Coinbuf

Welcome to the forum, die clashes are not mules, two very different things. Your Lincoln cent shows a very nice and dramatic clash with the reverse columns showing on the obverse.

Your scenario is not part of GAAP (generally accepted accounting practices) as I leaned them. No sale has occurred nor can there be any reasonable expectation of a sale just because a listing has been created. Yes companies are allowed under GAAP to accrue sales, but those are sales that have actually happened but payments will be delayed into a future reporting period. Creating a listing is not a sale, it is a potential sale but not an actual sale, the reason a company can accrue sales is to properly match sales and inventory in the period that they happen. Accruing sales that have not occurred would not be in line with GAAP accounting, at least not as I learned it, and this is especially true of a company like ebay where there is no matching of inventory to sales. Now I received my accounting degree in the late eighties and have not been a practicing accountant for over 25 years, so I am not up on any changes to GAAP so I do admit that it is possible this has been changed as a way to make the income statements look better than they really are and keep the stock price inflated. But I sure hope that is not the case as it would be wrong in my opinion and could be used by management to overstate sales, mislead investors, and lead to unwarranted bonuses for management.

Nice find, I suggest that you soak it in some acetone to see if that obv fingerprint can be removed. Otherwise it will not remain nice for long.

Does not look like a match from your photos, it appears that your coin took a hit on the lower portion of the mintmark. That pushed some metal up, but I do not see any signs at the top of the mint mark of an underlying mint mark to match the one from VV.

As the fellows have said TPG's are not a pay more get better grades. However, you are right to be concerned about an offer that so much higher than the norm. IT could just be that the prospective buyer has been looking for that date for some time and really likes/wants this coin. It could also be that he is a crackout specialist and thinks he can get a higher grade than the current grade. I don't have any specific advice but if you end up selling it to him please update on how it goes. And not to try and scare you but this thread on the CAC forum is relevant to your concern that the buyer might be out to play games. Ebay issue

Just another worthless troll @Fitzon00

Randon marks from circulation.

The mint was not hand punching mintmarks at the time this cent was produced so there is no possibility of an RPM. The zinc core copper coated cents produced from 1982 to current have lots of issues. What you see is just more strike doubling; this happens when one of the dies is loose; combined with some ghosting. The copper plating has been a real pain for the mint and even today there are lots of problems, partly because in the striking process the copper plating stretches and then you get lots of ghosting next to the design elements. So between the ghosting, split plating issues, die deterioration (from overusing the dies and can also create some ghosting), and just plain mechanical doubling the modern cents are a mess.

Always worth more than face value for the silver content, but little to no numismatic value in that condition for common dates.

Worthless strike doubling; AKA mechanical doubling; is all.

Damage.

Yes I quoted your question, the term "this" is ambiguous, what does "this" refer to? The entire coin, just the steps that is in your photo, your question is anything but clear. Proper communication is necessary for any discussion to take place, ubiquitous terms like this or that may work fine in a face to face discussion where you can be pointing out what you see, that does not work for internet conversation.

Listing items on ebay is free unless you choose to use/add on the promotional listing feature. No fees are charged until the item is sold for normal listings. That is partly why ebay is such a dumping ground for this type of junk, if you had to pay to list there would be less.

As you are new to the forum this section is for registry questions, for questions of a more general nature that you want an official answer from an NGC representative you need to ask your question in the "Ask NCG/NCS" section of the forum. Or alternatively a call to customer service would yield you an answer in just a few minutes. As Mike wrote my understanding is that the mail is opened as received and the clock does not start until your package has been opened and received. If you want the fastest turnaround the best way to do that is to submit at a major show where NGC is doing on site grading for show grading, you will get the grading done in a day or two under that scenario. Welcome to the forum and best of luck on your submission results.

I have no idea what you are seeing in the photo of the rev steps or if that is even relevant to your question. We know many things but nobody here is a mind reader so you need to be clear and describe what you are asking about. I see nothing in your photo but a normal cent with some die deterioration and/or strike doubling. In the past some people have been confused and think that the columns show doubling, that is just part of the design which includes the columns inside the memorial behind the front columns. But again I'm just guessing as you were not specific in your question.

While maybe not quite terminal yet, that dark tone would likely not be considered as eye appealing to many collectors. I agree with Sandon's assessment that the coin appears to have been wiped in the past, between that and the general overall condition, in my opinion this would be a very poor choice to spend the monies for grading.

Unless your coins are certified as MS67 or better spend them, they are only worth face value.

Yes it is, I have laid out detailed instructions on how to do it on a previous post on this subject. Here is a link to that post. How to print inventory

It is always best to start a new thread when asking about a new/different coin. Most of your photos are out of focus to see clearly, it could be one of the RPM's listed on Variety Vista, the other explanation is a die chip which was a common issue in the 50's. Have you attempted to match your coin to one of the five RPM's listed on VV? Only one of the listed RPM's is considered significant enough to receive an FS designation, and yours does not look like a match from what I can see, maybe a match for RPM2. Here is a link to the 55-S RPM page at VV if you don't have VV bookmarked. Variety Vista

You are correct that there are many people out there attempting to create colorful coins to fool people and extort money for the pretty colors. Sadly, this does work at times and there are people who fall victim to this area of coin doctoring. Toning is a very deep subject with many nuances, even the TPG's like NGC and PCGS are fooled when it comes to real vs artificial toning at times, I can guarantee you that there are toned coins in both holders that are not natural. Books have been written on the subject of toning; it is a complex area. And toning is different for the different types of metals, and in many cases it is different for uncirculated coins vs coins that have circulated in commerce. It takes a lot of time studying and looking at multiple real and artificially toned coins to develop your eye to spot it. One universal thing which was touched on by @EagleRJO is color progression, in nature colors seldom have hard lines. Think about when you look at a rainbow, those colors blend from one to the other, not one color then bam the next color. Now look at the coins in your palm, notice how the colors are not blending, they look like the colors were painted on like the old paint by numbers that you may have done as a child. Then look at the photo in @Lem E post, notice how the colors on that liberty nickel softly blend from one to the next, no hard lines. Also notice how the colors on the cents in your palm are flat and lifeless compared to the nickel where the colors are more vibrant and have a somewhat iridescent look, this is easier to see in hand but once you know what it looks like you can spot it easier in photos. Real toning will move and react to light as you rotate the coin under a proper light source, where most artificial toning does not, it just lays there and has no movement or life to it. Then again some forms of real toning, like toning that happens to coins in some of the US mint packaging, will have a very different look. That look can simulate the surface of a dry lakebed, with a crackled look to it, totally natural from the mint cello but very different. Toning is a very hard thing to master, I have been collecting for decades and I am still learning when it comes to toning each and every day. That is one of the reasons I like to go the local monthly coin show, not to buy but simply to look and talk to dealers and collectors. After you look at thousands of toned coins both raw and in TPG holders you will begin to develop your eye and see the things that distinguish real from artificial, even if we never fully master toning. I can only speak for myself, and the answer will depend on what coin I am looking for. Personally, I much prefer a bright original red cent vs a toned one when looking for or at uncirculated coins, but for a circulated copper coin my preference is for a nice even brown color. But in even with copper I have examples of toned coins that I find to be extremely attractive, just not something that I actively hunt for. For silver coins I again prefer them to be blast white just as they looked when they were struck, but the older the coin the less I expect blast white. As silver ages it will mellow and tone naturally, no coin can stay as struck unless stored in a vacuum. And here again, I have many toned examples that I find very attractive just not what I necessarily hunt for.

As Lem said it is your collection and you should do what makes you happy when you view the coins. Having said that I truly think that knowledgeable collectors would uniformly use the term "beaten with an ugly stick" to describe the 18-S Lincoln. That coin does not exude original toning in any sense of the word, the coin has been completely messed with or "bonked" as many describe the artificial toning that has been applied to that coin. I can only speak for myself, but I would take a nice light to chocolate brown toned coin over that mess any day.

Hmmm are you sure it doesn't belong to dprince, has his fingerprints all over it. But in all seriousness, this type of garbage is rampant on ebay and etsy.

Meant to post this the other day and forgot, bought this 14-S from the same forum member on the PCGS forum that I bought the 23 posted earlier. Has a nice bit of color, PCGS graded MS63; slab needs a bit of a polish.

Not even close.

Why in the world would you even think this is some type of error. Do you even know what acetone does, I can only guess that you don't from your question. The obvious answer is the coin is stained, maybe buried in the ground, maybe in somebody's pits for a few years, anything but an error. Have you spent any time looking over the reference sites you have been so generously provided by members here, or are you just going to continue to throw everything at the wall to see what will stick. Keep it up and knowledgeable members will start to ignore your posts as a waste of time, which will only leave you with the misinformed members responding. You don't have to have money to read and learn, but you do have to put forth the effort and actually do the work and read and learn.