Back in the good ‘ole dayz…..

[RWB]

Once upon a time – coin dealers and auction companies often guaranteed the authenticity and other factors relating to each coin they sold. Not all did, of course. Some, such as Max Mehl, were notorious for laxity in mentioning harsh cleaning, certain defects, or routinely inflated their interpretation of “grade.” But, when you bought a coin from Stack’s, BG Johnson, Tom Elder or other auctions, they guaranteed most coins themselves.

 

After the advent of independent authentication and grading companies, the responsibility seemed to blur. Now, at least by posts on message boards and some personal experience, the sellers seem to point to the authentication company as the guarantor.

 

Is this a valid assumption? What have you observed? Where does responsibility for authenticity (and grade, maybe) belong?

 

[cpm9ball]

Roger, maybe you should step away from your computer, walk down the hall to the bathroom and look in the mirror. There would probably be fewer disreputable sellers if more collectors knew what they were doing. I'm not suggesting that I do, but if I don't know what I'm getting into, I don't play.

 

Chris

 

 

[Nutmeg Coin]

I ran into an elderly long-term collector, "Matt", the other day at Stew Leonard's, and we sat down and he shared his experiences over the years with ethical dealers and I shared some of my current coins and currency with him. Probably some of the others around eating their meals found us somewhat obnoxious, it goes with the territory.

 

At any rate, he spoke about coins he bought from Stacks or Bowers, one came back "questionable surfaces" after grading started. It had been years since he bought the coin from them. But he calls them up, he had the original invoice. They said it had been years; he said he was a big boy and could roll with the punches. No threats or anything, but they say just send it back in and they will send out a suitable replacement. It graded MS65! He gave a number examples like that and seemed like the elephant that never forgot a good deed done or a rip off.

[Conder101]

The major auction houses still contain in their terms of sale a statement that all coins are guaranteed to be genuine. It is about the only reason that coins can be returned.

 

Of course they also have a clause that states the coins that have been certified by a TPG are not returnable for any reason, which would seem to dump the authenticity guarantee off of them and onto the TPG. I would guess they still guarantee the raw coins, but since almost all coins sold now through the major houses are slabbed that isn't much of a guarantee.

[BillJones]

I was not around when some of the dealers RWB mentioned were in business, but I'll relate this story about Q. David Bowers when he was "Bowers & Mernena."

 

I bought a raw 1798 dime from a dealer. The piece had a sharpness grade of Fine-VF. I sold the piece to a customer who sent it to "the old" ANACS for certification. ANACS bounced back as a counterfeit. I refunded the customer's money and took it back to the dealer from whom I had bought it. He called Bowers & Merena from whom he had bought the piece at auction a few months before. Bowers & Mernena who promptly refunded the auction purchase price to him, and probably "ate" the loss. So far as I'm concerned B&M was a class act all the way.

 

As for the coin, it fooled whoever reviewed it at B&M, the dealer who sold it to me, and me. It was a darn good counterfeit. I only saw the problem, which was some miniscule waviness in the fields after I really looked at it with a strong glass. It was not something the one would have seen immediately. The dealer from whom I purchased it still thought it was genuine.