1892 Columbian Expo - Lovely Tone - Overgraded

[James_OldeTowne]

I am going to sound crazy, but that image makes it look like AU-55 to me.

 

If THAT COIN ends up in an AU-55 holder, I'm a buyer all day long. The rub does not matter. If you could buy a million coins like that for AU-55 money in a single year, your income for that year would be set.

 

Well, mostly set.

 

You get into "market issues" when you grade a coin like that in AU-55. It will sell pretty fast.

 

I agree ... How about PCGS MS65 ?

Well.... ahem shows how lousy of a grader I am from images like that....

[RGT]

I have to agree with TomB that grading from these small images is next to impossible. Using the images in the original post I couldn't guess within five points.

 

As an excercise, please grade these two Columbians of mine. I have made the images about the same size as Richard's MS65 and a good bit bigger than the ones in the original post.

 

I guess you could say these two coins are as different as night and day.

 

[texasrichard]

To me either one would do...

 

I do like the "look" of the second one although I'm pretty sure the top one has a better strike and higher grade.

 

If you made me guess I'd say....

 

Top MS67

Bottom MS65

[jgrinz]

65

64

 

Your Reg set 64 is quite nice too

 

[RGT]

The two I posted above are both ANACS coins, which is why I had to buy a third to get one for my registry. I have never crossed a coin just to put it in my registry but I don't mind taking the opportunity to buy another nice coin for the registry.

 

It looks like no one else wants to play along and guess grades from my pictures so I will tell what ANACS graded them. Both are graded MS64. I bought them both in the old small holders but (now I think mistakenly) had them reholdered a couple of years ago to the new clear holders. At the time ANACS was actually regrading coins sent in for reholder and I thought both of these had a shot at upgrade. They both have ticks on the devices that you can't really see in these smaller pictures that would show up in the larger ones. But I don't think they are any more marked up that what I see in the pictures of Richard's coin. I may feel differently if I had them all in hand for a comparison.

 

The dark tone on the first one makes seeing the marks more difficult while the marks on the bright one show up maybe even a bit more in the larger pictures than they do in hand. Pictures this size make it difficult to see small ticks and chatter that can certainly affect the grade. I've noticed this most on Peace Dollars. Often I will see a coin image that makes the coin look like it has a very smooth cheek and fields only to click to the larger image and see excessive chatter that makes me wonder at the grade.

 

Was there a larger picture posted earlier in the original post? I can't understand how anyone assigned a grade based on the picture that's there now or how Mark Feld defended the grade of MS65 so readily.

[jgrinz]

Darn I was going to say 64 for both too after I saw the scratch on the back of the Neck on the first. I do know these pretty well and the FIRST picture in the post is the only one I had.

 

BECAUSE of that picture I passed on the coin and did not purchase it. I am still standing by my initial assessment of it though. Details are details and even with that picture it is obvious at least to me that it was overgraded. Of course it is MY assesment which USUALLY differs from others

 

RGT - Nice coins I like them a lot - the second more than the first