Sending Coins In To Be Identified/Graded

[The Rebel]

Hi All.

I was thinking about sending some of my colonials to be identified/graded.

Whats a good source & what have your experiences been? What is the cost as well?

I'd like to do this but I am a bit concerned about them getting lost/stolen.

I'd prefer to be able to have it done in my presense, like having a diamond ring appraised. If the guy takes it into the back without me there I'd be suspicious that they'd be taking the diamond out & replacing it with a CZ.

Thanks In Advance,
Roger

[JamieG.]

I have collected coins from dealers for a number of years and have asked the same with some of my coins. Talk to a dealer first and see what they think about the value now and after grading. I have been told that in less the coin is really rare that with the cost of cleaning and grading may be more than the coin would be worth in say a 5-10 year period of time. But you never know ..Good luck

[Iron Patch]

If these are dug don't waste your time and money unless they are something extremely rare.

On another detecting forum someone sent an 1877 Indian head in for "cleaning" / preservation and they cleaned it alright, they completely ruined it. The coin was excellent as dug and had a nice green tone, not ugly corrosion, and the company absolutely destroyed it. Was it the best idea for the owner to send it to them and mentioning cleaning, probably not, and in hind-sight definitely not. But they are suppose to be the experts, so should have known better then to expose that coin to whatever chemical they did. People give way too much credit to the so called professionals when it comes to dug coins, something very few of them have any real experience with. Remember our finds only make up a very small percentage of what's out there, so if you send anything in you better make good and damn sure you know exactly what is going to happen. Personally I see no point to it. With so much info. that's out there it's fairly easy to come up with the value on your own, not to mention a grading service is going to attach some nasty worlds like "corroded" or "environmental damage" on copper, and "cleaned" or "improper cleaning" on silver... that's if they don't just reject the coins and send them back as many will do.


As for identifying I can usually do it. Post em up!

[JamieG.]

I had bought this 1832 half cent about 10 or so years ago when I was new to the hobby of collecting. Not knowing what to look for or who to buy from this coin looked awesome i thought, so I bought it for around $250. A few years ago I tryed to sell it and the dealer I was dealing with at the time said he would give me $50 bucks. I asked why that was, ( thought he was trying to pull something) he said that the coin was in great shape..ok. But had been cleaned poorly and showed me the stains where acid was used to clean it. If it was clean and graded it would be worth between $500 to $700 and would cost about $100 to do so. He gave me the names of some companies (ncg)that were well known.
Sorry so long but that reminded me when you talked about getting skrewed by a company. A dealer can tell you some good companys to deal with and not get skrewed..

Jamie

[The Rebel]

Originally Posted by Iron Patch

As for identifying I can usually do it. Post em up!

Thanks for all of your help & info. They are all posted in my albums so you could leave comments there if this works for you.

While I am familiar with the basics like KG II, III...etc... it's the die info that has me stumped for example CT coppers have over 300 different variations I'm told.

Thanks In Advance,
Roger