Coinbuf

Vise job, someone took a memorial cent and pressed it into this coin. May have been attempting to create a fake error or perhaps just accidentally.

Not an error, what we call a dryer coin. Coins sometimes get stuck against the barrel of the dryer and scrape or sand off one side like this

No I would not say that, back when the TPG's first setup operations MS65 was a very high grade, I wasn't into slabbed coins then but as I've been told getting an MS67 was almost unheard of. Today MS67 is a very high grade but it is awarded far more frequently than back in the late 80's early 90's when the TPG's were just starting out. And over the past 5ish years I have seen many coins that have been cracked and regraded 2 to even 4 MS grades higher than what the original grade was. I'm not saying those new grades are incorrect or the old grades were correct, but we have seen high profile coins jumping grades with what to me is an alarming frequency. The photo archives on the PCGS system were basically eliminated overnight several years ago because high profile customers of big dealers ((cough) like Legend (cough)) were complaining to Laura about seeing posts on the PCGS forum that involved regrades of their coins. Gradeflation has touched every part of the grading scale, we are seeing coins that in the past would max out at VF30 now being graded as XF, even AU at times. And yes the line between AU and MS has been blurred out of existence, market grading is not about using grading standards it is about pricing coins. Today a grader looks at a coin and says what should this sell for, not what does this grade. There is a reason why PCGS did away with its grading sets as grading sets are not needed under market grading, its noteworthy that CACG has grading sets that they expect their graders to use as a reference when grading. Remember that most graders used to be dealers, so it stands to reason that if you put the foxes in the hen house the eggs may be tampered with.

Die cracks are a fun find and have developed a somewhat cult like following in the past few years during and after covid. But that following is more interested in finding them and then selling not so much in buying them, so it's really a one way market and the buying group is a very small population of collectors which keeps the prices to just a bit over face value.

One more set of photos, these are also from the same thread that I quoted the text from above. CC's photo, the buyers photo and the PCGS result. Bottom line Mike if you have gotten every raw coin you bought from this seller to straight grade at the advertised grade you are either not being honest with us about your results or have been incredibly lucky.

See my post below yours.

This quote was from a discussion on the PCGS forum back in Nov of 2021, they were going by the name Canyon City Coins then. From that discussion: "Beautiful raw coins - they have a really cool way of taking pictures and have a seemingly unlimited supply of cool silver dollars and other coins - even key dates! However, I have now received another coin back from grading and once again - came back cleaned...!! Even their 1921 peace dollars - which are fetching big bucks - have had 2 come back cleaned...! On one coin I saw what I thought were die polishing lines but I guess were hairlines..." And here we can see just how much they juice the photos, first the PCGS TV then the CC or Denver coin photo, it not just the raw coins they manipulate the images of.

There have always been and are today sellers that attempt to deceive buyers that may not be informed; be it coins or vacum cleaners. TPG's have helped to level the playing field at first. But for whatever the reason TPG grading has changed from when they started. CACG is simply resetting back to the earlier standards. So I see is as CACG is a return to the consistency that TPG'S had at inception. Now will the marketplace like that is the question.

I doubt it's fake, just that the photos are juiced and taken in a way to hide any flaws or issues.

Yes Denver Coins, aka (or may still be used) Canyon City Coins, and I think there may have been another name this seller has used in the past on ebay.

The extra metal in the numeral 5 is a die chip. Technically it is an error but so minor that it has no or very limited value, die chips are extremely common on the mid 50's cents here is a definition of a die chip. "Definition: A small piece (less than 4 square millimeters) that falls out of the die face and has no direct connection to the design rim. The missing piece leaves a void in the die face into which coin metal flows. As a result, the coin shows a featureless lump in the affected area. A die chip can be connected to a die crack or it can be freestanding. Die chips frequently develop within narrow interstices in the design, such as the gap between the letters of LIBERTY. Hence the so-called “BIE” errors."

The seller is known to doctor, alter the ebay photos to portray problem coins as better than they are, look at the background the coin is sitting on, way over saturated. How many of this sellers raw coins that you have purchased in the past have you had graded by NGC or PCGS? How did the TPG's grades line up with the price you paid? I would love to see one of this sellers coins both with the ebay auction photos and the photos from NGC or PCGS, please post one or a few if you have them. I could not even begin to guess the coin's worth from photos that I know are heavily altered, I would need real unaltered photos to make that determination.

That would be a lucky break for you.

I know the seller, I very much doubt it will look like that in hand.

Welcome to the forum, but we will need some photos to help.

I agree with this being a lamination error, much larger than those on the two in your other post.

The 48 is a lamination error, same with the 47-S which has a partial retained lamination, both are nice finds.

I agree, from your photo it does appear to be a dried glue covering that part of the coin.

Gerry Fortin has a nice mumps example listed in his inventory/daily blog.

Thanks, that is an interesting bit to read, I agree with you that it seems more like some less than honorable folks that were looking to profit from the gullibility of some market participants. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

@Lem E is correct, this is a $4 gold Stella, it was sold by a firm called Leonard Auctions located in Chicago. Here is a link to their site where you can see the coin. Linky

Not an error, as already stated that could have been from a coin rolling machine, or perhaps from another coin that was pressed into the surface of this coin.

I have not read that article, however I do not see how he could have used 1985 as a reference point given that neither PCGS nor NGC began operations until 1986. Again, not having read the article I am flying blind here but the only grading services at that time would have been some of the very early grading firms that are mostly all out of business like ACG, ANACS (under ANA ownership until 1989), Blanchard, Hallmark, and a couple of others. I was not buying coins in slabs back then; I did not buy my first slab (my 09-SVDB in a rattler PCGS holder) until 1999. I own some of those older slabs, and with the exception of ACG most of those I mentioned were graded pretty conservatively, comparing to what we see leave the grading rooms today anyway. And everything is relative, for me market grading happened more recently, after NGC and PCGS began operations, that is why you see old early holders of both NGC and PCGS sell for so much in recent years, because those coins were (or at least are considered to be) graded far more conservatively than coins are graded today. But JA has been in the numismatic business side for a long time and so perhaps for him there may have been a "shift" in grading that I am/was not aware of. So for me when I reference market grading I'm talking about grading as it has changed from a more conservative tighter ANA biased standards of the late 80's to early 2000's, to the far more loose grading that is seen in today's grading room. Just a couple of knuckleheads new to the forum, the kind that show up with outrageous claims of owning millions dollar coins and then immediately start to fight with members who give them correct information. I just cannot have any respect for people like that.

All the photos show the same thing, common worthless strike doubling. If you like it keep it, but it's not valuable and not worth sending to NGC.

Welcome to the forum, and I wish you the best of luck, but the chances that your coin receiving a straight grade are very low in my opinion. If you like that look that is fine, but there is nothing original looking about the coin. Also, this section of the forum is for member that are selling or looking to buy coins. Posts like yours should be posted in the newbie or US/world coins sections of the forum. I have flagged a mod, so they move it to the appropriate area, please do not start a new thread as that will only get confusing if this one gets moved.