CELLPHONE PHOTOS TOOK OVER THE COIN MARKET

Beginning about three or four years ago, I noticed an ever-increasing amount of my business involved cellphone pictures of coins. This was especially true from the aspect of buying. And as the coin market had to re-invent itself in 2020 due to Covid 19, a significant amount of business became cellphone-driven. If I had to guess, I would say that close to 50%—if not more—of all dealer-to-dealer business is now done off of cellphone images.

This is both great and terrible. The “great” part of the equation is that dealers found a viable way to quickly move new coins. The “terrible” part is that these transactions tend to be sight-unseen and unless a dealer is very sophisticated and knows how to read a cellphone image of a coin (and others factors as well) he is going to get stuck with some really low-end coins.

In the title of this blog, I referred to radiology and this is only partly a joke. Cellphone images of coins can be interpreted if you know what to look for, just as a radiologist uses medical imaging to diagnose and treat diseases.

Here are some tips which might make the next cellphone image you get a little easier to interpret.

1. Learn What Nice Coins Are Supposed to Look Like
In each of the books which I have written about branch mint gold, I take a lot of time describing what a “proper” example of a coin is supposed to look like. As an example, when describing the natural coloration for an 1851-O half eagle, I state “(it) is most often a medium to deep orange or green-gold.” If you are being offered an 1851-O half eagle and it is dark red, this is a good sign that the coin has been recolored and should be avoided.

Another important thing to know about each issue is its type of luster. Does a specific coin come frosty, satiny, dull or brilliant? Although luster may not show up well on a cellphone image, you can often determine whether it is impaired or not.

2. Does the Coin Show Evidence of a Cover-up?
A good cellphone image may reveal areas of haze or blotches of odd color which are indicative or something having been placed on the surfaces to cover up a scratch, some hairlines or even an area where a spot has been removed. Coins with any of these should be avoided.

3. Swirls in the Fields
From time to time, the grading services miss minor old repairs on coins. As an example there may be some subtle swirls in the fields which are indicative of a spot having been removed or a mark having been scratched off. Unfortunately, it is difficult to see the edge of a coin in its slab, let alone in an image, so you’ll likely not be able to see if your coin has had its edges smoothed or filed. But look at as much of the edge as you can see and search for dense scratches or an area where the color doesn’t match the rest of the coin.

To read the complete article, see:
Numismatic Radiology: How Cellphone Photos Took Over the Coin Market in 2020 (https://raregoldcoins.com/blog/2021/1/8/numismatic-radiology-how-cellphone-photos-took-over-the-coin-market-in-2020)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web