Coinbuf

In a very general sense the usual reply I give to questions about purchasing problem coins, coins that have environmental damage, tooled, holed, and a host of other issues; is to avoid those coins. When you buy a problem coin you are buying someone else's problem. Now there are circumstances where for extremely rare coins, by that I mean coins where you might see one offered for sale every ten years or more, then in that case you might need and want to settle for a coin with issues. And the terms used to describe coins with problems run the gamut of extreme environmental damage to barely visible. So when considering the purchase of a problem coin you need to assess how bad the damage to the coin is and how bad you need/want it. For myself I would rather wait and save to buy a nice problem free coin than be impatient and have an accumulation of coins with problems. The old saying patience is a virtue is a wise and true saying.

Nickels with the FS designation will almost always sell at a higher price than a non FS coin, this gap gets bigger as the grade elevates. Some of this price disparity is driven by registry points, FS coins very often gat a huge bump in points.

The registry team may be able to help you without further information, but for those of us that don't work for NGC it would help if you could link your sets so we can see if any problems are evident to us. Absent any further information my guess is that you have duplicate dates/mm coins, duplicate coins will not fill slots but you will see a small circle with the number of coins that can be used for that single slot. Another possibility is that you have coins that don't fit in the set you chose, an example might be proof coins that are not able to be used in an MS set or vice versa.

@Melior InvenidisteSince you arrived here you have asked several questions all about unicorn type coins, in fact your very first post back on July 8th of this year Your first post was another post about another supposed 1964 SMS half. You were provided the correct information about this coin then but here you are with another unicorn post. While I see you wasting your time chasing rainbows and unicorns it is your time and your choice, but if you continue to keep wasting everyone else's time with these types of posts eventually you will get a rep as a troll and the members will ignore your posts.

Well, the first step is you have to have it authenticated and designated as a true pattern/prototype. Without that nobody is going to take you seriously or have any significant interest in whatever it is you think you have. However, you have given no information about what you have, type of coin, date etc... Thus, it is really impossible to give you any advice on where to send or who to contact.

Welcome to the forum, just for future reference this section (the registry section) of the forum is best for posts that involve questions and suggestions and general topics that revolve around use of the NGC registry. General questions or discussions like this are better posted in the US/world section of the forum, you are also more likely to have more members see and become involved in discussions in that section than here in the registry section. As to your question, I only collect US coins and primarily Lincoln cents and dabble in a few type sets. I became a coin collector at an early age when my grandmother gave me a few common date Indian Head Cents and a folder to put them in. Sad to say that the first thing I did was to clean those poor coins to death, but that started my love of copper coins and ultimately my focus of Lincoln cents.

Perhaps if you could post a photo of what you are seeing these initials on it would help us to answer your question better.

These two, both were in excess of 3K each. Sorry for the poor photo of the 1940 qtr, I have not attempted to take any better photos of it yet so I only have the auction photo from when I bought it. The 1914-D was imaged by Mark Goodman, not the most impressive pair for the money I admit, but the 1940 is a top pop and 1914-D Lincolns are always expensive in MS grades. Funny thing, because I bought all my gold coins many years ago I have never spent more than $500 on any single gold coin including both my St Gaudens and $20 lib.

Picked this up from a PCGS forum member a week ago to fill the slot in my nickel type set. Just one coin short of finishing that set, have not tried to image this myself and I think the PCGS TV is not very good but all I have right now.

3 and 3/8 inch wide X 5 and 3/8 inch tall. The GSA box is 4 1/2 wide by 6 1/2 tall.

VF details, clearly cleaned/wiped/dipped/helped or whatever word you wish to use, with significant rim damage. I have not looked at VAM World or any other reference material but I am wondering if it is even legit. The indentions on the eagle's breast and there appears (to me anyway) that there is something on the cheek just below the eye and just right of the nose, for lack of a better description it looks like an upside down heart; give me pause. Maybe just a stain or discolored area, I would pass myself.

Most knowledgeable collectors understand the value that the market attaches to an old holder, obviously there are some people that have no clue.

@Liam ll, something to add on the old slabs you have. The plastx and other cleaners will be fine for the obv of the slabs. however, those holograms on the rev will be totally eaten up by everything that has been mentioned or recommended so far, including my recommendations. I would suggest that you do not try and remove the tape from that area of the rev, use a sharp hobby knife (X-acto) and cut the tape at the very top of the hologram and leave the tape in place. Those old fattie holograms are very fragile and if you pull the tape off it is highly likely that the hologram will come off with the tape. Same issue with any polish or solvents/alcohol, those will dissolve and remove the hologram.

As you have a new holder the tape should also be new and thus not leave much if any residue when removed. In your case I would suggest just alcohol, get the 90 or 99% stuff not the 70%, and stay away from the edges as much as possible. Alcohol evaporates very quickly and I have never had any adverse reaction to using either alcohol or the plastx products on any of my slabbed copper. Goo Gone works better if the residue is old and thick.

I have two questions, first why would you post this in the registry section of the forum, and second what leads you to question if this has some value over the one cent face value?

There are a number of plastic polish products, I have had very good results with PlastX. It will take some elbow grease and time but most of the scratches on your slab can be removed, a couple look to be too deep to fully remove. As Bill mentioned Goo Gone or just simple alcohol will remove the tape residue. What I do to help with the hard work is use a dremel with a soft polishing cloth wheel and the plastx, you just need to be careful to keep the dremel speed low. Partly because you don't want to heat and warp the plastic, and if you have the speed up too high you will have plastix all over the room.

I do not think there is any doubt that this coin has been cleaned, there are visible vertical hairlines on the cheek from the eye to the neck area. And the tone (for lack of a better description) is funky and just looks off, especially the reverse. I agree that the coin has XF details, if you are considering it as a purchase I too would suggest you request more photos, and only buy if the seller has a good return policy. Edited to add: Price wise this coin should not cost much, the last five certified NGC/PCGS XF45 examples sold (via Heritage) for an average of $285, and over the past two years several certified XF40's have sold in the $130 to $200 range.

Welcome to the forum, just a heads up this section of the forum is for discussions related to the registry, topics like registry sets, requests for new sets, stuff like that. Your topic would be better suited (and seen by more eyes) in the US and world section of the forum or the ask NGC section. To your question I have not had any issues with any of my submissions to NGC, however I have sent in only a couple of submissions recently so as a sample my volume is insignificant. The volume of submissions to NGC has increased significantly recently, which unfortunately also increases the opportunity for problems. I'm assuming that you have been in contact with customer service on this? This week will be difficult for communications due to the weather issues, but hopefully you are able to continue your communications with customer service and have things resolved soon.

Ouch, sorry that your experience was not better, from that closeup it sure does look like the D/horz D to me. And I too would be less than happy to receive a brand new slab in that poor condition. Hopefully @DWLange can help with getting this resolved for you, it may be more of a chore this week with the weather issues.

Do you have any photos, nice in focus closeups of the mintmark @Davebays ? Maybe NGC does not agree with your opinion that you have a D horizontal D, a good photo would help with answering the question.

Congrats on the newp @FlyingAl

To clarify, I'm thinking that the line on the loop and possibly at the bottom of the loop could have happened due to the die state, not the leg. As I'm sure you have I have seen some strange lines and features form from a late die state strike. Often you will see raised lines as if the die sucked the metal up as it released the coin after striking, many of the coins that are asked about here have this type of anomaly. I cannot tell for sure if the line that is showing on the loop is raised or lower in relief, the advanced level of circulation would normally remove any raised metal left from the strike. However that is a very protected area of the coin so that played a part in my thinking of die deterioration.

If memory serves me correctly all (or most) of the 1972 Ike dollars are the peg leg type as are the 1976 coins. There are a couple of other years where you can find the peg leg style as I recall but I don't have the reference here with me as to all the dates. The rare and valuable peg leg Ike is the 1971-S, find one of those and you have something.

I would say that this photo makes the best case for an undiscovered RPM, but it could also be used to make a case for die deterioration as well. Very heavy flow lines off the design show the die was well into its lifespan. Worth a shot to post it on CONECA and see if they think it's worth an in hand look.