Sharing great find - opinion on grade

Started by CameronK, November 22, 2016, 02:51:05 AM

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CameronK

Every so often, I come across a great find. This is a 1/2 penny of George III, 1807. (28.5mm/ 9.4 g). Since the coins I find in this era are usually worn flat, I'm curious about the grade of this one.

Using some online standards, I'd call this a VF. Does anyone else have an opinion of this? Thanks, and keep digging! Never know what you'll find.


Why? I coax stories out of unidentified coins.

Prosit

Comparing it to the images in the book "Grading British Coins" by Derek F Allen, I agree it is VF.

Dale

CameronK

Why? I coax stories out of unidentified coins.

Figleaf

I grade without guides. I see wear on cheek, breast and leg of Britannia, but none on the other side with remnants of original metal colour, so I'd go for obverse EF, reverse VF. I think this coin has spent a very considerable time loose in a rough-bottomed, often used drawer, but with nothing on top of it.

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

mrbadexample

VF for me too, certainly no worse. Obverse is a little better than the reverse as Peter says, but still short of EF for me. GVF perhaps, if you like splitting grades (I don't, personally). Nice find. :)

EWC

Quote from: CameronK on November 22, 2016, 02:51:05 AM
Using some online standards, I'd call this a VF. Does anyone else have an opinion of this?

A subjective matter to some extent, so this a personal opinion.  A traditional reliable dealer selling by mail on the back of a text description will want the collector to get a pleasant surprise when he/she tips the coin out of the envelope.  Thus as a seller I would make this aVF.  However if it were a hammered coin in this grade I would make it full VF (since there would be a good chance in that case we were looking at die wear).

As a schoolboy I once bought a William III F grade halfpenny from a well known London dealer and was amazed that the coin I received bore no resemblance to the F shown in the grade guide they published in their catalogues - it looked more like their G.  Now of course I realise that they did not much value my five bob worth of custom,  so did not care if I bought again or not.  But schoolboys have long memories too, and 20 years later I got an extra bit of satisfaction picking up a bunch of very cheap bargains, when that firm went bankrupt

Anyone here remember Ted Gamble Dale - traded coins at Charing Cross arches for many years?  Like most old time dealers in the later 20th century he held strong views about the direction grading was going.  If in a satirical frame of mind he would probably call this "an arms length EF"

Anyhow, it is a handsome thing, like most of Boulton's products


CameronK

Quote from: EWC on November 22, 2016, 04:06:54 PM
"an arms length EF"

Thanks for the chuckle. As a US based collector of mostly 'foreign' coins, yes, I've argued over-grading on occasion, but also been the big winner in the 'dig bin' as well.
Why? I coax stories out of unidentified coins.