1852 Three Cent Silver. AU. 158575

Description

1852 3 Cents Silver.  AU.   158575
OUR MAIN GOAL and FOCUS IS YOUR SATISFACTION and TRUST
Please read our FULL description/presentment below before ordering.
We do not accept offers for less than the eBay price nor do we end auctions early.
We have condensed 56 years of selling mail order into a comprehensive presentment to ensure your satisfaction.
Regarding the Condition of the Packaging of Proof and Mint Sets
PROOF AND MINT SETS ARE THE BEST COINS THE U.S. MINT PRODUCES
"We are selling coins not packaging."
Our sets are above market standards as traded between dealers.
These sets have passed through one or more hands since they left the mint.
Although all our proof and mint sets come with the outer box/envelope those "envelopes" are ALL in "used" condition and will evidence "handling" and "wear".
The older the sets, the more evidence of handling. None of the imperfections in the outer wrappers affect the condition of the coins enclosed. Sets from 1955 to 1967 are over a half century old while sets from 1968 to 1984 are 1/3 of a century old. The outer wrappers are literally paper thin and have been handled by previous owners who opened these wrappers to look at their coins. Even the paper "boxes"/wrappers of very recently issued sets will show that the box has been opened if you CAREFULLY open and close it one time.
We do our best to have an inventory of the "freshest" "cleanest" packaged sets we possibly can but please be advised that if you expect "mint fresh" "perfect" new paper coverings we cannot service your order as we cannot favor one buyer over another by cherry picking the most perfect wrappers for one person.
Grading services do not value the wrappers in which the coins are housed. They do not grade them. In fact, they are responsible for destroying 10's of thousands of them each month as they break them open to grade the coins enclosed.
The coins have value. The wrappers do not. As a buyer you have the right to acquire the condition of the wrapper you wish. We will answer any question you have as to the condition of the wrapper you will receive. They will all be in some state of used condition.
The hard plastic cases are subject to small stress fractures either when originally encased or as they age.
Although all our proof/mint sets are mint sealed and in some cases hermetically sealed in flat air tight plastic cellos, like proof sets 1955-1964, that air tight packaging contains the original airborne contaminants of that air pocket. ALL proof and uncirculated sets will show some sign of interaction with micro atom contaminants over time (toning) if you put "enough" magnification on each coin in any proof and mint set. (We have even seen human finger prints on hermetically sealed mint sets 1959-1964 which proves that not all mint employees wore their gloves when handling these uncirculated coins for packaging.)
Here is a copy of the note placed in early mint-sealed proof sets by the Mint Superintendent beginning in 1956:
Your U.S. Proof Coins--have been carefully inspected before release! If there should appear--what may seem to you--a defect or a scratch on a coin--it is no doubt a crease in the polyethylene-coated cellophane in which they are encased. We tell you this to save us both unnecessary correspondence. THANK YOU! (over) Sooner or later your Proof Coins may show evidence of oxidation (tarnish or discoloration). We have chosen materials and methods of packing that we hope will delay this possibility, but we cannot assume responsibility for oxidation. Please do not ask us to make exchanges or adjustments. Thank You! (Mrs.) Rae V. Biester, Mint Superintendent
(from 1956)
IF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF THE MINT PLACED THIS NOTE IN PROOF SETS OF COPPER AND SILVER IN THE YEAR OF ISSUE, IMAGINE THE "TONING" OR CHANGES IN COLOR THAT NORMALLY OCCURS IN U.S. PROOF/MINT SETS OVER THE YEARS.
Please do not expect your proof/mint coins to look as they did the day the mint struck them. From the moment they are struck the metal begins to interact with the catalysts of air, light, temperature, and atoms in the air and the micro contaminants that may be in the airtight hermetically sealed proof/mint sets themselves. The irony is that there is a big market with big premiums for the most "colorful" toning that some of these conditions produce.
If you have any questions/concerns about proof/mint set condition, please message us prior to paying for your order.
General Information, Policies, and Frequently Asked Questions
1. Mistakes:
We make mistakes. PLEASE allow us the opportunity to address any possible mistake made.
2. Coin Grading:
We guarantee authenticity only. Any grades are our opinion. We use the term "high grade" when we believe a coin is in the upper 20% of the surviving population. We use the term “better grade” when we believe a coin is in the upper 50% of the surviving population. We use the word "detail" that coin grading services use to alert buyers when we believe a coin may have a more than average environmental defect. We encourage communication before you purchase. We are always willing to give you our opinion of any coin. We spend thousands of dollars per week producing pictures on the obverse and reverse of each coin we sell. These pictures should be sufficient to ensure your satisfaction. We STRONGLY ADVISE that you have knowledge/experience of the coin industry, coin grading, and standard coin terms before you buy. We are happy to answer questions in the eBay message system. To ensure customer satisfaction we have a 30 day unconditional return policy. Customers do not like returns. Ask questions before you pay to ensure satisfaction.
When ordering multiple items from one seller there is a function in the eBay CART called "request invoice from seller." This allows you to request and receive an invoice for your total purchase, after you agree to purchase in your CART. If the invoice you receive from us exceeds your price point you can simply ask us to cancel the sale before paying for it.
I invite you to COST COMPARE our FINAL COST prices on proof/sets with all the rest on eBay. Since 2008 to date, no eBay buyer has shown us any dealer who sells proof/mint sets for less than we do.
We offer you the convenience all proof sets from 1955 to date and all mint sets from 1959 to date. We are not aware of any other eBay seller who does.
We have a SHIPPING and HANDLING cost. The SHIPPING (postage ) is just part of the cost. The HANDLING is a huge cost. Hiring people who must be bonded to work in our vault facility, supplies, INSURANCE for EVERY order, secure transport to the shipping facility. If you were faced with paying these HANDLING costs you would believe it when our accountant advises us that we are losing significant money above what we charge for shipping and HANDLING. 10 years ago we received eBay's highest rating for our shipping and handling cost. We have not raised this cost to the customer while postage alone has NEARLY DOUBLED in the last 10 years.
4. International shipping:
FOR INTERNATIONAL ORDERS WE ONLY USE THE EBAY GLOBAL SHIPPING PROGRAM.
5. Grading by third parties:
Our transaction is with you. Please do not involve us with any third party in our transaction. Three coin dealers might agree on the grade of a coin if two of them were dead. As I write this I have three coins in grading plastics by "the most prominent" grading companies. One is a 1915-d penny in a BU holder described as a 1915-s. One is a high grade type one standing liberty quarter described as a type two. Another is a 1928 peace dollar graded AU with more damaging file marks on the reverse than you can accurately count. We have never sent a coin to a grading service. I have had a local dealer send a few coins in for customers and through him we did an experiment in 2007. We sent a beautiful BU 1942/1-d dime in for grading to the "big three" at the time. It came back graded from AU to high grade BU. The difference in value was from ,000 to ,000. Then we sent it back a second time to the same grading service and they were 3 grades off from their first grade. A few weeks ago a dealer I know purchased a graded VF DETAILS half cent in a "big auction" coin convention auction. He had it re-graded and it came back a solid AU. I personally know dealers that make their living by cracking what they consider under graded coins out of plastic and sending them back in "bulk rate" until they "get the grade they want" and then they sell them. WE PLACE ZERO VALUE ON ANY THIRD PARTY GRADING OPINION EXCEPT AUTHENTICITY.
6. Refunds:
It is important and reassuring to know that you are protected with eBay Buyer Protection. We have a no questions asked/unconditional return policy with no re-stocking fee. We only ask that buyers PLEASE exercise all due diligence in using all the information provided about a coin before purchase to avoid unnecessary returns. We expect the buyer to pay for all transportation costs unless there is a material mistake in the picture provided. Our pictures can be blown up to the size of a computer screen for close examination. We spend over 0,000.00 a year providing these pictures to ensure customer satisfaction
and eliminate returns. Please ensure your own satisfaction with close examination of the photos provided and in asking any questions prior to purchase.
7. Authenticity:
All coins are guaranteed to be genuine for life and may be returned any time for a 100% refund if not genuine.
8. Shipping:
It is our policy to ship all orders within one business day.
9. View items:
Please use eBay’s picture enlargement feature (available for each coin we sell) to determine if the condition of each coin we sell is to your satisfaction. THE PICTURE OF THE COIN IS THE GRADE OF THE COIN PRESENTED. This picture is truly worth 1 Million words.  One Million words could never provide a better description than a picture. Any written description is merely our opinion and not a guarantee of what our buyer or any other party may arrive at. We are happy to answer any questions you may have about our description. You must rely solely on your own assessment as to the grade of any coin.
10. Ask before you buy:
Feel free to ask questions before you pay. We take the most realistic pictures we can, and rely on these pictures to represent the grade of each coin. WE ENCOURAGE EVERY BUYER TO PLEASE FEEL FREE to ask us any questions you may have about an item.
11. Cleaning:
Our position is that every coin that is not housed in a sealed mint holder has been cleaned at some point in its life time.
If one takes a coin and blows a speck of dust off the surface, they just cleaned it.
If you put a coin in your pocket and walk down the street the friction of the coin in your pocket will have a cleaning effect. If one were to take the same coin and use a high speed polishing tool on the surface, they cleaned it.
EVERY COIN IS CLEANED. CLEANING, THEREFORE, IS ALWAYS A MATTER OF DEGREE.
If you send a "dirty" coin into a grading service to be "conserved" and let them do the "conserving"  they will charge you for their work CLEANING the coin and then charge you for grading the coin. When they clean a coin they regard it as "conserved". If you send a grading service a coin they believe may have been cleaned by anyone else, they may call it "cleaned".
TODAY THE TOP RATED GRADING SERVICES DIP THOUSANDS OF COINS IN SOLUTIONS TO REMOVE TARNISH...THEN GIVE THEM A SOLID UNCLEANED GRADE.
Our estimate is that grading services clean over 10,000 coins each week. Some dealers literally send thousands of coins in Plastic Proof set/Mint set containers to grading services. The grading services "crack them out" and dip them to remove toning and haze. Grading services charge for their service and will grade the coins they clean with a SOLID grade without reference to having cleaned them.
"Cleaning" removes contaminants from the surface of a coin that would, over time, "eat away" at the surface. Removing contaminants from the surface of a coin, then sealing the coin in a holder to fully protect it from being mishandled or coming into contact with contaminants as subtle as air and moisture, combined with catalysts like light and heat will one day, become the approved method in the coin industry of housing/protecting a coin as it is being done today by the coin grading services.
In the present day "your coin has been cleaned" is used as an excuse by dealers to beat the seller down in price when a dealer is buying. However, "cleaning" is discounted or never mentioned when a dealer is selling a coin.
The purists want every scrap of dirt that can't be blown away with one's breath to be left on a coin so as to preserve it in it's "natural state". When you consider the ultimate/potential damage that any contaminant will do over time to a coin, it only seems logical to remove all contaminants if the goal is to preserve and protect the coin.
Ever hear of the term "Improperly cleaned" that grading services place on coins they grade? What do these two words imply?
If you can say that a coin is "improperly cleaned" then this means that a coin can be "properly cleaned". Otherwise grading services would only use the word  "cleaned" when describing a coin.
Contaminants left on the surface of any coin will ultimately "mix" with the metal of the coin and cause damage. The ,000 question is, "when to clean", "how to clean", and "when not to clean".
To say a coin "needs expert cleaning" means just that. An expert, like a grading service, needs to make the determination. Even after 55 years, we don't claim to have the expertise. We buy and sell coins.........it's not our business to clean/grade coins........we leave that to the experts...........and there are truly experts.
The advice, "never clean a coin" applies to most people........because most people would "improperly clean a coin".........but "never clean a coin" does not apply to all people and all coins at all times. Some coins should be cleaned some of the time while other coins should never be cleaned at anytime.
Finally, we want to share one experience with the question we have received about 1 million times over the years......"Has this coin been cleaned?". Our response was “Yes, in our opinion the coin has been cleaned to some extent during its lifetime.” The customer buys the coin anyway. About two weeks later his friend writes madder than a mosquito in a mannequin factory stating that in his opinion the coin has not been cleaned and he would have been willing to pay three times what his friend paid for it but didn't buy it because we told his friend we though it had been cleaned.
You can ask us our opinion on whether or not a coin has been cleaned. Our answer will be two fold:
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1. What percentage of 100 is it "visible" to us that the coin in its present condition has been cleaned?
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2. What percent of 100 do we think the coin has of passing a grading service as not having been cleaned?
Opinions are like noses. Most people have one, and if you want "ours" about coin cleaning or anything else........just ask.......it's free. Dumb questions are better than stupid mistakes.
We do charge, however, for marital counseling.