Coinbuf

Congrats on the new job @Mohawk

For me it started with a few random IHC's that my maternal grandmother gave me along with a folding holder. I was young; 12 or so; and set right away polishing up those poor cents with some brasso and a rag, they sure were shinny when I finished . Fortunately those cents were just some very common well circulated 1900's dates so little value or damage done. But that set the hook and got the journey started. I have gone through some phases where I was more active and some less active, girls kids and careers tend to get in the way at times and take priority. I still have those IHC's and that first folder somewhere, just not too sure where anymore.

Agree that you have focus issues, if you need to place a small level on the camera body to see if it is parallel to the surface the coin is on. The cell phone photos will work for simple documentation purposes but you need to correct the white balance.

What is the over/under on how many threads Ron will start on this coin without ever sending it in.

You would think so and for some coins that might be true if the retries are very close together. But here is a real world scenario, I have a coin that was in PCGS MS66 which I felt was under graded and tried to upgrade twice myself over a year with no luck. I then had a promenade dealer of the series agree to try it for me, first try went MS66+, second try it went to where it is now at MS67. Those two second tries were within three months, however I will admit that the coin was not super remarkable or toned in such a way that it would stick in a graders mind. My single experience is not unique and crackout dealers do this all the time if they feel the coin will make it and there is enough price appreciation between the two grades

Wow I had not seen that because he posted in the ask NGC section and I don't look thru that too often, classic. Could be a possibility if the same submitter used walkthru tier, although those 5 fees would take a big bite out of the new value (assuming that the one 67 made it to the now top pop 68).

Not 15 months only 3 months, which is a very short timeframe for such a big pop increase at the top to me. The reason, I do not know but I have to suspect gradeflation is a part of it.

At the time the OP posted this thread there was only one MS67 in BN, now there are 5 in 67 and one in 68. I have no way of knowing if the op's coin is one of those 5 new high grade examples that have been added or not as he has not updated with his results.

Yep just damaged and the second coin is not tripled. And even if the first coin was a minor error like a die chip or lamination the condition of that coin would reduce its value to almost nothing anyway. For an error or variety coin to be worth much value it needs to be dramatic enough and also in decent enough shape to be considered collectable, very few coins like the first one you posted are desirable to most collectors.

Very attractive, I like it.

All good questions that I have zero answers to. I guess these are the issues a collector faces when collecting coins from other countries.

Wow I'm surprised that seems very under graded from what I see, maybe the luster is not as strong as I am thinking. I cannot imagine a better strike, my MS67 FB example is not quite as crisp as your coin. No matter the grade in this case it is a wonderful coin and I look forward to seeing Joe's images.

Drop dead gorgeous Merc there @Lem E, love that coin. A very early strike on both dies, really hammered; MS68?

Very nice present, congrats!

Very nice present, congrats!

A very common date and coin, but its hard to find Lincolns as clean as this one is. Usually you see some contact marks and very often there are some chicken scratch marks on the shoulder, this is one clean Lincoln.

The obv (head) side is also damaged, likely from whatever the person used to hold the coin while working on the rev side. Here is what an undamaged 1918-D cent should look like.

A nice story and fun family keepsake, from the photo it appears that they all may have been polished or perhaps as Bobby suggested maybe even plated. It may just be the Lucite holder giving it that look but from only this photo you made the right choice to not break them up and attempt to have them graded.

Its just damaged, ground or sanded off. Welcome to the forum.

I have not bought from them or heard any reviews of them. However most bulk buys like this tend not to be good for the buyer. The ad only says that you will receive 20 graded Morgan dollars and one of them will be an MS64 CC dollar. But I do not see anywhere in the ad that all the coins will be in mint state condition, or that they all will be graded by NGC (only implied from the photo). If anyone actually sees that the seller is offering 20 Morgan dollars all graded by NGC and all grading MS64 with one being a CC, please indicate where you found that info. $2,500 for 20 is $125 a coin, except for the CC dollar that is a steep premium to pay if the coins are not all MS64. My guess is that you will receive 20 graded Morgan dollars (graded by whom is questionable) but AU or lower with one common date MS64 CC dollar. I am also guessing that if you bought this and then tried to resell the 20 coins you would be lucky to get back $1,000. but that is just speculation based on the very ambiguous and unspecific nature of the ad's language. Before you buy any bulk "deals" like this I suggest that you contact the seller and receive from them in writing just exactly what (what years, mintmarks, and grade) you will be receiving.

You bring up a very good point William, being able to use one's camera equipment for dual purposes does help to justify the expense. I suppose if I was more into taking wildlife or nature photographs spending the money on a good high quality modern camera body and lens would be easier. Which would make it an easy transition to using the camera equipment for coin photos. But I'm not really into that much, I did do some of that when I was younger and my sister is really into it and has tons of money tied up in equipment. But somehow I got tired of lugging around a heavy camera and multiple lenses, tripods, and other bits. Today it is so much simpler to just whip out the cell phone and take photos with that than to deal with a backpack of equipment. Kudos to those who do and the awesome photos that they are able to get, they are amazing and I applaud their skills. And I'm sure that you and Ben would have hours of enjoyment using one of those USB microscopes, I have a really cheap one but I have not used it in years. Maybe one day I'll drag it out of the closet and see if it still works. Who am I kidding, I need to get the hod rod running first, and then the long list of honey do's that I keep finding a way to put off.

Congrats on the new Lincoln, those steel cents are beautiful in the uber gem grades.

Its not a cost that everyone would or even should incur, I sort of view it as an investment which will pay for itself when the time to sell comes. I hope that these high quality photos will help close a sale for (hopefully) top dollar vs photos of lower quality. And of course I would not pay to have every coin I have imaged as that would indeed be very cost prohibitive. I also consider the costs of buying/maintaining a high quality camera/lens setup, heck a really nice digital camera and quality macro lens can easily run upwards of 2K. And then all the other bits, good high intensity lights, copy stand, editing software, etc... it all adds up quickly. Another reason I do this is my coins live at the SDB rather than at my house due to the value of some of my collection, so having great high quality images allows me to enjoy the coins without having them in my physical possession. I do have a very low cost setup; less than $600 total for everything; which I am getting better with and continue to practice on some of the low value or new addition coins. My setup is good and my images are better than they were so perhaps one day I'll be able to get close to his level. Thank you sir, that is high praise indeed coming from a collector of your level. Mark is great and I'm sure your sets would be visually enhanced with images of the great coins in your collection. And of course I welcome the challenge to stay on top, taking a line from the Alabama football program "iron sharpens iron". Competition raises the bar and keeps us both at the top of our game.

I continue to work and getting better at taking my own coin photos and slowly am getting better. But when I want some really good photos, like the kind I want for the coins in my three first place registry sets; I go to the professional Mark Goodman. I have used three or four pro photographers in the past and a couple others were very good, but I have always felt that Mark was the very best of all those I have tried. Anyway here are a couple of compilation photos of some of my registry coins that I wanted to have better photos of than I was able to produce. All together I sent Mark 12 coins to image and as usual could not be happier with the results. I'll add new entries to show each coin from this group and I plan to keep this going as I have plans to send Mark more coins in the first part of 2022. Ok enough with the hype lets get to the coins. First is a new addition this year to my 1st place 1940 year set, this is one beautiful walker if I say so myself. Mark was able to bring out the subtle color and showcase the luster perfectly. This MS67+ CAC green bean coin is really stunning and a great addition to my set.