Altered Coins

I have Written many blogs on Altered & Counterfeit coins & using the focal points on the coin to show if it is real or fake. One thing i really  never talked about is re-coloring of copper pennies. This is one on the hardest jobs of all. Did you ever look at a penny and it just doesn't look right? To pink, to red. The Numismatics of Chemistry.

All the different cleaners, acids,and coloring. It really is "Doctoring Of Coins". The major is in chemistry. It going back to when coins first started to be collected. Once a coin was net worth changed  in a more appealing way, the Doctors found out how. Bringing up the coloring coins, i have a client of mine who bought a coin off "E-bay", sound familiar, and a few months later it changed! The dealer was will known and had 10,000 feed backs. Is it the dealer fault? Should he be a chemist? Why he being deceptive ?  What I think he was taken advantage of "lack of knowledge". The dealer had it encapsulated. It came back MS 64 RED! 

Will here is the point, I really believe that only third party graders are the only ones that can tell. Looking at tens of thousands of coins gives them the advantage, especially the ones that guarantied and back it with their own money. The only two that can do this is PCGS & NGC. There are many others out there, but this is it.

People may disagree but then again is grading not an opinion? Look at the picture and tell me what you think. Also can anyone guess the dealer?

I will talk more about PCGS and NGC in my next blog, lets see what we can lean from this one.