• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Fremont coin show

Started by SkyMan,

10 posts in this topic

SkyMan

SkyMan

Posted
Posted

I went yesterday planning to meet Sanction II from ATS. He also is into cameos, and lives in the Bay Area, so it's always nice to hook up with another junkie in the general vicinity. It was kind of amusing in that I sent him a pm with an image of myself, and asked him to send me one of himself. He said he didn't have one but that I'd recognize him by being 6'6". Sure enough, he kinda' stands out. 893scratchchin-thumb.gif He had a bunch of really nice raw cameos of the 1950-70 era, including full sets, of at least 1950-64, of Lincolns, Jeffersons and Franklins (obviously only to 1963 for the Frankies), and all the SMS coins. In particular I really liked his Franklin set and his SMS set. To find them out of raw sets in todays era is a VERY tough job and he found some really nice ones.

 

Wandering around the bourse there wasn't much that was particularly interesting to me. Wei had a nice NGC MS63* 1884-CC reverse toner, and a really pretty 1939(?) Mercury proof toner, but they were out of my range for an impulse buy. There was a 1951-S Franklin in NGC MS65 that had some quite nice toning, but the dealer wanted too much for it.

 

Back in the late 1980's early 1990's I built a complete set of Peace dollars in (rattler) PCGS MS64/65. Many of them would have upgraded a point by today's standards. I sold the set in the mid 1990's, but have always liked the Peace dollar design. When a show is a total bust I'll stop by a couple of dealers tables and see what sort of raw Peace dollars they've got, generally purchasing them in the AU58 to MS63 range. I am not a VAM kind of guy, I just like the design... they are big hunks of silver, and you can always walk away from a show with a pretty generic piece or two for dirt cheap.

 

I stopped at John McIntosh's table and found several Peace dollars that caught my eye. I ended up buying two, a 1934-D in ~MS62 that had some doubling on the obverse face. Last night several board members from ATS were kind enough to help me find the vamworld.com site and attribute the piece for me. It turned out to be a VAM-3 medium-D DDO. The doubling looks really cool. The second Peace dollar I got was a ~MS62 1921 with booming luster and the BEST frigging strike I've seen in a Looooooong time... full hair on the obverse and full feathers where the legs attach to the body on the reverse. It had a noticeable scratch on the cheek/jaw though so it would not grade better than a 62. Still, with the luster and the strike it was a definite keeper.

 

I looked at the 2 coins when I got home and noticed something on the 1921 in the light that I had not noticed at the show. You know how the eagles on Peace dollars will often have a "halo" around them caused by the metal movement? Hidden in it directly ABOVE the eagle's back was some very well done toolwork. P#SSED me off. The coin was a no brainer unc coin with a great strike... even if there was a h#llacious ding on the reverse at most it would have dropped the coin to a 60, and due to the ding on the cheek/jaw it would never go higher than a 62. So some chowderhead (although I will grant you a quite talented chowderhead), has screwed up one of the rare 1921's with a REALLY good strike for at most $20 or so. Given the amount of time tooling like that must take, I can't believe it was worth his time.

 

I talked to John MacIntosh about it this morning on the phone and he was willing to give me a full refund no questions asked. I'd like to publicly thank him for doing so. There are enough times that we all complain about bad dealers. I think it is important we talk about good dealers too when they stand behind their product. Truth be told, I'm not sure if I'll return the 1921 or not because it does have a VERY nice strike for the date, and the luster is really sweet too, ah well, have to figure that out by the Santa Clara show.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
SkyMan

SkyMan

Posted
  • Author
Posted

It does, only a touch less detail in the hair, and a touch more detail on the eagle's legs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bruceswar

Bruceswar

Posted
Posted
They only made High reliefs in 1921

 

You should say that all 1921's are high relief. There are a few 1922 high reliefs known.

 

This is true, but these are very rare!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
SkyMan

SkyMan

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Actually, it's kind of one of those things that when you know what you're looking for it is not that difficult to see. Believe you me though, I went back and checked the areas that would normally be soft in a strike to see if they were worked, and they were not.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Go to topic listing