a SO unexpected opportunity

[DHalladay]

My just-arrived prize has come with so many “Wow!”s along the way:

– Wow! when I found it so soon after being posted on eBay.
– Wow! when I saw it was in such a high grade.
– Wow! when I saw the reasonable BIN price.
– Wow! when I saw the “or best offer” option.
– Wow! like crazy when my offer was accepted.
– Wow! (and a sigh of relief) when I got the “your auction item has been shipped” email from eBay.
– Wow! each time the tracking update showed a new, closer arrival point along the route.
– Wow! when it made it to my local Post Office.
– Wow! when I had to sign for the package.
– Wow! times two when I took it out of the package.

I never imagined getting an opportunity to buy a PCGS-holdered example of any of the three Micro-O dates, let alone an XF, let alone one that has all the lustre and “look” of an AU. (I suspect that much of the “wear” on the high points was never on the coin when it was struck.)

CAC put green stickers on two of my Micro-Os; I think this coin has a shot at gold.

Here are both straight-on shots of the coin using a copy stand and lights, and hand held with natural daylight

small XF40 obv.jpg (237.26 KiB) Viewed 2009 times

XF40 daylight rev.jpg (268.66 KiB) Viewed 2009 times

XF40 daylight obv.jpg (313.67 KiB) Viewed 2009 times

small XF40 rev.jpg (237.06 KiB) Viewed 2009 times

[CascadeChris]

WOW

Ok, you suck big on this one

[messydesk]

Congrats! Looks like PCGS used a zero for the mint mark instead of an O. Better send it in to have them fix it.

[dantvams]

Wasn’t there an earlier discussion on the Ebay seller “centsles”? Can’t find it now. John’s comment on a “zero” rather than an “O” brought it to mind.

[TheYokel]

Should have used a lower-case font as a tongue-in-cheek nod to the micro O

[impairedsquirrel]

Dang you Dennis, when I saw all those WOWs I thought you found a 3b3 or something!
Congrats, but that thing looks fake to me.

[DHalladay]

The Heritage archives show just one PCGS 1896 Micro-O in any grade has ever been sold by them (along with only 1 ANACS coin). The PCGS coin sold Nov. 6, 2004 and was a different XF40 than this one.

[fogie]

Very sweet piece there!

[vamnuke]

[vamsterdam]

Christmas comes early. The 96o was what convinced me they were counterfeit. It’s even worse looking than the 1900o or the 1902o. Glad to know you got a steal of a deal.

[Mhomei]

You suck Mr. 44

[PacificWR]

WOW!

[JohnGoldsmith]

Your welcome Dennis. Coin was raw when I first got it. Sent it in and had David Hall grade it. After PCGS offered buy back. I asked them how much if I send you the label? PCGS replied in a normal cheapskate RODENT price of fifty cents.
I know what you paid for the coin. When I bought it, demand was very high for these. It was one of the last ones PCGS slabbed in a high grade. I still have the original scan I made in Feb. 2005. Do not recall the year I bought it. So again your welcome.

[DHalladay]

And so the circle is complete... and your kindness is celebrated.

PCGS shut down things officially (the day they announced) on April 25, 2005, but I know of coins that were in the grading pipeline that had their plugs pulled at least a week before that.

Did you have this coin graded John? If so, do you still have the paperwork?

[JohnGoldsmith]

Yes my local dealer had the coin graded for me. If I had to guess I would say late 2004-very early 2005. I scanned it on my cheap scanner on 2-19-2005.

[CascadeChris]

Do we know who (which grader/attributor) first raised the alarm bells when they got the large sub in and noticed something was up?

[TheYokel]

Do we know who (which grader/attributor) first raised the alarm bells when they got the large sub in and noticed something was up?

David Lange from NGC was the first person to write an article about them being fakes in the late 90s or early 00's. NGC even refused to grade any after that, and removed all listed graded examples from their POP reports in 2003 or 4, a full year before the PCGS announcement. All micro o's afterwards were returned questionable from them...

[DHalladay]

NGC was 5 years ahead of other TPGs in blowing the counterfeit whistle. That's why when I wrote my article in the September 2005 issue of VAMview, NGC's total population of all three counterfeit dates was just 8.