Bothersome mechanical error fixed (Lydian Siglos)

Weiss

I bought this Lydian siglos from Harlan Berk about 10 years ago, raw. It's one of my favorite pieces, one of two from Berk in my box of 20--the rest of which are mostly in slabs. For consistency and protection, I sent those two pieces and the few others not already in slabs to NGC about a year ago.

They judged the siglos to be pretty high grade: AU* 5/5, 4/5. And they also judged the piece to be from the reign of Croesus and not "Croesus or later" as is often the case with these. I was thrilled with the results. But one thing bugged me: They called the coin a "stater". Using the mostly Greek denomination was only part of the issue. For one, it's not a stater. At best, at 5.29 grams, it's a half stater. But more importantly: the siglos is one of the first true coins, and the term is pretty much reserved just for these releases from the reign of Croesus and the immediate releases of the persians who usurped him. I knew the coin to be a siglos, and I wanted that on the slab.

I was hesitant to send the coin back. If they got the denomination incorrect, did they also botch the grade and era?

But I sent in lots of stuff recently, so I sent this piece along and asked them to reconsider. They did:

Stork

I wouldn't have worried too much about the grade on the label. As for the attribution/dating period, are these hard to pin down? Just curious....and if they blew it, that too could be fixed.

Nice to have it fixed though. I suspect a lot of us are just OC enough to want it 'right'.

And, totally awesome coin BTW.

asheland

That's really nice! I'm glad they fixed it. I would have done the same.

Weiss

It was just one of those things. I researched the piece as a siglos, that's what I knew it to be. Not having it called that stuck in my craw. I'm just glad they agreed everything else was correct. It's a killer coin.

Jackthecat1

A super piece.