I know there are not many folks here that collect 2 cent pieces besides me, but I just can't figure how this coin comes up with the lofty grade of 58 and CAC happens to agree. Anyone thoughts?
The seller did not do the coin justice by applying so much horrible compression to the jpegs. The compression artifacts are hiding a lot of the details.
I don't pay much attention to images. Whether intentionally or by accident, sometimes they are not close to accurate compared to how a coin looks in hand. Either I see a coin myself, or someone I trust sees it, or I'm not interested.
"Vou invadir o Nordeste, "Seu cabra da peste, "Sou Mangueira......."
There is a lot of lose grading with Two Cent Pieces. The word "WE" plays an important role. The classic standard is that the word should be barely visible in Fine, but sometimes it's hard to see in the upper levels of the VF grade. What is really correct? In most cases any Two Cent Piece with the "WE" word not visible or weak is over graded if it is called VF-30 or better. There are some exceptions.
I have an 1870 Two Cent Piece that grades EF-45 or AU-50. The "WE" is there, but it is "delicate" because the coin was lightly struck. It would not take very much wear to remove the word completely. In other words this is one of those coins that could very quickly go from AU to the look of a VG with very little circulation. At that point you get into the murky world of surface grading which can be controversial even among experts. I don't have a picture handy of this piece, but I'll try to post one next week.
As for the coin in question, the picture is too blurry to tell very much. Perhaps that was intentional, but the entire motto looks weak for the AU-58 grade. The coin would need to have a lot of mint luster on the surfaces to make up for that weakness, but you can't tell that from the photo provided here. Therefore we are left with the conclusion that there is insufficent information.
Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
I agree with BillJones... pictures do not allow proper evaluation.... I would say that with both PCGS and CAC approval, the grade is likely accurate. Cheers, RickO
Comments
You can't just assume that because it has a bean that it is nice. I have NO use for the CAC sticker....I judge for my self!
The only bad thing is I'm sure that red spot is REALLY there on the obverse.
"Seu cabra da peste,
"Sou Mangueira......."
I have an 1870 Two Cent Piece that grades EF-45 or AU-50. The "WE" is there, but it is "delicate" because the coin was lightly struck. It would not take very much wear to remove the word completely. In other words this is one of those coins that could very quickly go from AU to the look of a VG with very little circulation. At that point you get into the murky world of surface grading which can be controversial even among experts. I don't have a picture handy of this piece, but I'll try to post one next week.
As for the coin in question, the picture is too blurry to tell very much. Perhaps that was intentional, but the entire motto looks weak for the AU-58 grade. The coin would need to have a lot of mint luster on the surfaces to make up for that weakness, but you can't tell that from the photo provided here. Therefore we are left with the conclusion that there is insufficent information.
<< <i>Hard to tell from pics. All 58's are not equal. A true 58 looks nicer than 63's and some 64's. >>
Two Cent's are tough as you might find one or two killer Super Sliders but doing a whole AU58 set to match is nearly impossible.
The more qualities observed in a coin, the more desirable that coin becomes!
My Jefferson Nickel Collection