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Does anyone proof-read auction catalogs?

MrEurekaMrEureka Posts: 23,892 ✭✭✭✭✭
Just noticed this choice lot description:

"By far, the finest example of this issue we have seen, and, undoubtedly, one of the finer examples of this rare issue we have seen. "

Naturally, the next lot in the sale is another example of the same issue, and graded one point higher.
Andy Lustig

Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.

Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.

Comments

  • Thats a curious one no doubt. But just perhaps the auctioneer felt that the previous lot was more deserving of the description than the piece that actually graded higher.
  • ColonelJessupColonelJessup Posts: 6,442 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Why think that just because two coins are lotted next to each other in sequence they are described by the same cataloguer?

    Coins from individual consignments are managed by different consignment directors. They make sure that processing goes on for their consignments from the log-in on.

    Some cataloguers may not know they're both cataloguing different examples of the same issue, pop-top or not. The computer doesn't include what's being currently catalogued.

    I saw two pretty special coins, same date and grade, as successive lots in a sale.

    Lot #1 , The Smith coin. Its write-up referred to the Jones coin as tied for finest known, pop 2.
    You knew this was coming. image
    Lot #2 The Jones coin. Its write-up referred to the Smith coin as tied for finest known, pop 2

    It's not only a true story but it actually happened .

    But before that:

    Because the coins from each consignment get graded and beaned and photoed and then actually get seen by a numismatist who writes about the coin in front of him. Then the coin gets placed in a queue for tentative lot ordering.

    This may not be the exact process, but the point is that most of the time they're just round metal objects with values attached. All the coins in a specific consignment over or under let's say arbitrarily $10K or $20K or $50K may go thrpough under one consignment director's invoice. If all the 50K coins from all across the auction were specially set aside by the auction grading submission coordinator sent through as special groupings of caviar, they'd exit the common (if very special) stream and go back to the consignment director. I guess they're taken out of the safe again after the lot stickers are printed. A different safe beckons.

    This above is written out of order but the process is production-line automated and driven. Let me apotheosize.

    FUN Platinum Night 4-5-6 years ago appears a 1794 $1 PCGS AU55. Described as being pedigreed to, and so described, in the Dr. French Sale(?) 25 years previously, as having had pretty nice surfaces and a good strike distracted from by engraving in the hair. Our own Boeudica was shocked and outraged, and rightly so. A certain portly Brooklyn refugee was more succinct in an eliminatory way when asked. "Same as the last time I saw it. It was a piece of....". There's a lot of "been there done that"'s that think catalogues are where you write, not readimage PCGS missed it. The cataloguer caught it. The consignment director should have had it pulled long before. The boss pulled it 2 days before it was supposed to go under the hammer. Yours truly and two even smarter friends were all-in at over $400Kimageimageimage One for each in the triumvirate.

    BTW PCGS made it good PDQ

    What's the problem, Andy? image
    "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." - Geo. Orwell
  • ebaybuyerebaybuyer Posts: 2,984 ✭✭✭
    i was browsing through an auction catalog maybe a year ago and was looking through the antique section, there were some old cast iron banks, featuring the bust of a "laughing black man" but the catalog description was a bit more colorful... and this was a current auction catalog
    regardless of how many posts I have, I don't consider myself an "expert" at anything
  • swhuckswhuck Posts: 546 ✭✭✭
    Colonel Jessup is right. Most likely the coins were described by two different catalogers. When I proofread a catalog, I try to catch things like this (and occasionally I do), but in general that's not the first thing we're looking for.
    Sincerely,

    Stewart Huckaby
    mailto:stewarth@HA.com
    ------------------------------------------
    Heritage Auctions
    Heritage Auctions

    2801 W. Airport Freeway

    Dallas, Texas 75261

    Phone: 1-800-US-COINS, x1355
    Heritage Auctions
  • nencoinnencoin Posts: 1,221 ✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Just noticed this choice lot description:

    "By far, the finest example of this issue we have seen, and, undoubtedly, one of the finer examples of this rare issue we have seen. "

    Naturally, the next lot in the sale is another example of the same issue, and graded one point higher. >>



    That's pretty poor. Some auction companies are consistently better than others at getting out well-proofed catalogs.
  • GeorgeKelloggGeorgeKellogg Posts: 1,251 ✭✭


    << <i>Just noticed this choice lot description:

    "By far, the finest example of this issue we have seen, and, undoubtedly, one of the finer examples of this rare issue we have seen. " >>



    I couldn't get past the redundant, grammatically deficient sentence.
    "Clamorous for Coin"

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