Note Flaws on Gold Coins

Posted on October 19, 2014 by Michael Bugeja

Gold is a soft, malleable metal prone to scratches, test cuts, damage when removed from jewelry, and other details that decrease its worth as a collectible coin. In the photo above, Capitol Coin Auction notes scratches and marks from being poorly stored for more than a century.

The best houses on Proxibid take pains in lot descriptions to describe flaws in coins, and when it comes to gold, there are many.

In the 1880s, coin scammers tried to pass plated 1883 nickels, or racketeer nickels, as $5 gold, chiefly because the US Mint neglected to put a denomination on the coin other than the Roman numeral V. There were also plated fractional gold, coins holed or bezeled for jewelry, polished gold, and harshly cleaned gold.

All of these and other flaws should be mentioned.

Jewelry Exchange does a great job with this in its lots descriptions. Because the firm deals regularly in gold, it knows the range of damage that can occur. In this example, the lot description notes a $1 gold coin that was removed from jewelry, polished and soldered:

Another lot in the same auction included jewelry loops that left the rims of quarter eagle damaged:

This auctioneer routinely ignores damage on gold coins. This one is obviously cleaned and, as such, worth a small premium over the worth of its metal:

Bidders not only seek gold for its metal content but also for their collections. These buyers are worth more to you than bullion seekers because they buy gold when the price is high or low. Give them the courtesy of an accurate description, and they’ll become return clients and, perhaps, consignors one day.

Allen and Marshall Shoutout

Posted on October 16, 2014 by Michael Bugeja

Suffice to say we had never heard of “Premier Certified Coins.” But we have heard of price guides.

Retail price for a 1909 VDB Red MS67 is $1350. Value of a 1943 MS68 steel cent is $2650.

Even without a blow-up photo, we see hairlines on the 1909 VDB above and spots on the 1943. Our value? About $25 for both coins, and that’s retail.

Kudos to Allen and Marshall for this lot description: “Draw your own conclusions on the grading.”

Which we just did here!

Auction Empire Corrects Flip Info on Cal Gold

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Michael Bugeja

Ignoring the hyped information on the flip, proclaiming this replica as “gold” and “rare,” Auction Empire correctly labels this $1 value gold-plate fake a “replica.”

On this day in all the Proxibid auctions, you will not find a fake or replica California gold being labeled as the genuine thing. These brass and/or plated counterfeits have been giving the Secret Service fits since the 19th century. They are worth $1 or less. But we have seen phony lots sell on Proxibid for hundreds of dollars.

Our most popular post–California Gold: Real, Replica and Fake, which gets 100 hits per week–set the record straight on Proxiblog a few years ago. Among its recommendations is the requirement that all auctioneers cite the BG number from the Breen/Gillio Book on California Gold.

Brad Lisembee of Capitol Coin Auction shows how it’s done:

New Rankings, 51,000 Views; Proxiblog Takes Hiatus

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Michael Bugeja

Capitol Coin Auction and Weaver Signature Coin and Currency Auction tie for first place in our rankings. They do everything right, from accurate numismatic descriptions to vivid photography.

Look at the care that Capitol takes with each lot description, this one showcasing a collection in which every coin therein is graded by auctioneer Brad Lisembee (click to expand photo):

Same holds for Dave Weaver who accurately describes condition of each lot in his auctions. Here’s an example:

John Leonard of Leonard Auction upholds the same standards as Lisembee and Weaver, providing excellent photos and descriptions. In our view he ranks among the most knowledgeable auctioneers on the Proxibid portal. A screenshot from his most recent auction:

For sheer number of auctions on Proxibid and the vast array of consignments–you’re apt to find almost any type coin here–few rival SilverTowne Auctions. From rare gold to tokens to slabbed coins and rarities, SilverTowne has it covered:

Best service terms on Proxibid, in addition to sharp photos and low low low buyer’s premium, goes to Meares Auction. Darron Meares is an experienced auctioneer who strives for superior customer service in all of his dealings. Take a look:

Most improved is Back to the Past auction. C. Scott Lovejoy worked with us for weeks to perfect photography. Take a look at this half dollar reverse in which full bell lines are easily seen. Can your auction provide the same detailed digital photography? Would that several on Proxibid could. See the evidence:

Our rankings this month featured most of our old standbys. Several of our favorite houses–Southwest Bullion, Western Auction, Krueger and Krueger–are low in our rankings only because they have not offered an online Proxibid session in the recent past. We value their operations so very much. Also this month one house was dropped because of sale of replica California gold. Two houses were added, A New Day Auction and Allen and Marshall Auctioneers. Concerning the latter, we were impressed with this lot description on bottom-tier holders:

As we always note, our rankings are just that–ours. These are favorite houses. Your experience may differ from ours.

As for Proxibid, we surpassed 50,000 views last month. We approached 15,000 views in the past year. The map below shows our global reach.

We will be reconfiguring and updating our website during the summer. We also are in the process of kindling a new numismatic book, available soon on our site, for online coin auctions, featuring best practices for selling on Proxibid and eBay. We hope you will download a copy when it becomes available. We hope that you find our site helpful.

If so, please consider making a donation to our scholarship fund, which is why we share our numismatic knowledge with Proxibid auctioneers and buyers, helping defray student debt to ensure the next generation of auction bidders.

Thank you for visiting our site.

New Rankings, 2000 Views per Month

Posted on May 1, 2014 by Michael Bugeja

Weaver Signature Coin and Currency Auction takes the top spot again this month with SilverTowne a close second, thanks to a dazzling array of quality rarities. Both Weaver Auction and SilverTowne provide good descriptions, quick shipping, and regular auctions.

Weaver has slightly better photos, earning that house the sole 25-point best ranking.

Leonard, Capitol, Meares and Fox Valley all boast great photos, consignments, service and descriptions. In most cases, houses failed to score a full 25 points because of problems with photos or higher than average buyer’s premiums.

Rounding out the top 10 are Back to the Past, Star Coin and Currency, Certified Rare Coin Auctions and Five Star Auction.

It should be noted that some of our favorite houses are not offering as many auctions on Proxibid. Those are dropping in the rankings because of that. But we’re always on the lookout for their return.

Also keep in mind that our favorite houses are just that–ours. Your experience may differ from ours.

As for Proxiblog, we have exceeded 50,000 page views. In the past month, we surpassed 1820 views worldwide. We’re increasingly global with top views from the USA, Britain, Canada, India, Russia, Germany, Australia and the Philippines. Once again, the most accessed post was California Gold, real, replica and fake. That post averages between 50-100 views per month.

We continue to provide best practices and numismatic knowledge to our viewers for free. Please consider making a donation. We post every weekday and do this for educational purposes, informing viewers about numismatics as well as funding scholarships for Iowa State University students.

Fortunately, we have several of our top houses donating funds to our scholarship account. You can also buy our Basic Coin Design book on Kindle. We are extremely grateful. Won’t you consider making a tax-deductible donation to the Iowa State Foundation so that we can continue publishing? Thank you for your consideration!

New Rankings, New Highs for Posts

Posted on March 30, 2014 by Michael Bugeja

Weaver Signature Coin and Currency Auction shares the top spot with Capitol Coin Auction, scoring a full 25 points. Dave Weaver continues to describe coins’ conditions accurately, noting flaws.

Also moving up is Fox Valley Coins, which just hosted one of the highest bid auctions of the year, with more than 1200 lots of mostly superior coins. Leonard Auction, a long-time favorite, holds its slot. Back to the Past Collectibles continues to work hard on photo enhancements, and so is enjoying greater bids and more return customers.

As stated earlier, we are happy to welcome back to our rankings Ritmar Exchange, Mike Peterson Auctioneers and Braden Auction Service. These houses continue to work on behalf of consignor AND seller.

As you can see by our numbers, ranging from 23.5-25 point, very little separates one auction house from another. Many of those lower on the scale are not working sufficiently on photography or offering mediocre consignments. A few dropping even further are not scheduling events. After four months, those houses will drop off our lists.

Keep in mind that these houses rank among our most favorite. Your experience may differ from ours.

As for Proxiblog, we have exceeded 50,000 page views. Last week a post enjoyed more than 200 viewers, “Some PVC Coins Can Be Cleaned.”

We’re increasingly global with top views from the USA, Britain, Canada, India, Russia, Germany, Australia and the Philippines.

Continuing as our most popular post is California Gold, real, replica and fake.

Below is a graphic that you can click to expand, seeing where our viewers are most likely to navigate.

Approaching 50,000 Views, Two Houses Soar!

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Michael Bugeja

Capitol Coin Auction remains in the top slot. If you bid in its March 1, 2014 auction, you know why. Top lots. Accurate numismatic descriptions. Sharp photography. Low buyers’ premium. Great customer service. It’s difficult to beat Brad Lisembee who has perfected the online coin trade.

SilverTowne Auction continues to amaze us with auction after auction with high standards across the board. Leonard Auction is known for top-quality consistency. Meares Auction consistently improves from consignments to photography.

Also holding steady or trading top places with the best coin auctions on the portal are Certified Rare Coin Auctions, Meares Auction, Star Coin and Currency, Southwest Bullion, Western Auction, Weaver Signature Coin and Currency Auction, Gary Ryther Auctioneers, Jewelry Exchange, Fox Valley Coins and Krueger and Krueger.

Two houses catapulted into our top 10. Spencer Auction holds infrequent sessions, but when it does, it features top coins, low buyer’s fee, excellent customer service and great consignments. Same can be said about Back to the Past Collectibles with a 10% buyer’s premium. It broke into the top 10 because C. Scott Lovejoy worked diligently, consulting with us, to perfect his photography. Below is an example (click to expand):

You can even see the metal flow on a 2000-year-old coin. Photography is essential in the online bidding world. Watch for a post about Lovejoy’s enhancements later this week!

We hate to call out houses for lack of improvement, even if they are among our favorites. One house in particular has attempted to improve photos but not enough to tell varieties and flaws. If it did, it would be in our top 10. The house does a great marketing job and scores exceptionally high sales because of it. So it may feel no need to improve. We find ourselves bidding on slabbed coins only because we cannot see which coins are dipped. Because we suspect many of the lots are from coin dealers, we are doubly cautious.

As for Proxiblog, we have exceeded 600 posts and are approaching 50,000 page views. We’re increasingly global with top views from the USA, Britain, Canada, India, Russia, Germany, Australia and the Philippines.

Top view again goes to our post popular post: California Gold, real, replica and fake, closing in on 100 views per week.

We continue to provide best practices and numismatic knowledge to our viewers for free. Fortunately, we have several of our top houses donating funds to our scholarship account. You can also buy our Basic Coin Design book on Kindle. We are extremely grateful. Won’t you consider making a tax-deductible donation so that we can continue publishing? Thank you for your consideration!

More Than 16,000 Views in 2013!

Posted on February 2, 2014 by Michael Bugeja

SilverTowne Auctions, Leonard Auction, Weaver Auction, Gary Ryther Auctions, Meares Auction, Star Coin and Currency, and Fox Valley Coins rank among the top 10 in our assessment. But so many more listed on the right sidebar are offering fine consignments, good customer service and other features. Among the most difficult categories to master, however, are sharp numismatic photography that captures luster and color in addition to accurate lot descriptions about grade and condition.

As we always note in our rankings, these are based on our experience and should be considered Proxiblog’s favorite houses. Your experience may differ from ours.

As for Proxiblog, we are pleased that our viewership keeps improving, with more than 16,500 views worldwide in 2013. We provide this blog for free to raise scholarship money via our online account with the Iowa State Foundation and via our numismatic work, Basic Coin Design, on Amazon Kindle.

See the countries that visit our site in the screenshot below (click to expand):

As for individual posts, the most accessed article remains “California Gold: Real, Replica and Fake,” which enjoyed 2058 views in 2013.

See this screenshot for other top posts (click to expand):

Capitol Coin Wins “Best Auction” a Second Time

Posted on January 14, 2014 by Michael Bugeja

A close second, once again, was Leonard Auction. It won “Best Consignments” with honorable mentions in “Value-Added,” “Best Photography” and “Best Descriptions.”

Star Coin and Currency made a great showing this year, winning “Best Timed Auction” with honorable mentions in “Most Improved,” “Best Descriptions” and “Best Shipping.”

Southwest Bullion and Coin also had a particularly successful year in our rankings, winning the competitive “Best Descriptions” category and honorable mentions in “Most Improved” and “Best Photography.”

SilverTowne Auctions won “Best Shipping” and had honorable mentions in “Best Descriptions,” “Value-Added” and “Best Consignments.”

Meares Auction won “Most Improved” and had honorable mentions in “Best Shipping” and “Best Consignments.”

Weaver Signature Coin and Currency Auction had honorable mentions in the important categories of “Best Photography,” “Best Descriptions,” “Best Consignments” and “Value-Added.”

The houses above are runners-up in our “Best Coin Auction” category.

We also praise and recommend our other houses that placed in our various competitions, including:

Back to the Past Collectibles

Black and Gold Auctions

Braden Auction Services

Decatur Coin and Jewelry

Engstrom Auctions

Five Star Auction

Fox Valley Coins

Gary Ryther Auctioneers

Heuckman Auction

Jewelry Exchange

Kaufman Realty and Auction

McKee Coins

Midwest Coins

Rolling M Auction

Schultz Auctioneers

Western Auction

We encourage all of the houses named above to continue improving in the spirit of service, competition and community that all auctioneers and numismatists share, serving our clients and memberships. Continue to embrace the ethics of both the National Auctioneers Association and the American Numismatic Association.

We also thank Proxibid for its Internet options, quality control and customer service and all houses specializing in coins. We encourage them to visit these award-winning houses above. We know there are some houses that we missed in our rankings; as always, our experience may differ from yours and you should consider these award-winners our favorites. In sum, we did the best job we could with the available data and hope that you will continue visiting our site and interacting with our clientele, now exceeding 26000 views since inception.

Finally, consider making a donation to our Scholarship Account. (See details on top of the “Rankings” sidebar to the right.) We will continue publishing Proxiblog free of charge and covering Proxibid and the online coin auction industry. Won’t you consider making a voluntary donation to offset tuition expenses for our college students?

Capitol Coin Auction Wins … “Best Value-Added”

Posted on January 12, 2014 by Michael Bugeja

Speaking of standards, we will do a post soon on new ones for auction houses to be included in our Honor Roll pages, which we recently updated. We seldom bid in auctions that lack any of those 10 standards for online coin bidding. (NOTE: If we missed your auction house in our revision of this page, please notify us at this email address.)

We strongly encourage any coin buyer to read terms of service before placing any bid in a Proxibid auction. Bidders and auctioneers alike should read the Unified User Agreement. Contrary to what some auctioneers believe, all sales of coins are NOT final if they are counterfeit.

The Unified User Agreement specifically states:

If, within a reasonable amount of time, Buyer gives notice in writing to Seller that the lot so sold is a counterfeit and after such notice the Buyer returns the lot to Seller in the same condition as when sold, and establishes to the satisfaction of Seller that the returned lot is in fact a counterfeit, Seller as agent for the consignor will rescind the sale and refund the purchase price.

Capitol Coin Auction, and honorable mention houses listed here, abide by clauses of that agreement. Here are a few excerpts from their terms of service.

Capitol Coin Auction

Sales are final with no returns except for reason of authenticity (proof of non-authenticity is required by PCGS or NGC). … We go to great efforts to ensure that all lots are described accurately and thoroughly, and that detailed photos are provided to assist our bidders. We strictly safeguard access to your information, and all of our employees and contractors have been trained on safeguarding measures and the importance of confidentiality of our customers’ personal information. Personal information that has been collected about you will be safeguarded by us and will be destroyed if not needed. We will NEVER sell, disclose or otherwise provide any of your personal information to third parties, except as required by law.

Jewelry Exchange

Written descriptions of all items are true to our knowledge. Material identified as gold, silver or platinum is guaranteed to be the material described. Gemstones, including diamonds, are guaranteed to be authentic. Branded merchandise is guaranteed to be authentic. When any item is graded, every attempt is made to grade conservatively. … We will do our best to address any question or concern that arises.

Leonard Auction

REFUND POLICY (Coin & Currency Lots): Leonard Auction, Inc. guarantees all items to be genuine (authentic) as to date and mintmark. If a successful bidder has questions as to the authenticity of a lot, the bidder must contact Leonard Auction, Inc. within three (3) calendar days of receipt of the lot. Items removed from their original, heat-sealed Leonard Auction, Inc. holder, MAY NOT BE RETURNED for any reason. No lot may be returned because of a variance in opinion with regards to Items encapsulated and authenticated by a third-party grading service MAY NOT BE RETURNED for any reason.

SilverTowne Auction

Internet buyers are entitled to a return within 3 days of receipt of items. In order to return an item, we must be notified of your intent to return within that 3-day period. We can be reached at 419-943-2612. Items returned will be shipped at buyer’s expense. All returns are subject to a restocking fee of 15% of the purchase price with a minimum charge of $10.

Star Coin and Currency

Our auction house has chosen not to view or have access to bidder maximum pre-bids. We also do not allow or bid on lots to increase amounts. All our auctions are $1 start, absolute, no reserve auctions. All items sell to the highest bidder. Return policy: If an item is not materially the same as pictured and/or described in the auction contact us. We are here to make your auction experience a positive one. Privacy: Any personal data we collect is used solely for processing an invoice.

Weaver Coin and Currency Auction

Tiered Buyer Premium: 5% Gold $20 or other 1 oz Gold 12% Total Hammer Price $2500.00 or higher 13% Total Hammer Price $1500.00-2499.00 14% Total Hammer Price $500.00-1499.00 15% Total Hammer Price Under $500.00. … Items are sold “AS IS”, “WHERE IS” with no guarantees of any kind except for the authenticity of US coins. We will accept returns on counterfeit coins (which we never intend to sell without identifying as a copy) or if we made an error in denomination description. Return requests must be made within 5 days of receipt of the coins. Any coin removed from the original packaging or holder is considered sold & may not be returned.

We congratulate Capitol Coin Auction and our Honorable Mention houses for their emphasis on customer service as expressly noted in their service terms.

Proxiblog's Top Online Coin Auctions

Reviews of best practices on Proxibid.com

Tag Archives: Capitol Coin Auction