1652 3-pence AU-55 for sale on Ebay

[JIM F.]

Who wants to join the club to own one of these? Bill Jones and I each own one in PCGS AU-55. I don't know who owns this one, but it could be yours. These don't come along every day.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1652-PCGS-AU55-Pine-Tree-3-Pence-Ex-Ford-/261415723980?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item3cdd9763cc

 

 

[CaptHenway]

Looks like a nice VF-30!

[Treashunt]

nice!

[BillJones]

Unlike the pieces that jimbucks and I own, the centering on this piece is not great. For that reason it worth a few thousand less. Centering and eye appeal are important. Here is my piece for a comparison.

 

[Conder101]

I think it's better than a 30, but it doesn't look like an AU. Also it appears the planchet is severely undersized. Clipped?

[CaptHenway]

I think it's better than a 30, but it doesn't look like an AU. Also it appears the planchet is severely undersized. Clipped?

 

I wondered about that. How's the weight?

 

Bill's sure is nice.

[RWB]

Would be helpful to see the edge of the coin.

[JIM F.]

Unlike the pieces that jimbucks and I own, the centering on this piece is not great. For that reason it worth a few thousand less. Centering and eye appeal are important. Here is my piece for a comparison.

 

And here's mine for comparison.

Mine also has a green bean.

 

 

[CaptHenway]

ALso wonderful!

[RWB]

Excellent coins! (Same variety, too.)

 

"Mine also has a green bean." Is the bean hanging from the pine tree or down in the roots?

[RWB]

PS: I'd rather look at the two photos above, than bid on the off-center ebay coin.

[originalisbest]

Very pretty pieces -- well beyond what I'll ever achieve as a collector, but wonderful specimens to look at!

[Conder101]

I wondered about that. How's the weight?

Unfortunately the TPG's don't often think to put important information like that on the labels. And being in a PCGS slab that doesn't allow the viewing of the edge we can't look at that either. The information might be in the Ford catalog, but I don't have it available.

 

I don't know which Ford sale his Massachusetts silver was in, and the Stacks Bowers website doesn't have a good archive search set up. You have to know which sale it was in and they only go back to Ford part XIX.

[BillJones]

The TPGs often include the weight of the piece on the label. I have heard some dealers say that underweight pieces do not get grades because the assumption is that the piece has been clipped.

 

Clipping was fairly common with these pieces. The worst I have seen was a Pine Tree shilling that had had the entire outer rim removed leaving only the center. Unfortunately off-center strikes encouraged clipping because it made easier to pass them after they had been clipped.

[Conder101]

I have seen some that have the weight on them but I've seen more, especially in the older slabs, that don't have the weight.

 

And I can agree that an off-center piece would have been easier to pass if clipped, which makes it even more important to include the weight.