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An unusual Shipwreck Slab - Updated
REALGATOR
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This 1861-O Half was apparently recovered from the S.S. Republic. A typical label would mention the ship, date, mintmark.
Furthermore, NGC would designate the quality as either:
A, B, C or no letter with other qualifiers/ grades. I haven't seen one like this before:
Looks about MS61 or 62 with that subdued saltwater look.
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That is bizarre, and the first that I have ever seen. Is this a photoshop joke?
Do you know when was it slabbed? How could you verify the cert without a cert number? I have heard of brevity, but that is a bit extreme.
Someone trying to counterfeit a NGC slab?
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I can't see NGC using a label that looks like that for something that goes out to the buying public. Is it possible that it is an "internal use only" slab that somehow got out?
Or perhaps the printer was out of toner so the grader used a Sharpie? Or is @REALGATOR pulling our collective legs?
Is the A on the outside shell or on the label?
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@PerryHall
The "A" is on the label.
Time for a call to ngc sounds good to me
Agreed.
Wow, that's very unusual. I don't now anything about NGC's shipwreck slabs, but that doesn't seem right. Maybe a counterfeit slab?
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Agree it could be for "internal use only".
NGC does the encapsulation for the Smithsonian's National Numismatic Collection and those don't have standard inserts.
I'm piling on to the theory that this was an internal use slab that got out (maybe sold off at some point like the PCGS grading set). I could also see it being a piece for a museum that was later sold to the public.
Why don't you post this across the street? More likely to get a response.
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Unless that was some type of experimental slab I seriously doubt they would let that out the door. There are a lot of reasons they identify everything in their slabs with cert numbers, etc..
I believe this is a Union strike, not the Confederacy.
I'm thinking sample slab, maybe for the customer, contemplating that custom label. More shall be revealed. Peace Roy
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These 1861-o shipwreck coins came in three designations
1. America/union struck
Then Louisiana seceded from the union
2. Louisiana struck
Then They joined the confederacy
3. Confederate struck
The tell tale is the die crack that reaches down to liberties nose.
This looks like an “American” issue so maybe this was designated with an A for internal use?
Did you find this in the wild?
It's all about what the people want...
Send it to CAC for a gold sticker. After all, it is an A-level coin!
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Definitely a weird label.... Will be interesting to hear the explanation. Cheers, RickO
More info from our hosts on the 1861-o Half
https://www.pcgs.com/news/was-your-1861-o-liberty-seated-half-dollar-struck-by-confederates
Tell tale die crack I mentioned before to recognize a confederate struck coin
It's all about what the people want...
"Explanation" so far from NGC:
NGC used letters A, B and C to sort the SS Republic coins that had to be Details Graded. A was the least impaired, B a little more so and C was a coin that was pretty badly corroded. It may be that this one was flagged to be labeled SHIPWRECK EFFECT A and was never reholdered. I'm very surprised that it left the premises.
Coin looks like it has almost no corrosion. Perhaps they were reconsidering a numeric grade and then confusion happened?
I'll see if I can get any more info.
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Very interesting, especially the "I'm very surprised that it left the premises" comment from NGC. How can a certified coin leave the building without a certification number? How would NGC account for the coin?
I can only think of someone on the shipwreck salvage team (e.g. a curator or manager) leaving with the coin before it made it to grading. A real mystery on this one.
A numeric graded holder example from the SS Republic:
So @REALGATOR it looks like you have a potentially unique NGC slab anomaly. Really neat item, and thanks for showing us. I just hope that the NGC Secret Service people don't knock on your door!