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I've made that mistake a few times also Bernie, so I know where you are coming from. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt many times, I've just wasted £10 on a standard 1863 penny, that looked a little odd in the photo. I spend a lot of time looking at coins on Ebay trying to find varieties, many of which are never listed even by experienced sellers - how many listings do you see for 1913 die pairings? I'm still trying to find a decent 1+B F175. 1909 F169 and 1908 F164a are still on the radar. I take the view, if I've done the leg work, and I'm prepared to get it wrong more often than not, then interesting items I do manage to buy at a low price are fair game.

I would give CGS a big miss myself. Their grading is too inconsistent and biased towards coins they are trying to push thru their retail outlet London Coins. As for rejecting "cleaned" coins CGS's attitude is completely unreasonable as all they need to do is note it on the capsule along with any other defects such as edge nicks/knocks etc. CGS coins for sale thru London Coins often have scratches digs etc. that do not effect their grading and are completely ignored by CGS "graders".