Corrosion is not unusual on early copper coins, and heavy porosity likely from burial elicited a PCGS Very Fine Details, Environmental Damage grade on this 1793 Liberty Cap large cent that sold for $3,600.

The Extremely Fine 45 grade can sit frustratingly short of the AU grade. August auctions offered some examples showing how just a touch too much wear or diminished luster can hold a coin at the EF level.

The Legacy Collection offered in Stack’s Bowers’ Aug. 16 auction included two vividly toned About Uncirculated dollars representing both major design types in the 1794 to 1804 run of silver dollars.

August auctions offered some gold $10 eagles that illustrate diverse causes of an Extremely Fine-45 grade; weak strikes leave these frustratingly short of the AU grade.

One of the most interesting “coins” in Stack's Bowers' Aug. 16 sale of the Legacy Collection was an electrotype 1804 Draped Bust dollar, formed by joining two copper shells that were then silvered.

Leading selections at Stack’s Bowers Galleries Rarities Night session Aug. 16 was one of six traced Proof 1821 Capped Bust quarter dollars, a new discovery graded PCGS Proof 64, that realized $252,000.

Two November auctions by GreatCollections give collectors a chance to own quality Flying Eagle and Indian Head and Barber dimes from the registry set collections of the late Stewart Blay.

Stack's Bowers Galleries Aug. 16 offered the collection of Dr. George Schwenk, an investor who diversified into gold coins, including a PCGS MS-68+ 1880 Indian Head gold dollar, which realized $19,200.

Solid type coins were among the attractions in the sale of the George Schwenk Collection by Stack's Bowers Galleries, with a couple of silver dollars graded MS-67 and -68 showing great eye appeal.

One of only 1,120 1854-D Indian Head gold $3 coins came to the block in Stack's Bowers Galleries' auction of one of George Schwenk's PCGS Registry Sets in mid-August.