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UPDATE - Commems In Hand Now - My Pics - Open For Discussion
richardshipp
Posts: 5,647 ✭✭✭
I received the Texas, Connecticut and Stone Mountain that were posted and discussed the other night. These are my pictures, that have only been cropped and resized. No edit of color/contrast/auto enhance or anything like that done. My photo skills aren't that great so I'm not sure this will help.
I did look at the coins under a 5x and a 17x loupe. I don't see any hairlines. The coins have good to excellent luster. The coins are a little lighter in hand than the sellers pics. My close up pictures are a little lighter than the coins. The pics of the Stone Mountain while I am holding it represents the coins pretty well.
I would love see an open discussion of my coins between those whom have more experience than I.
In a little bit I hope to post a great crusty large cent that I received from someone else. Shooting Copper is a challenge for me
Here's the Commems:
I did look at the coins under a 5x and a 17x loupe. I don't see any hairlines. The coins have good to excellent luster. The coins are a little lighter in hand than the sellers pics. My close up pictures are a little lighter than the coins. The pics of the Stone Mountain while I am holding it represents the coins pretty well.
I would love see an open discussion of my coins between those whom have more experience than I.
In a little bit I hope to post a great crusty large cent that I received from someone else. Shooting Copper is a challenge for me
Here's the Commems:
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Comments
Apropos of the coin posse/aka caca: "The longer he spoke of his honor, the tighter I held to my purse."
If you look at the Stone Mountain hand shot (in particular), the obverse toning from 9 to 11 stops too suddenly to be unmessed with NT. I have seen this look as a result of AT and also someone cleaning the coin up with some dip on the end of a Q-tip.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Wow... There worse then I thought and those were the good ones..."-(
The guys not only a coin doctor he's a photo doctor...
Whats your impression of them in hand Richard...?
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Take Care, Dave
Photos are that....... just photos. With the coins laid out here in front of me as I type; they are somewhere between the sellers pics and mine. I don't know why. It does reinforce the notion of buying coins "in-hand".
I have no doubt that the seller juiced his pics to put the coins in a better light or at least to show them as he/she thought they appeared.
The toning....... I am just not sure and couldn't say either way even with them in hand. The most suspicious thing to me is the "color breaks" where some darker toning is adjacent to white without the expected gradual transition. What appeared as textile type toning is obviously fingerprints.
The coins do not have hairlines and are remarkebly "mark free". The fact is these are as mark free of commems as I've ever seen in hand. There is good to excellent luster. If someone could get away with a quick dip without impairing the luster I would bet that these would be beauts. I've never dipped anything so I don't know if that would actually work or not, just a thought. That said however, I was not looking for "white" coins.
In the end, I have contacted the seller to see if they would honor their 5 day unconditional money back guarantee and I plan on sending all 3 coins back. We'll see if they make good with their guarantee.
I hate to feel that I am held hostage to buying toned coins that have already been slabbed by PCGS or NGC; but maybe thats just the way it is now.
I want to be clear that I AM NOT accusing the seller of any wrong-doing. I am just taking advantage of their return policy.
Thanks to all for your help.
Richard
Ps. That Oregon, that someone posted saying "here ya go".... I've already had that one on my watch list for a week
<< <i>Glad to see you are returning all the coins.
I agree with Mozin on this one. When I see the other offerings by a seller look bad, I can only assume they may all be bad. After seeing your pics- I hold with my original feelings.
And don't feel hostage to plastic only Richard---contrary to what a few here say, there are lot of real nice collections out there held by a lot of real smart collectors that don't pay homage to the plastic gods.
[Some of the factors that cause this characteristic toning -- the way the planchets were prepared, the striking process, how the coins were distributed (eg -- in tab holders, or in Pan Pac velvey boxes), and, in some cases how large hoards were stored. (eg - Hawaiian).]
It is strange that the two sets of photos differ so substantially, and is also strange that within each set of photos, the toning characteristics of each coin are remarkably similar.
To me, this is a giveaway that they are artificially toned. They seem to have been dipped and then touched up.