Grade please

[STP-migration]

I bought this and I would like your opinions please :

 

5 Lei 1901, 25g, 0.9 silver, 82 500minted.

 

The edge is a little damaged as you can see but besides that in my opinion the coin is almost flawless, the details are awesome and it has a great luster. Im thinking about sending it for grading, depending on what you think :

 

 

[L1ncolnF4n]

Looks polished by those photos, but that might just be the lighting and camera angle. Details look about AU-55 or so.

[STP-migration]

Thx. I don't think its polished, no sign of this when holding the coin.

The camera is bad though.

 

 

 

I wonder though,,if this was an American coin..what would've been the price

[TJ'S Coins]

Could you get us a better close up of the coin?

 

This is a case when another picture with the whole coin visible at one time would be helpful to give an overall grade. From what I see, an AU 58 - MS 62 is possible.

 

[STP-migration]

I'm sorry, I couldnt understand exactly what you said, what kind of photo u need me to upload.

 

AU55+ would be great, to catch MS would be perfect so any opinion is welcome.

 

 

[physics-fan3.14]

What TJ is asking for is a smaller pic of the coin, so we can see the whole thing without having to scroll back and forth.

 

Several comments:

1. I agree with an AU grade for this coin, with the caveat of:

 

2. I also agree that this coin appears to have been cleaned. The surfaces look unnatural and shiny - consistent with a harsh abrasive having been used such as baking soda. An original coin should have some sort of luster in that grade, or flowlines, or something. The look of this coin is unnatural. Further evidence of cleaning is the irregular buildup around some letters, and in the beaded border on both sides.

 

3. The damage on the reverse appears to be a mintmade lamination error. This often decreases the value of the coin, but can be a cool error to certain collectors.

[STP-migration]

Ok, thx for the opinion.

Here are some smaller photos :

 

 

 

And these 2 are from eBay, from the person I bought it :

 

[RI AL]

Very nice coin, but I am going to have to agree with the cleaned/polished opinion.

[STP-migration]

Not good news..

I asked before purchasing it and nobody said anything about being polished. Im not acusing but ..Im a bit dissapointed right now about the coin.

Grading is out of the question I suppose.

[RI AL]

STP,

Don't be too hard on yourself. We have ALL been there...some more than others. (ME!!). About a year ago, I went through a flurry of buying seated half dollars, one of each type in decent grades to fill that gap in my type set. Submitted several and they all came back as cleaned. They didn't "look" cleaned", nice natural looking surface...the whole deal...but when I went back and read the ad, the dealer very carefully avoided stating anything about them being cleaned. One phrase if I remember that he used was, "nice, natural looking surfaces". Well, I fell for it. Not a major investment, and I made the dealer well aware of my disappointment but it was way past the 10 day (or was it 7) return period so I was out of luck. Needless to say, I'm off his mailing list.

 

I bet if you asked everyone on the board if they had a similar experience with a coin that looked nice but had been cleaned in a previous life, the percentage of those that responded woul be really high. It's part of the learning game. As many far wiser and more experienced that I have said, chalk it up as a learning experience. I bet you will be more careful from now on and will actually benefit in the long run from this unfortunate experience.

 

Cheer up and stick to reputable dealers and maybe certified stuff.

 

RI AL

[STP-migration]

Thx RI AL ! I'm sure that almost everybody got through this. A lesson learned.