U.S. Coin HELP! Blog

Archive for February, 2009

New Log Cabin Design Lincoln One Cent

The new 2009 pennies still aren’t circulating anywhere, judging by the research I conducted yesterday. I called 21 banks around the country Tuesday afternoon, talking mostly to supervisory tellers and assistant bank managers (whoever handles the currency and coinage inventory), in an effort to discover whether any of them have seen the new Log Cabin pennies yet. None of the banking outlets, (which include a mix of national chains, regional credit unions, and local banks) had received the new pennies yet, as far as they knew.

Most banks are very aware of the situation, with customers asking about the new pennies every day. The banks know they probably won’t be receiving whole 50-roll boxes of the new cents, but will likely get them mixed in with older pennies, either in whole rolls or totally mixed. I asked the banks whether they tended to get the new years’ pennies early in the year every year, but most banks didn’t even know!

The 2009 pennies that have gotten out so far are virtually all from two sources: (a) The Lincoln Cent launch event in Hodgenville, Kentucky, where 80 boxes (4,000 rolls) were distributed, and the Washington, D.C. area, where the U.S. Mint coin depots had some stock on launch day. Paul Hollis, a Louisiana coin dealer, got hold of an undisclosed number of rolls, but these are not for sale; he is giving them away in small numbers as part of his million penny promotion.

Because the number of coins that have reached the public is very small, but the number of people who want them is quite large, a lively business has emerged on eBay. Full rolls of 2009 pennies are currently closing at $20 to $40 each. Single coins (usually sold in 2’s and 3’s) are getting $2.50 to $9.95 each.

Read the rest New Penny Scam #1

INB Grading Company graded this Morgan Dollar as MS67 PL (Proof Like) and it sold at ebay for $896.48! What would you grade this coin? I grade it AU or almost circulated and it might grade lower at EF45.

I don’t know what some collectors are thinking when they buy coins like this. Are they are just getting caught up in a bidding war, or really don’t have a clue, or think they are seriously getting a bargain on a coin they don’t realize it hopelessly over-graded? Which is it?

It could be some “shill” bidding (where the auction seller has different ebay accounts and has people bid on their coins to cause others to bid bid higher) and that’s illegal on ebay.

If you have an answer, please post a comment. I would love to hear what people think about this and why it continues to happen.

What would you grade this coin? At ebay it sold for $200! The person who purchased this coin was scammed. These coins rarely reach higher than $10.00.

For more info on these companies click here

Below is a list of almost 100 coin grading companies for informational purposes. Each page has pictures and information on each company. I encourage you to visit some of these pages as too many over graded coins are being sold on the Internet, and coin collectors are losing their hard earned cash, paying too much for inferior grade coins. Not only that, Numismatics in general suffers from most of these “basement” or “in-house” grading companies that are only interested in profits and not promoting a better and more trusting experience with grading coins and grading services in general.

 

Related Link TPGS and Coin Grading Forum

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