Coinbuf

The one I have is from Lighthouse so that may be where you have seen it, it is the three tray (the bottom tray is the bottom of the case and does not remove) display box. I really like it as it holds both sets with a couple of slots for extras, in case lol. No issues with the lid opening or closing and it stays open with no problems, here is a shot of it with the top two trays pulled out (note you can see some of my imposter coins ). If I was only doing one set or a sub set I probably would have gone with one of the glass top designs.

There are some really nice display cases out in the market, I really enjoy woodworking also and have thought about building one or two myself once I'm retired and have the free time (free time who am I kidding). I bought a case to hold my #1 1930 and 1940 year sets together, I use some lower grade duplicate coins for the copper coins in here as the ones in the set are stored in Intercept shield holders in the SDB for protection. Every now that then I get them out and put the full sets together for display at special occasions or just because I want to.

Lol true and its even more funny because I'm mostly a copper collector. It sounds like many of you are taking a similar approach as I am, waiting but moving if the right piece happens to come along. Overall I think that is a good strategy for the time being, I would love to see spot drop back to $1200 again but am not really expecting that. If the spot price does get down to the $1500 range and hangs out for a while to let the coin prices settle I may look to find those two more expensive coins. While not a priority set I should have been smart and finished this set back when I built my Indian head quarter eagle set, I paid around $150 each (minus the 11-D) for nice AU/BU coins. That is also when I bought the saint and a couple of the other coins in this type set, should have finished it then while prices were much lower.

I very much enjoy a nice cold coin especially many of the early designs, but even some of the modern designs are very nice and present well. As the price of gold has jumped up significantly I have curtailed most of my buying on the hope that what goes up must come down, at least that is what I am hopping for anyway. However a couple of nice opportunities did present themselves over the past year and I did pull the trigger on a nice XF $3 gold piece and just a week ago on an AU $1 Liberty Head coin. As a side note I cannot fathom what anyone was thinking by coining such a tiny coin, I see no way in the world that these could have circulated without being lost constantly. The $3 coin is graded by PCGS and on a whim I sent it in to CAC with a group of coins where it was blessed with a green bean. The most recent $1 coin was bought raw to place in my raw AU gold type set, I actually have a PCGS holdered example but just couldn't bring myself to break it out of the old green label holder to put in the raw set. So now I need just three coins to complete the set; an Indian head $1 (which again I have one in an old holder just not willing to break it out), an Indian head $10 coin, and a double eagle. But two of those are rather expensive at current levels and prices would drop quite alot if the spot price continues to slide down as it has been doing recently and were to approach the levels we were at a year or two ago. So what are your thoughts, are you buying at current levels or are you like me and for the most part taking a wait and see stance on buying gold coins.

I recently picked up this little number for my raw gold type set that I have in a black capital holder, gold just looks so nice in a black holder. Anyway here is my newest $1 piece, I shot these photos while it was in the small white capital holder it came in, has a small scratch in the obv field but not too distracting for me. I tried to shoot the black holder with the other coins too once I transferred this to the black holder but just could not get a decent shot without a ton of reflections which is a real downside to the black, need to work on getting a shot of it.

Yep been kicked around the parking lot many times, the black could be tar or paint hard to say for sure.

Your photos do not give me any sense of a PL appearance, perhaps in hand they are but I'm just not seeing it in the photos.

Welcome to the forum, in the future please start your own thread as it makes it difficult when multiple coins are shown especially when the thread is older. Your photos appear out of focus on my screen but it does look to be a high mm coin. I have no idea on the value as I don't collect errors, however your coin has a significant number of cuts, hits, and abrasions and that will affect the value somewhat. I suggest that you search the Heritage archives for any auctions for this to get a feel for a value.

There is no correct answer to your question, there are many variables and each coin must be weighed on its own merits and warts. My general rule is buying a cleaned or damaged coin is buying someone else's problem, they are problem coins and always will be. There is a collector for every coin but if you pay too much for problem coins you (or your heirs) will certainly be reminded when it comes time to sell. So my advice is to avoid them unless you can properly identify the problems and have a keen understanding of the appropriate price to pay.

Glad that you are enjoying the hobby, those marks behind and in front of the neck are not die scratches or an error. Those lines got there because the die was lapped (polished) to remove some damage, likely from a die clash. Die polish is quite common and is part of the coin making process and is not considered an error.

Well yes but as the op wants to find a value for this VAM just looking for the date/mm won't really be much help. These minor VAMs do have some value to the right collectors its just that you cannot find info through auction results very easily, the only way is to talk to a VAM dealer or collector to see what they might sell or buy at.

The problem is that the major TPG's do not attribute these minor VAMs, Here is the list of all the VAMs that NGC will attribute and put on the label only these As the op's VAM is not on the list there will not be any auction records. If he wants to do an exhaustive search of the Heritage archives its possible that he might be able to find an old ANACS coin that had this VAM attribution placed on the label, assuming one ever was, and assuming that the auction title or description has the VAM listed in it.

No it is not.

@Algin your quarter is within tolerances for a quarter of that date, there is nothing wrong with it and is not an error nor does it have any value over the face value of $.25. Your scale shows 5.48 a Washington quarter should weigh 5.67g with a tolerance of +- .227g. 5.67 - .227 = 5.443g for the min weight, yours is 5.48g just above the minimum weight, the lighter than spec weight (but within tolerance) is due to the wear it has seen during its time in commerce. Please in the future start your own thread as it gets confusing when multiple coins are posted to the same thread.

You already have the solution, however for future reference. Take your fingernail or a toothpick and gently pull it across the area where the marks are, if it "catches" or you feel bumps then the marks/scratches are on the plastic. If you go across the area and its totally smooth then the marks are on the coin.

None of the coins you have posted has much value over the copper content value, there are a couple of better dates that could bring a few dollars if you can find a collector that is wanting circ Lincolns for an album but the condition of most is low and so too is the value.

I don't know the value but its a very minor VAM, not listed in the top 100 list so I doubt that it has much if any premium attached to it. Probably only worth something extra to a die hard VAM collector.

Assuming the marks are on the coin I would not like it at that grade myself and would return if possible.

Photos still show for me. I have highlighted the areas in the photos the OP supplied that seem to agree with the photos Variety Vista has. I do see that the coin has lots of wear and damage.

@BMP804 You can always send the coin to PCGS and see if they agree with the NGC opinion, the downside is you will need to spend another $50-$60 or more and I'm not sure that the coin is worth that much in a damaged condition. Edited to add: You could also send it to ANACS, far less expensive than sending to PCGS. @DWLange In looking at the op's photos it sure does look to match very well to the FS-101 photos on Variety Vista; there are split serfs on the "Y" of liberty, on the center of the "W" of IGWT, and the seven of the date. All of those areas in the op's photos are a dead on match for the photos shown on Variety Vista. Can you point out what are you seeing that leads you to a die erosion determination?

No, they are quite common and do not carry a numismatic premium, with that said you do sometimes see sellers try and rip off buyers that are new or unknowledgeable with a coin like that.