In a recent message "Mr. Jaggers" lugburzman[at]yahoo[dot]com wrote:


"Tony Clayton" wrote in message
...
In a recent message "Amistad" wrote:

Just now happened across a coin whose description caught my eye. I can't
say that I previously knew of any coin grading regimen that allows for
rim
nicks being commensurate with the grade. Have a look:

http://cgi.ebay.com/2-Scarce-Barber-...temZ8422047521

My question is -- what grades are rim nicks acceptable on? Come on,
comrades. Educate me! ;-)

I would be surprised if such well worn coins did not have a nick
or two, and, let's face it, they are hardly going to detract
from the coin.

Personally I would rather NOT have such worn coins in my collection
even if they 'filled a gap'

I suspect that there is a fundamental difference between British collectors
and U.S. collectors. Over here there is a long tradition, going back to the
1930s, of the use of devices to form and store collections, be they called
coin folders (which sold for 35 cents when I was a kid) or coin albums (more
expensive, as they allow both sides of the coins to show). Whitman
Publishing made some 35c folders for collections of British coins of all
denominations, but something tells me they weren't intended to be exported
to your country, but rather to be used by Americans who had an accumulation
of pennies and sixpences that came here with tourists and soldiers, and that
otherwise would have knocked about loose in a drawer. Thus, we have more of
an urgency to "fill gaps." Some of those gaps are very expensive to fill,
indeed. If I want to fill all the gaps, then, in my Barber half collection,
and am an ordinary guy with an ordinary income, some of the coins just have
to be pretty low down.

Agreed. That is how I started to collect coins.

I was in Canada for several months back in 1962, and on my travels
visited the Royal Canadian Mint. On leaving the Mint I passed a coin shop
that had Whitman folders for Canadian coins, so I thought it would be a good idea
to fill each folder, as a way of saving; the intention was to bank a
set when complete and start again!

I then found out how difficult it was to find some items like 5 cents of
1925, 1926, 1943 etc. The bug bit. I never did cash in those coins
(although sold most when financing a house move in 1978).

Now I tend to concentrate on ancients and types; the only date sets
I collect are Canadian silver 5 cent coins, and with those I
would rather have a gap than a coin as worn as those under discussion.
Indeed, I make a point of ONLY acquiring the 5 cents in the UK,
and not from overseas as I do not buy coins on Ebay.

--
Tony Clayton
Coins of the UK : http://www.coinsoftheuk.info
Sent using RISCOS on an Acorn Strong Arm RiscPC
.... I still miss my ex-wife - but my aim is improving!