Hi all,
Well, I finally got in to meet with the local coin dealer and PCGS rep. The guy is amazing, to say the least! So I'll start with the good. I did VERY well with my fractional coins. Very good to exceptional condition and quite rare. One he's pretty sure was polished at one time, so that's not so good. Still for what I paid, I still did well. The circulated coins for testing the machine with he had no problem with for the most part though he thinks I may have gotten better quality on them for the price. Still up in the air with that.
For the bad. First, he suspects that the 20 cent piece might be a counterfeit, but since he's see so few he can't be sure. If it is, it's silver and a good copy. The next bad news is that the 1853 $1 gold is without a doubt counterfeit. It meets all the specs for the coin, but the clues were the finish on the back, and the tiny machine ejection pin marks.
And for the ugly. Contacted the seller about a refund on the dollar coin, and he threw a total fit! Wrote back that his stuff is authentic, my expert doesn't know sh*t, he's going to call the police and file a report, he wants proof...and so on. The only way to get absolute proof is to send it in to PCGS, pay the money, and have it returned as a certified counterfeit. Cost me more to do that than I paid!
Spoke to my coin dealer about it and even he said probably better to let it go because it's not worth it, and chalk it up to lesson learned. Well, I'll still see if I can shake things up a bit more. Nothing I hate more than getting screwed.