1908-S Indian Head Cent Grading Set - The First Branch Mint Cent

Congrats, looks like a colorful, lustrous wonder.

 

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Very nice!!!:kewl:

 

I tahink you would call that coin a keeper.

Very nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

"Here's an example of a great PCGS AU58 which I missed out on eBay a couple months ago as someone beat me to it:"





That was me... do you want to see what it looks like?





BTW I am very happy w/ this coin-- I recently sent it to Rick Snow and he gave it the Eagle Eye PS. I just wanted to show that sometimes pictures can be misleading, whether intentional or not.

 

Thanks for posting copperwired and welcome to the forum!!!

Congrats on the AU58 and on Rick Photo Sealing the coin :thumb:

True, the angled photos that fairtraderz on eBay takes of the coins do often make coins look much better than they really are, hard to say whether it's intentional or not since most of their photos are taken in this manner.

That said, I still believe that you have one of the better PCGS AU58s out there. I've seen maybe 6-8 PCGS AU58s over the past year and some of them are just plain bad while others are just ok.

Thanks for sharing it here and congrats again

 

Finally got myself an AU58 example last weekend at the Long Beach coin show... will have to get some pics up soon. That makes the set complete from G04 (the current lowest certified grade available) through AU58!!!! If anyone has or knows of any raw 1908-S cents that have a shot at AG03, FR02 or PO01, I'd be interested

Then, during the middle of the week I saw an MS62RB example posted on Eagle Eye Rare Coins that I just had to have Thanks Rick!!! Couldn't wait to get it and take pics of my own so I'm using Eagle Eye's photos here, very pretty I think:

 

Congrats on the set completion. It must be really cool to spread them all out on the table and look at the progression.

 

Oh and you might take a couple of VF examples and put them in your pocket for the next year or two and see if you can get the grades you are looking for.

 

Just updated my 1908-S IHC Grading Set with a couple of new purchases.

Finally got an AU58 at the Long Beach show last week that I felt was priced ok and was satisfactory for the grade. I'm sure there are better AU58 examples that exist, but I've already passed on several AU58s that I considered plain old bad looking. This one has a decent sized hit on Liberty's face, but it has plenty of AU58 luster that I liked



Also picked up the MS62RB pictured above from Eagle Eye Rare Coins this week. Thanks Rick! And now I have my 2nd PhotoSealed coin



With that, I now have the circulated portion of the grading set complete from G04 through AU58. The set is also complete in the uncirculated grades up to MS64RD except for an MS64BN and the very low population MS60BN, MS60RB, MS61BN and MS61RB. I really don't think I want to go after those hard to find 60-61 grades anyways. And since coins graded PO01 through AG03 currently do not exist, once I find a nice MS64BN I think that I'll be done with this set! I thought about going up to the MS65 and MS66 grades, but I think the MS64RD that I have looks better than alot of the MS65RD examples I've seen and I just can't see paying over twice the money for the next grade up when I don't think i'll be any better than the coin I already have.

I'm just happy I was able to finish most of this set before the recent significant run up in prices on the 1908-S IHC and before at least three others that I know of have committed to completing their own 1908-S IHC grading sets. And since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, it doesn't bother me too much that I've had to compete with them on a few coins towards the end of buliding my set and I wish them luck in continue to build and in finishing their sets.

 

Very nice pickup!!!!!!!!!!!!!:thumb::thumb:

 

A member of the forum asked me about this set today so I figured I'd bump this thread since it hasn't seen any action for nearly two years. Since then, I have had lots of fun sharing this set with everyone and have gotten a lot of great feedback through the showcase of the set on the PCGS Set Registry found here:

http://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/showcase.aspx?sc=770

I've also had the set professional imaged by Todd of BluCC photos which can be seen in the above link. They came out very nice and I'm very impressed with Todd's work. I also spent way too much time editing those images and playing around in Photoshop to make the following poster design. Of course the image has been reduced to fit on the forums, but the full file is nearly 200MB and would be able to print as a full 24" x 36" poster if I ever get around to it.



In addition, I've also had some fun displaying the set at some of the SoCal coin shows and to some of the SoCal coin clubs. Most recently, I had the set on display at the February 2011 Long Beach show where it won first prize in the U.S. Coin display category. I took a quick shot of the display with my camera phone which didn't come out that great, but it'll give you an idea of how the set was displayed.



Thanks again for all of the great comments and hope you have enjoyed the set at least a little bit as much as I have.

 

Here's mine:

 

Nice additions. And a beautiful set. I agree that is a better than average AU58 coin. Once again - nice set.

 

hey illini, does this grade ag3?

 

Illini has cornered the market on 1908-S Indian cents but I've managed to acquire a few through underground channels he's not aware of. Stumbled on this one a year or two ago and bought it before Illini found out about it.
Lance.

 

Thanks Mark!

swish, I don't think your 1908-S is an AG3... it looks like it has around VG details actually. You can make out the headband on the obverse pretty well on your coin and on the reverse the shield seems to have very little wear. Also the rims of your coin are full and not worn into the fields. For comparison, see my G4 example in my set where the face of liberty is virtually smooth and the headband is barely visible. Also the reverse of my G4 has tons of wear on the wreath and the horizontal lines in the small shield are pretty much flattened. Finally, hard to tell in your pics but not sure it would be gradable as it appears your coin may have a little bit of environmental damage. In any event, thanks for posting, any 1908-S IHC is cool in my book!

Lance, that is an awesome example and yes, you apparently figured out somewhere that I wasn't looking, haha. Your coin appears to have an exceptionally good strike for a 1908-S IHC which are usually not struck well at all.

Seriously though, for around a year or two I was buying every single PCGS graded 1908-S IHC that popped up on eBay or at a coin show I attended. At one point I had almost three of every grade as I was trying to not only get an example in each grade, but trying to find a good example of the grade since the grading of these is far less consistent than I would have ever imagined before. While I was on my buying spree the Greysheet prices of the 1908-S IHC went up 25%-50% in just about all circulated grades, wonder if I had anything to do with that

 

Here is my 08-s IHC



It was the first coin I spent more than a cnote for. I think I overpaid, I grade it around a f-12 or 15.

I picked up this coin when I saw the thread about woodies (coins with a graining effect due to poor alloy mixing)

 

i guess i was net grading. lol

 

I like the old school Coin holder I have one just like it for My Buffalo's nickles

 

illini420,

I've always admired your 1908-S grading set. I even saved each photo, as a reference. I'm glad it was brought up again, with more photos. I hope to be able to add to this thread in the future. Thank you for your devotion to this series and this first branch mint IHC.