Guess grade on this 1652 Mass

[JIM F.]

Don't cheat.

 

It's in an older PCGS (non-rattler) holder and problem free.

 

[coinman_23885]

If the lighter high points are due to wear (like I think they are), I'd guess AU55.

[physics-fan3.14]

I would grade that AU-50, and love the look of it. Some Massachusetts silver (shilling) is on my want list.

[James_OldeTowne]

TPGs are horrible at grading these. They are notoriously always overgraded by old-time traditional standards.

 

It looks top-end very-fine to me, borderline extremely-fine, but a slabbed grade of AU-something wouldn't surprise me at all.

[relicsncoins]

I graded EC.....Extremely Cool, and someday I will own a piece of tree silver....Just have to get these pesky kids through college first.

[BillJones]

It looks like an EF to me. The trouble is, back in the old days, the graders at PCGS had no idea how to grade colonial coins, especially Mass. silver. So the grade could be about anything.

 

The trouble is these coins don't have a lot of fine detail so grading them from a picture is really hard. You have to look at the surfaces IN PERSON.

 

If you have ever decide to sell, please contact me. The three pence is the last piece I need to complete a type set I'd like assemble. I made a mistake and turned down one in VF-35 I should have bought. Later the same dealer had one in an AU-55 holder for a lot more money that I didn't like as well. The AU had been dipped or cleaned.

 

With these coins, unless you are obsessed with mint luster, you get as much or more detail on a well struck Choice VF as you do on an AU.

 

This six pense in AU-55 sings and dances so far as I'm concerned. This variety is always off-center on the obverse. It comes with the territory.

 

[JIM F.]

BTW, my coin is PCGS AU-55. Looks much better in hand. The pics posted, I found from when it was auctioned in 2002. The thing about these coins is that each one often has unique features so older archived pictures can help establish a providence.

 

Thanks for all opinions.

 

 

[James_OldeTowne]

BTW, my coin is PCGS AU-55.

Yep, as I expected. With all due respect to our host, the TPGs REALLY junked up old-time grading standards for these kinds of coins, and it's too bad. It's utterly absurd they way they try to apply surgical grades, like VF-25, or AU-53, to such crudely made coins. They are not slabs of meat! or Morgan dollars!

 

I will never put a slabbed colonial into my collection, period.

[physics-fan3.14]

James, the same holds true for pretty much any hammered or other early coin that they put a grade on like that - I buy them in holders for uniformity and protection, but the grade is usually laughable. So I ignore it.

[JIM F.]

It looks like an EF to me. The trouble is, back in the old days, the graders at PCGS had no idea how to grade colonial coins, especially Mass. silver. So the grade could be about anything.

 

The trouble is these coins don't have a lot of fine detail so grading them from a picture is really hard. You have to look at the surfaces IN PERSON.

 

If you have ever decide to sell, please contact me. The three pence is the last piece I need to complete a type set I'd like assemble. I made a mistake and turned down one in VF-35 I should have bought. Later the same dealer had one in an AU-55 holder for a lot more money that I didn't like as well. The AU had been dipped or cleaned.

 

With these coins, unless you are obsessed with mint luster, you get as much or more detail on a well struck Choice VF as you do on an AU.

 

This six pense in AU-55 sings and dances so far as I'm concerned. This variety is always off-center on the obverse. It comes with the territory.

 

 

Excellent looking coin.