Just Bob

Someone else said counterfeit, also. You did. I know you said that this was not your area of expertise, but you are no numismatic novice, either. You felt they were fake, and a recognized authentication service said they were fake. That is two votes for fake, and one for genuine. Another opinion couldn't hurt, but, right now, I would be leaning toward them being fake. When it comes to this particular series, do you feel more confident in the expertise of one TPG over another?

Well, what do you know. Mr Burdette looks very much the way I had pictured him in my mind.

On the plus side, it is not soldered into the frame, so the mount should be relatively easy to remove without damaging the coin. On the negative side, it will probably still show scratches or other signs of having been in a mount, and it definitely has been cleaned, so it will not get a straight grade. The NGC World Coin Price Guide shows this issue to be worth only melt value in all grades, but with a mintage of only 200,000, it would seem like it would be possible to get slightly more, if you could find a collector interested in it. That may not be the case, however, since the 1950 100 pesos, with a mintage of only 20,000, shows the same price estimate. Apparently there is little demand for Chilean gold, numismatically speaking, at the moment.

I would be surprised if the half graded higher than MS 62, judging by the pictures. They didn't take any special care with these before they packaged them. You might think a coin sealed in the mint and mailed to a collector would be pristine, but with the older mint sets that is not the case.

Welcome to the forum. Nice job on the pictures. Looks like got hold of your coin with some wire cutters, or something similar. Not mint made damage.

When I blow it up, I can see patches of hairlines and spots that look like wipe areas below and above Liberty's head. It may just be the pictures. Obviously, though, more than one NGC grader saw something.

Well, your dare has been answered.

The dealer can give an opinion on the grade, but if you want them encapsulated by NGC, the answer is, "no." The dealer does not encapsulate them, but sends them to NGC to be certified. You can also submit them yourself, by becoming an ANA member, or a paid member of the Collectors Society.

Stay off Etsy when coin buying. The site is loaded with scammers, looking to take advantage of uneducated buyers. All three of these dimes are damaged. They are worth 10 cents, unless you try to use them in a vending machine, or run them through a Coinstar machine, in which case they are worthless.

Does that mean that I am going to jail because of all of those coins I put on the railroad tracks when I was a kid?

A belated "Welcome to the forum" to you. Feel free to post pictures of your other coins for us to drool over.

I would like to add just one more thing for future readers of this thread. The idea that, even if this coin were the real deal, and unique, it would be "priceless," is purely wishful thinking. In order for this, or any coin, to bring really big money, there has to be strong demand among collectors with deep pockets. Generally speaking, the numismatic heavy hitters do not collect Roosevelt dimes Or, error coins.

I am not sure how you arrived at this conclusion, since anyone who owns a sandblaster could duplicate this finish on a coin with little trouble. They could also leave the edges unaffected, as is the case with your coin. People do strange things to coins all the time. But, it appears that nothing that any of us has to say is going to sway your opinion. Since you are obviously convinced that you have found something special, I suggest you send it in to have it authenticated, and be sure and post your results in this thread when you get it back. Not that it will matter to you, but the gentlemen with which you are arguing in the above posts have combined numismatic experience of over 150 years, including collecting, buying, selling, and grading coins professionally. Good luck with your new find

This appears to be one of the less common varieties, Breen-14, AKA Sheldon-234/Bowers-Whitman-5, estimated existing population : 200 to 300. That should make it worth a little more to an EAC collector than a generic 1802, but you have the problem of those scratches on the obverse. They are probably less pronounced in hand than they appear in the pictures, but I am still not sure it would grade problem-free. I think it would probably get a "Very Good Details," or "Fine Details" grade, which would put it in the AG to G price range. Probably not worth the expense of having it graded. It would make a decent coin for a type set, or a good example for a variety collector, until you could find an upgrade. Don't clean it or try to approve it's appearance in any way. Cleaning will erase most of what value it has. By the way, if it is, in fact, B-14, that is not rim damage above the B in LIBERTY. It is a rim die break (cud), caused by an early die clash. Welcome to the forum.

Did PCGS use the Generation numbers from Conder101's book?

I'm curious. Why, after owning the coin in the raw state for 30 years, then recently spending money to have it encapsulated, are you now wanting to break it out of the slab and have the hole filled?

I think I see enough definition in the leaves to call this one XF. It has some circulation "dings," but it is a nice looking coin.

Unless you posted this coin on another thread, no one has told you to send your coin in for grading. Two people in this thread said it would not be worth the cost, another poster implied the same, and two people said to post your results, if you do decide to send it in. (Two others were discussing a different coin.) My opinion: it would come back AU if that is wear on the high points, and MS63 if it is weak strike.

The San Diego Zoo issued coins?!

Yikes! I have actually been in that very situation, when I was in my twenties. Showed up for work one day and was told, "We no longer have anything for you to do. We will call all of you when we need you." They abruptly shut down the whole project, and we never heard from them again.

That is why you should never run up stairs with scissors. You could fall, break your neck, and put your eye out, all at the same time

Well done!

Those are all large date cents. Welcome to the forum.

Sam's looking good! (The coins are nice, too)

What do you think happened, given the fact that it could not have happened when the coin was struck - as explained in two different posts above?