Coin Collecting News
The art of artificial toning is not in the alchemy but in the ability to identify natural vs. chemical patina. Some tones happen naturally because coins are stored in various types of cloth or cardboard holders containing sulfur or other compounds and materials that interact over time with copper, nickel and silver. However, because toned [...]
The Free Dictionary online defines “sleaze” as a condition of low quality or dirty appearance. Other meanings have to do with dishonesty and ethics. Let’s focus on “low quality” as a condition of a coin. Let’s discuss ethics, too, and dispense with dishonesty as that is a state of mind, which cannot be easily proved [...]
When you purchase gold coins online, you have to be especially vigilant, because even good photography cannot capture such fake details as: 1. Sunken letters or dates. These are mottoes or numbers that look as if someone deflated what should be a crisp, normal-looking font. 2. Tool marks. These are tiny, altered or raised surfaces [...]
A Dremel® is a wonderful rotary tool that serves as a drill, router, sander and even engraver. In the right hands, doing home repair, a Dremel can be indispensable. Put that tool in the hands of a “coin doctor,” and you’ve created a numismatic version of Dr. Frankenstein. Reading about coin doctoring on popular Internet [...]
Recently readers of Coingrader Capsule have asked me to report on crossovers to PCGS, and the fact is, I’ve had some success. As explained in a previous post, “Crossover, -under, and -out,” a crossover means a coin by one grading company successfully made the same grade by another company (i.e. an MS65 Morgan in a [...]
If you’ve been a regular reader of Coingrader Capsule, you know we have several series running now, including a new one on coin doctoring in addition to the highly popular “Crossover, -under and -out” series on submitting coins graded by one company to another company, to test standards. In the weeks ahead we will discuss [...]
One of the most discouraging submissions this year was returned from NGC, a sampling of Franklin half dollars graded by reliable companies (ANACS, ICG, PCI) that looked good online and even more so in my palm. I sent them as crossovers to NGC, which refused to grade an ANACS 1959-D (hairlines) and a PCI 1961-D [...]
Recently on Proxibid I won two pricey coins from my favorite online auctioneers that alarmed me when I received and beheld them up close. A “gem” Morgan dollar turned out to be “thumbed,” explained in a previous post on Coin Update News. A 1900 Morgan Dollar marked MS66 “flawless” on the flip turned out to [...]
Previous posts in the “Crossover, -under and -out” series have focused critically at times on third-party grading companies, such as PCGS and NGC, with a column or two suspecting that coin doctors have some graders running scared, putting non-grade labels on otherwise gradable coins. The fact is, those grading companies not only are dealing with [...]
Can you translate this sentence? “My grading company labeled a mint state coin as a slider because sliders in my album left slide marks on the obverse.” Translation: “My grading company labeled a mint state coin as almost uncirculated because acetate sheets in my album caused hairline streaks on the obverse.” Whew. I don’t know [...]
