The Power of Gold? by Electric Peak Collection

[CSJournals-migration]

CAC Gold, that is... and other colors

 

Because the Liberty Seated Half Dimes I still need for my main set are not frequently available, I have started collecting interesting varieties. One that is visually obvious is the 1844 with repunched date. In the earliest die states, multiple extra impressions of the 1, 8, and first 4 are apparent.

 

It is not clear how many reverse dies were paired with the obverse die in question. Nevertheless, repunched date examples for 1844 are more common than normal date examples. Despite that reality, the market has priced them a little bit higher than their normal date counterparts.

 

Heritage has sold four of the repunched date in certified grades of MS63 and higher so far in 2016: One in 63, three in 64. The 63 sports a gold CAC sticker and one of the 64s has a green one. Guess which coin realized the highest price...

 

MS63 NGC CAC gold $2585.00 colorful toning

MS64 PCGS CAC $1116.25 light toning

MS64 PCGS $ 493.50 dark toning

MS64 NGC $ 399.50 and $470 (sold twice) dark toning

 

At first look, the MS63 certainly is prettier than the others. It is colorfully toned, more attractively on the obverse than reverse. Based only on the photos, my guess is that it has the best luster of the bunch. But it also appears to have suffered more from contact than the others, though the toning does tend to conceal that from casual view. And it is a later die state, with only a single extra punching of the middle two digits apparent in the photo, while the other three are clearly from earlier die states. The earlier the better, in my book, when it comes to this type of variety.

 

I actually wanted to get the 63. But the bidding left me in the dust. The NGC and PCGS price guides (for normal date, they are incomplete for the RPD) put a 63 at roughly $450, a 64 at around $700, and a 65 at $1300-ish - prices not far from reality. A gold sticker is supposed to mean that CAC thinks the coin is under-graded, and would sticker it at a higher (unspecified) grade. (Please correct me if I am wrong about that.) I stopped bidding at a what I would call a strong 64 price.

 

So is an MS63 with a Gold CAC sticker worth MS66 money? I judged it to be a nice 64 at best. But opinions differ, as the buyer and under-bidder demonstrated. Perhaps I would have thought more highly of it had I gotten to examine it closely. Even so, 26 Benjamins seems like too much. I attribute the result to the desire for the gold CAC sticker and maybe the colorful toning (see the Heritage photo below). What do you think?

 

Alan

 

See more journals by Electric Peak Collection

[Kaiser14]

A gold CAC 63 is not worth 66 money. But, with low cost coins, prices can go anywhere in the auctions. A couple of bidders may just love the color, some can't resist gold stickers, etc. and the bidding goes beyond all rational boundaries. Put a gold stickered coin on the block that's $25,000 in 63 and $250,000 in 66, however, and the toning and sticker schmoes don't have the stones they have when the spread is $400/$1,000 and prices stay more in line with reality.

[JTO]

Alan,

 

I am old enough to remember brilliant is best. BU was the grade of choice and dealers (some, or most) had various ways of making a coin "BLAST WHITE"...LIKE NEW... and so on. As, it often does the pendulum has swung in the other direction. "COLOR" is the new selling point. and I am sure that most of the coins that are slabbed with "amazing colors" are "all natural" but some are not. When a particularly attractive coin, based on toning, comes to auction it may sell at greysheet or several multiples of the red book price. It depends on how many color enthusiasts are bidding. If there are two or more, hold on, as the coin may go for 3, 5 or 10 times market value.

 

Then there are the problem coins..."improperly cleaned". These may sell for less than half of greysheet even when there are no hairlines or signs of abrasive cleaning.

 

Call the doctor. Wouldn't it be great to be able to buy a coin for 50c on the dollar and sell it for 5 times market value. It would and I am afraid it is. Remember, beautiful color or toning is oxidation or tarnish. Those beautiful rainbow colors appear when a coins toning is between blast white and black (in the case of silver coins). So that coin with beautiful color now may be brown or black in 100 years, or 10 years or 1 year or 6 months. It depends on: the coins, the environment (what was left on the coin prior to closing and sealing the holder), how it came to be colored (naturally over decades or centuries or if it became colorized almost overnight, shall we say). NGC and PCGS do a pretty good job of figuring this out but they are no where near 100% on calling artificial toning. My experience is that NGC is more conservative than PCGS.

 

Look at the holder, if the coin has been in the holder for 10 years the process is most likely stable and you should have your colors to enjoy for years. If it is a brand new holder I am more cautious. "Water" spots always make me pause, but there are whole books written about this with insights than I do not have.

 

I think you made the right call. Here is a favorite from my collection.

 

John

[Electric Peak]

Hey John, that's a pretty sweet quarter!

 

Yeah, when I was younger, "white" was what I wanted. But how many white Liberty Seated coins are there that have *never* been cleaned? I think we're stuck for the most part with toned (tarnished, oxidized, ...) or cleaned, or both. My preference would be "untoned and never cleaned", but I'll take attractive toning over obvious cleaning. I'd rather have something attractive that is all of the original coin (though some of it having undergone chemical reaction) rather than a coin that's had some of its original surface actually removed.

 

That's why my large cents are mostly brown, too. Not only are "red" cents several times as expensive, but they are frequently ugly in my view (spots, fingerprints, etc.). And they eventually will turn brown, though not necessarily soon.

 

Other than some mass-produced modern issues, no coins are perfect. One compromise or another is always required...

 

Alan

[Lucky One]

First, I never asked anyone in authority or even looked at their web site so I don't know for sure, but I think a green sticker means a nice above average example for the issue and a gold sticker means superior for the grade. There is so much rumor in this hobby that I wouldn't trust anything said, nor even the grades on the slabs- think about it, if the coin was overgraded, would the average collector even know? And that brings me to my main point- because the buyer likely put all faith in that little sticker, actually at least two potential buyers since it was an auction, we must assume that they were willing to bet that much more money that it would grade higher. I've seen crazier things at auction (once at an equipment auction, a fifteen year used piece of machinery that I thought I'd pick up cheap sold for more than the price of a brand new one with full warranty) so we may never know what motivated these individuals to beat each other up bidding to the death. (the buyer lost imho, but deep pockets feel little pain)

 

ps- the toning doesn't translate well in photos so I'm betting the top bidders had it in their hand before the sale and it had super eye appeal. I see a lot of common Morgans with monster toning sell for five hundred dollars even in MS63 slabs so perfect toning is very valuable to some. I was a gem prooflike FSB merc collector in the 1970's and was willing to pay the moon for the perfect fully struck pieces without batting an eyelash simply because I knew just how rare they were. Having also collected gem half dimes and dimes for several years, I remember how beautiful the toning and luster could be on these!