be par for the course, MS64 would make me smile, and MS65 would make me dance and sing. 
Line 16: 1853 silver 3-cent piece (#2 of 2). The slightly softer-struck counterpart of the coin above, on Line 4. I added it to the submission as an afterthought, for the same reason as the coin above (I bought it for a song, so why not). Minimum hope: VF20. Again, I don't really know- these are hard for me. Like the first coin, I reckon somewhere VF-EF. This one has mushier letters than the other, but is still a pretty sharp little coin. I'll go out on a limb again and guess VF30. 
Line 17: 1860-O Seated Liberty dollar, ex-PCGS VF25. Purchased from Shane Miller ("Millertime"), one of the Dansco #7070 type set collectors. Shane had cracked this one out of its former PCGS VF25 slab, to keep it in his 7070. He sold it to me with the original label. I added it on to this submission and tried to just pay the $10 reholder fee to get it put into a new holder with the old label, but they wouldn't do that and have stuck me with another 20 bucks to grade it all over again. If it grades less than the previous VF25, I will be highly upset, since they are not returning the original label to me. However, it should be just fine, I would think. I do worry a little that they might VF20 it, though. Minimum hope: VF25. If it surprises me and goes VF30 or VF35, then the extra 20 bucks is well spent. Come to think of it, I already paid them ten bucks to reholder it, so why are they charging my credit card another $20.00? Shouldn't it be another $8? The grading fee is what, $18 for Economy tier, right? That's a lot of money for slabbing this kind of circulated stuff I deal in. You can see why I don't submit very often. If I dealt in key dates or supergrade stuff or gold more often, OK, yeah, but on stuff like most of what you see here, you have to ask, "Why slab it?". Well, because I want nice affordable 19th century type in PCGS plastic, that's why, and buying it in the slabs can be difficult or pricey. Sometimes you just have to make 'em yourself. You see a lot more of this kind of stuff in ANACS holders, perhaps for the simple reason that a lot of it isn't worth paying $18+ a coin to slab, with the tight margins involved. 
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