Thompson2

If it's raised, it's probably a die scratch. I'm no expert, but a planchet (raw material) scratch would get smushed out of existence in the stamping process.

Yup. Hearing the same question over... and over... and over... etc, can wear on you... until you realize that it only means that there are a LOT more new people who may take an interest in this...

I found only references to gold-finished versions of these... did I miss an aluminum / silvery alloy somewhere?

I'm so proud of you Kurt! (really)

I hate to break it to you... you're already there...

It's not just his monitor. It looks like oxidized aluminum to me... and considering that I'm pretty sure that's supposed to have a gold finish to it, I think the value is exactly $1. Unless it's a fake.... which would be weird for a coin like that.

So first, I'm gonna go do a happy dance where no one can see me.. Second, most of the people coming here to ask questions have been started down the garden path by some fast talking nimrod on youtube or some other internet forum, so there should be no ire directed at them here, pretty much no matter how vehemently they insist that the road rash penny they've got is worth a fortune. It's pretty easy to derail that train of though by simply suggesting they have it graded by one of the big three. Should they refuse that, it's likely they don't fully believe what they've got is, in fact, what they are purporting it to be and will balk at being called out on it. It's the people who are feeding incorrect information to those asking the questions who are the problem. And on this site I've not seen anyone doing that who wasn't immediately corrected by 3 or 4 other contributors. I'm pretty sure that 99.99% of the people here agree that misinformation about collecting and falsely inflating the value of certain attributes needs to be stomped out... quickly. But I think you'd find a similar number who find no issue with collecting errors / flaws / defects if the collector realizes that there are only a tiny percentage of those are truly valuable. I don't think that the people who are looking for the smallest errors are thinking that it's going to turn a $5 coin into a $5000 coin. They're in it for the hunt and, again, the fun. I appreciate your zeal for the hobby, but I think (at least most of the time) your frustration is misdirected here. And, for the record, I've enjoyed this conversation. It had the potential to turn really petty and ugly. I appreciate having an open, intelligent conversation about something we disagree on (pretty sure THAT's part of the Socratic method. )

Maybe they only care that it's fun. As your award also says, it's a HOBBY. Some people get WAY more into a hobby than others. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with dabbling either. Whatever brings the FUN to the HOBBY. I think losing the fun and taking it all so seriously is sad... with all things we used to enjoy, not just this. And yes, there are those who only want to get into it a path to low effort, high reward riches. Nothing to be done for that. You'll never convince them otherwise. If they press that path, you can point out the frivolity of it, but it'll likely be fruitless if that's the only reason they're here. But a lot of the people who pop in here with the one-off coins aren't THOSE people. They simply found something of interest and are wondering if they got lucky. Nothing more. I recognize that there are (loud, obnoxious, insanely annoying) trolls who are trying to convince you that they're trying to get rich.. .but they're only trying to annoy you. Mostly, I think, you'll find the people who come here fresh are genuine and should be treated as though they are... should they show other colors, feel free to bash...

Yup. I was correct. I think that how you present yourself here runs 100% contrary to "your passion for sharing the FUN of the numismatic hobby with clubs, COLLECTORS and the NON-COLLECTING general public of all ages" FUN should be a part of this... it says it RIGHT THERE. So if it's fun for someone to collect things that aren't "mainstream", who cares? I still don't see why you think it's so horrible... My grandmother collected pressed flowers... made her happy. Worth anything? Nope. Of interest to anyone else? Not really. Hurting anyone? Nope.

I assumed that was the case, which was why I offered multiple alternatives.

I'm perplexed as to why you would feel bad about that. A box of errors that will likely languish in perpetuity doesn't bother me in the slightest. It's not something that have or ever had a chance to own (unlike the bag of wheats my MIL cashed in at the bank) I think it'd be interesting to go through. You come across as disingenuous when you say you'd like to find a home where it can be loved. If you did, it'd already be gone. You have basically nothing into it, so any method you chose to move it along would turn a profit for you or bring some joy to someone. --> And the fact that you kept it and didn't just move it along says to me that you see there is value in it, whether you like that "out of phase" portion of the community or not. If you're looking for a way to get it out of your way, you could very easily throw it up on eBay. People go nuts for "unsearched" lots of pennies. The fact that they're errors would only add to the mystery. I think you'd do well. If that's not an option, you could post it here for some fairly ridiculous amount and take the highest best offer. You could start a thread and have people guess a number. Send it to the person who guesses closest to what you're thinking. Raffle them off at one of the conferences. There's a million ways... And again - the fact that you kept it and didn't just move it along says to me that you see there is value in it, whether you like that "out of phase" portion of the community or not.

And good for you. I've worked around both kinds of people and there are advantages and short comings to both. I'm curious what the criteria for "point of light:" is. Seems like your work here might be contrary to that... And I have no doubt you work hard at the conventions... full of like minded people... who already agree with your position. And the small portion of people "out of phase" are 1) not harming the hobby and are 2) possibly the "next phase". Things change and evolve all the time. I really don't see the advantage of mindfully excluding a portion of the community.

When it's lower and squared off like that, it's typically mechanical doubling. Adds character, but not value.

For someone with knowledge and a good eye, that's a great option. For someone starting out, not so much. It's great that you've got all of those years of experience. Hopefully you can share some of what you've learned over the years. And no, it's not a coincidence. Information and misinformation spread much faster in this world. As such, it's your duty when you're on a beginner's forum like this, to spread the correct information. I'd bet that if you worked on your delivery you'd find that explaining to people why you prefer the higher grade coins instead of *spooning* all over their interest, you'd have better luck. There's nothing wrong with people wanting to collect error coins. I personally like things that are "different", so they appeal to me (not enough to convince me to go roll hunting though). As far as people hoping their road-rashed coin is some sort of super valuable variety - that's an education thing. There are trolls (as you've found) who will insist every mangled coin is worth a fortune, but mostly it's people hoping it's their lucky day. There's no reason to be rude. If you'd spent time on any forum covering any topic, there are always people on both ends of the spectrum. In the better communities, those on your end of the spectrum take the opportunity to nurture the hobby. In the worst, as soon as a person show up with a "dumb" question, they immediately get pounced on and never return. Seems like you'd want the hobby to continue even after you're gone, so I'd challenge you to think about how you present your opinions to people who have genuine interest. Not everyone will want to deep-dive into the hobby the first time they find something cool, so please don't expect that they will do read a ton of books or do a bunch of research before posting a question here. And no one - not even you - burst into the world as an numismatic encyclopedia and many people (including myself) learn by interacting with people first.

Pretty sure that happened about 30 fuzzy pictures ago.

Yup. It's worth $0.25. That's just discoloration from being out in the world. For future reference, pictures of the front ad back are appreciated when asking about a coin. In this case, maybe not so critical but ya never know. Cheers!

They're all copper alloy before 1982 (1943 zinc coated steel is the exception). 1982 was a transition year so they could be copper or copper plated zinc. 1983 and later, they're all copper plated zinc.

That's what I was afraid of... The point of slabbing these was to avoid as much ambiguity over their value as possible. Looks like it'd make more sense in this case to move them along. Yeah, slabbing coins that don't pull in much above melt makes no sense under all but a few circumstances. For most anything that can bring a premium, it makes sense for what I'm trying to do. It's good to have a nice shop you can use as a resource if you're collecting. Buying / selling online doesn't really apply here since these weren't purchased. Yes I did. But assuming that just because someone is just starting out in a hobby doesn't mean they are decades your junior. And even if they are, condescension is still unappreciated and pretty much universally unnecessary.

There's one that is a key date and that's the one I'm most concerned with (1879 Rev of 78). The others I sent in mostly so they could fetch more than melt in the future. Wow. Had you left out the Lion King reference, you'd have been okay... Assuming that the person you're addressing is some "young cub" and implying that you're the wise and knowing adviser makes you sound like a condescending *spoon*. I realize now that my initial statement led people to believe that I might be starting into collecting, but that is not the case. You advice here is solid for the budding numismatist and well presented. I sent these in to be graded so that, should my wife have to liquidate these without my assistance, she wouldn't get screwed by some shady coin shop offering her melt for a key date Morgan. Since they came back as Details, I need an alternate way to valuate them. Any guidance in that direction would be greatly appreciated.

So my first foray into grading was almost a complete bust. The high hopes I had for my Morgans were dashed with one simple word - Cleaned... Now that they're tagged this way, how do I figure out a rough value for them? It was supposed to be easy, just in case someone else had to sell them (which is why I had them graded in the first place). With straight MS grades, it's easy to get a ballpark value, but I can't (probably for good reason) find anything similar for UNC Details. It's even tough trying to use ePay as a resource. Any pointers?

You should absolutely send those in for grading. I can't wait to see how they grade.

What are we looking at? And can you get some better pics? Those are pretty far out of focus.

Well, I had a bit better luck with the pennies than the silver dollars I sent it. The 1911 S came back as an XF45BN, well above where I would have put it. All of the Morgans I sent in came back Cleaned...

I had pretty much zero luck with any of the silver dollars I submitted... this one also came back as UNC Details / Cleaned (as did the rest of the Morgans I submitted - 1879/Rev 78, 1882, 1882S). To say I'm bummed would be an understatement... And what's up with the holdered pics on NGC? They look like *spoon* compared to what the coin actually looks like. Seems like they should more closely match in-hand... https://www.ngccoin.com/certlookup/4740268-001/60/ https://www.ngccoin.com/certlookup/4740268-002/60/ https://www.ngccoin.com/certlookup/4740268-003/60/

Well, the results are in... more than a little disappointing... The 1928 came in as MS62 which was pretty much in line with what I was expecting (https://www.ngccoin.com/certlookup/4740263-002/62/) The 1879 came in as Cleaned Obverse / UNC Details... wah wah waaaaahhhhh.... . The holdered pics look awful, which is weird because the unholdered pics they sent me looked really good... https://www.ngccoin.com/certlookup/4740263-001/60/, versus So how do I go about figuring value on this one now? Looks like maybe $200 instead of $900?