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powermad5000

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Everything posted by powermad5000

  1. I have been collecting for 45+ years and know this was not produced in the mint striking chamber. I am also in the camp this was a vice job. One dead giveaway is the incuse and backwards lettering on the memorial. A coin with raised lettering was pressed into the reverse. Dies are made with a negative image so the struck coin becomes a positive image. This means the die is made by removing metal from the die making a recess for the metal from the strike to flow into. If somehow a coin was double struck after being rotated, the design elements would still be raised above the surface, not incuse. This book you referenced has been becoming more mentioned on the forums here with accompanying requests to review coins that are damaged intentionally or accidentally. It seems whoever authored this book had little to no experience with coins as they are attributing damage to being errors. I would recommend you to throw out this book and purchase a Redbook of United States Coins as well as a book titled ANA Grading Standards for United States Coins, 7th Edition. Error collecting is a niche in the hobby and takes its own special advanced education. If you are in doubt on whether a coin is an error, you can try to look it up on the website error-ref.com. If you can't find an example of your coin on that site, it is not an error and most likely damage.
  2. This is a poor example of a counterfeit. The surfaces are terrible. I am not sure if that is from a poor casting process or if it was sandblasted to try to make it look "old". Also the details are very poor and uneven. The circular details on the reverse are not even and are misshapen. They are also quite mushy. Even a genuine strike with significant wear on it would not look like this. Hopefully that answers your question as to how one could tell it is fake.
  3. Hello and welcome! Being I see this "doubling" effect completely surrounding some letters and numbers, on both sides of the coin, and it is a mushy sloped like doubling, I would have to agree with the other determinations that this is die deterioration doubling. It is not true doubling nor would it be a DDO or DDR.
  4. I agree with @Sandon. I know you can request special labels such as photo labels (think Ben Franklin's face on a Franklin Half Dollar slab or Abe's face on a Lincoln Cent slab) or request to have a pedigree on the label, but signed labels are an entirely different thing. I don't think labels are available "for sale". You can buy slabbed coins with signed labels but as an individual submitter with no provenance to be able to claim a connection to the signature, I don't think you have any other way to get them except to buy them already slabbed. You can post this question in the Ask NGC forum, but I think their response won't be much different than you are hearing here.
  5. The lack of the rim negates that it was from a grease filled die. Even a grease filled die would still have the rim intact. It is possible this was a dryer coin and the obverse was stuck somewhere that it did not sustain any damage. More likely, this seems to be a piece that was artificially created to look like an error, possibly made by someone looking to deceive someone and scam them out of their money. Even capped dies still have a rim on the coin struck with a capped die.
  6. It took me a sec, but then I saw it and I thought the same thing as Mike. Abe has a booger. It sure appears to be a plating bubble although it could possibly also be a small die chip. Either way, neither would be a mint error. Plating bubbles are just a problem that the mint faced in making these copper plated zinc cents. Die chips are considered poor quality control.
  7. Hello and welcome to the forum! Thank you for better secondary pics with closeups. Your quarter has a mildly deep scratch across the reverse. The displaced metal on the sides of the gouge are most easily seen in the field above his hat, and also across the letter D in UNITED, but I do see displaced metal all along the gouge in the coin. A true cracked planchet error (of which I own one on a Mercury Dime) begins at the rim and extends inward, but is evidenced on both sides of the coin as the metal of the planchet is actually cracked. Being this gouge on your quarter is on one side of the coin only, also reaffirms that the planchet is not cracked and the line is simply a gouge, or post mint damage.
  8. Hello and welcome to the forum! Being this is an old thread you just reopened, as for your Morgan @RonR2663, the New Orleans Mint was known for having less than high quality strikes to begin with even on uncirculated examples. The amount of space inside the O was not expansive to being with. Your coin has worn down to what I believe would be a G4 level as the rims themselves which are meant to protect the details of the coin from wear have basically worn flat at the stage your coin is in. It looks to me from the photos you have provided that the excessive wear has basically worn the O mintmark down on your coin to a level that it is blending in with the field of the coin. In my opinion, there is nothing special to note on your coin, just heavy wear.
  9. To me, this is why things of this nature should all be opened and inspected. I would not buy one unopened in the first place as it is my money and I want to see the coins I am buying. Also why I didn't last long playing the "roll" game. Maybe I am alone on this, but I will open any roll or anything sealed as I will be the end of the unopened mystery. Thanks @Sandon for providing a photo of the contents of this particular box. To me it is very insightful.
  10. Grime or gunk or dirt will buildup on the surface of the coin and sit above the surface. Toning, while I don't know how thick it actually is (most likely in microns) is basically even with the surface and also it is important to note that light toning will still show the original surface underneath with proper lighting. Dirt, gunk, buildup will not allow the original surface to show through.
  11. Thank you for the additional pic of the reverse. Although it is blurry it is good enough to see that it is not a split planchet. I do see the U complete with some displaced metal at the top of the U sort of filling it in and making it appear to look like a D. This coin apparently took a good hit as was stated that obliterated the last T in TRUST. There is no error on this coin. It is merely damaged.
  12. Being the mintmark is part of the master die your nickel cannot have an RPM. Mintmarks are no longer added to the dies by hand. Also, I see a step like "doubling" in your photos with no split serifs, nor complete secondary images. Therefore, it is merely strike doubling.
  13. In nearly 500 submissions, I have only had one Mercury Dime changed to a higher tier which I thought was borderline so I went with the lower tier. I think I am doing pretty well on my self grading.
  14. In this case it is not exactly helpful to the OP to show examples of Proofs which are struck entirely different and have a different surface from the OP's business strikes. Being I am trying to put together the full set of all dates and mintmarks minus the Proofs, I am one who is used to looking over the surfaces and get close to the grades as I am requiring the set to be all in minimum MS 64 FBL. I have gotten a few returned as 65 FBL's in my quest and I can tell the difference with those as they have almost no marks across the face and hair of Franklin and the reverses of those are basically free of marks especially on the bell.
  15. If I may interject here, I would take the advice of JKK hands down, but I would also like to add being where you are at in your collecting of these, that I would research what eras and figures you are looking for depicted on the coins and then buying them already certified. It is very difficult to buy these raw and know for sure exactly what you are buying. That takes a significant amount of knowledge to do so buying them already certified would eliminate some of the guess work for you.
  16. As I collect these and I am at about 83% of a complete set of MS 64 FBL's with a smattering of MS 65 FBL's, I'll give you my opinion of your halves. Please note, this is only an opinion based solely upon the quality of your photos and no one can give a full opinion of grade without having the coin in hand and being able to use proper lighting and magnification to see if there are other distracting marks or evidence of cleaning or damage. 1950 - MS 63 1952 D - MS 64 1953 D - MS 62 1954 D - MS 64 It could just be the photos, but from them, what I can see is there is some minor issue on each reverse that would preclude any of them from getting the FBL designation. The top TPG's have tightened the requirements lately on giving out the FBL designation. To get it, both sets of bell lines need to be fully distinct and fully separated all the way across. While all of yours are close, I don't think any of them would actually be awarded the designation.
  17. Hello and welcome to the forum! I also live around the Chicagoland area. If you don't have any luck with CIBC, and you are willing to wait for a little bit, the CSNS coin show is taking place the first weekend of May at the Schaumburg Renaissance Convention Center. There are World Coin dealers there who would probably be willing to take all of them off of your hands. You could also spend some time walking the bourse and might find other things that interest you while you are there. You didn't indicate if you are a collector or just inherited these pennies and are looking to cash out. You could also try two other places in the Chicago area, Kedzie Coins, and the other one more likely to touch foreign currency would be Harlan J. Burke Rare Coins on Clark Street downtown.
  18. Hello and welcome to the forum! The high mag photos actually make it harder for me to check what areas of interest you would want me to see. High mag can make a tiny nick look like the Grand Canyon. From what I do see in your photos concerning doubling or odd lettering, I can see the flow lines in the fields of the metal consistent with very late stage dies. Being that is the case, the "doubling" I see is not even a "stepped" like doubling which would be a strike doubling, but on your coins is a sloped-like mushy doubling consistent with what is called die erosion doubling. This can even account for the distortion on lettering as the dies are worn out past the point of the metal in the strike staying within the recesses of the die, and the metal has enough space to squeeze out of the design elements in the die making letters or numbers appear to have different shapes or sizes. All of this can be explained by dies being used past the point of normal wear, and none of it is considered an error but is viewed as poor quality control. While speaking on that subject, any of the features you are indicating might be on your coins would not be mint errors, but rather varieties. DDO, DDR, RPD, and RPM are not errors, they are varieties.
  19. Hello and welcome to the forum! Without better cropped photos of both sides of the coin (as well as having the coin properly oriented from top to bottom in the photos), I cannot discuss any potential mint errors according to the tag you posted in the opening of your thread, nor can I give a general estimate of its value. If you provide the proper photos, I and others here will better be able to help you.
  20. Hello and welcome! I just looked up this coin on eBay (as a reference only) and see several of them on there going for between $1,150 and $3,500. Seems the price is also grade dependent. According to the Mel Fisher website, Grade 1 coins were salvaged from the innermost part of the chest and therefore have better surfaces and less saltwater damage as well as were select for having a better strike, while Grade 4 are ones with the most amount of saltwater damage. There was a few of them in grade 3 listed on eBay with a price spread from $1,600 to $3,400. I would say the higher priced ones are just looking to make several hundred (or a thousand plus) off the deal while the $1,600 price is a more realistic gavel price. Remember, those who list on sites like that can list the coin for whatever they choose to and it is not indicative of fair market value. If you are trying to stay away from selling on eBay, you can try to go through one of the larger auction houses like Heritage, Stacks and Bowers, or Great Collections. There is also a site called HiBid that is gaining in popularity in the last year. I have no experience with any of those and I only sell on eBay. Regardless of eBay or other highly reputable auction houses, you have to remember that any of them are going to want their cut in fees. Selling to a dealer will also result in money taken off the final price by the dealer as they only buy at a discount in order to be able to resell and make their own profit.
  21. Hello and welcome to the forum! Seeing that you posted only 11 hours ago (I get that this can be an eternity for someone with money burning a hole in their pocket that they just have to spend) your intent to acquire these pieces (at least the 1943 S cent), hopefully you did not yet complete the transaction to purchase these pieces. Most likely anything you are reading on the description of these "ultra rare" coins is false information. The internet is full of a lot of it. May I inquire as to where or whom you intend to purchase these from? Is it online? Is it a guy in a parking lot? Would it be on Temu? I would fully put the brakes on these purchases and you are fortunate to have come to the right place to inquire before you buy.
  22. The coin you posted in the photos is a crudely made counterfeit, most likely one of the many cast replicas we see posted from time to time in the forums. You can see the small raised bumps which is associated with the casting of cheap pot metals. The details of this replica are worse than others with misshapen circular shapes and deformed lettering. The overall details are very mushy and lacking detail which is not due to wear. This is a coin that does not need to be appraised as it has no value.
  23. Coins can tone in many different ways, and also some partially and others wholly. As others have stated, toning is not considered an error, but is a natural process when a metal reacts with its environment. On your cent, you can also see some very small spots of minor corrosion beginning. Unfortunately on these copper-clad zinc cents, once that process begins, it cannot be reversed and will only get worse.
  24. Hello and welcome to the forum! I would have to say your coin is scratched. Strike through errors do not look like that. Just because it says in an eBay listing that it is an error, the onus is on you to do your due diligence and homework before you purchase a coin. This also applies to buying a coin raw in person. If the dealer told you it is a mint error just to unload a scratched coin, once he had your money and you walked out the door with it, in his head, he would be saying "SUCKER!". On eBay, however, there is a ton of damaged coins and circulated coins for sale by sellers claiming such damaged or worn pieces are mint errors and worth premium values. Most of these are scammers who are ready to take your money and then disappear off of the platform. A few of them are people who don't collect and just don't know what they are talking about. I don't know how long you have been collecting coins, but error coins are a niche in the hobby and it takes a large amount of time invested in learning errors which is an advanced area of numismatics. If you choose to not want to invest that kind of time in gaining knowledge of errors to be able to tell what is and what is not an error coin, you should only buy errors already slabbed and certified by one of the big TPG's. Sorry you got "taken" here, but in the future you might want to post a pic of the coin you are interested in here BEFORE you buy it and ask us to provide you with our assessments beforehand so you don't lose money.
  25. We have all ruffled someone's feathers at some point. I agree with @J P M. The end result is a loss on their end. Snow there, and a possibility of severe weather here today. We surely are in spring now. Adult beverages sounds great today!