Buy only the best coin you can understand

[shirohniichan]

I've often read the advice, "Buy the best coin you can afford." This weekend I was reminded of my own advice to only "buy the best coin you can understand."

 

Usually I applied this to MS coins with huge price jumps between one grade and the next. For example, if you can't see the benefit of getting an MS67 to replace your current MS66 (and you know the series fairly well), don't buy it.

 

This time I was at a dealer and looking to get a coin for an album that I already had in a slab. ANACS graded mine MS60, but while I liked the coin I didn't want to exhume it from its plastic tomb. A dealer had one that he wanted retail+ for, and I couldn't see why the coin was so great. He told me mine was *spoon* because it had slide marks (that you can only see at certain angles) but that his was really nice. His didn't have slide marks, but it had hits on the devices and lots of bag marks in the fields.

 

He may have been right by using grading technicalities, but I actually liked mine better because the slide marks are only visible at certain angles while the bag marks on the other coin were visible at all angles.

 

I like coins with nice eye-appeal at regular sight (no magnification). If a coin doesn't have problems and looks nicer than one in a higher grade that requires magnification to make its case, I'll keep it. If it requires a loupe or microscope to make its case as to why it's "better", I'll pass.

 

If you can't see the benefit of an "upgrade", don't buy it.

[texasrichard]

Great post and I agree. Here's an example for me. I would not "upgrade" this coin for most of the low MS examples I've seen. Mine is AU58.

[DirtyGoldMan]

I agree with the premise of your post, but I understand some coins very well that I certainly cannot afford.

 

Don't chase slabs/grades.

[RoySlade-migration]

He told me mine was *spoon* because

 

Okay, ya got me on that one. What's *spoon*

[LuvToCollect]

I know nothing about your coin, I doubt if it was in his case for sale it would have been described as such.

[Zoins]

For some dealers:

 

*spoon*: what you are trying to sell the dealer.

not *spoon*: what the dealer is trying to sell you.

 

Are dealers like this classified as wannabes?

[shirohniichan]

Great post and I agree. Here's an example for me. I would not "upgrade" this coin for most of the low MS examples I've seen. Mine is AU58.

 

That's nice.

 

It probably looks better than many MS63 coins you come across.

[jgrinz]

Great post and I agree. Here's an example for me. I would not "upgrade" this coin for most of the low MS examples I've seen. Mine is AU58.

 

That's nice.

 

It probably looks better than many MS63 coins you come across.

 

All the high points on this coin have wear and Agree with the grade .. But I like it AU or not .. Its quite a looker

[TomB]

I like the premise.

[Amanda]

That's good advice.

 

What's the fun in having a coin if you don't understand it?

 

-Amanda

[midwest]

He told me mine was *spoon* because

 

Okay, ya got me on that one. What's *spoon*

 

*spoon* is what the word censor turns any banned word into.

[Zoins]

This is really good advice. Thanks to Russ ATS, Teletrade just pulled an auction on a PCGS Accented Hair DCAM Kennedy Half which from the opinions expressed is not an accented hair and doesn't look DCAM (or even CAM) in the photos.

[shirohniichan]

That's good advice.

 

What's the fun in having a coin if you don't understand it?

 

-Amanda

 

To clarify this, I mean it is wise to only pay for quality you can see and understand. It doesn't make sense to me to pay for a so-called better grade coin if it takes too much magnification or a re-education to see that it is a better grade.

 

It's similar to the emperor with no clothes. A dealer claims to have special knowledge that goes against the common sense of the collector, just as the tailor said only enlightened people could see the supposed clothes. Perhaps the dealer feels that if he pushes hard enough, the collector will fall for it and claim to see the superiority of the coin offered.

[bsshog40]

I'm always trying to find something better than what I have but it's usually higher than I can pay!

 

Good advice!!!

[MikeKing]

...

He may have been right by using grading technicalities, but I actually liked mine better because the slide marks are only visible at certain angles while the bag marks on the other coin were visible at all angles. ...

 

And this kind of reasoning is, in my mind, the quintessence of the making of a real numismatist and advanced collector...as opposed to those who use encapsulated grading as the fools road to eye appeal.