Any Buchner Gold Coin Experts Out There?

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Posted By: PaulPaulPaul

I recently picked up a Buchner Gold Coin (N284) of Von Der Ahe, the only card from this set I've ever owned. It is currently entombed in an SGC holder. Like a few strange people on this board, I usually break my cards out of their holders. But I noticed something a little unusual about this card, and wanted to check if it's typical for this set.

When I tilt the card to the light, I see about a dozen irregularly shaped regions that reflect the light differently than the rest of the card. The regions come in all kinds of irregular shapes, some similar to ovals, some similar to crescents, some almost circular, etc. Through the SGC holder, they each look like they have a little thickness to them. The best description I can give is that they look spots of perfectly clear glue. When I look at the spots under a magnifying glass, the pattern of dots that make up the card appear to be exactly correct, even within these spots. I'd post a scan, but unfortunately the spots won't show.

Have any of you ever seen anything like this before? Since SGC has already graded the card, I think it's unlikely that there's anything wrong with it. But I'd hate to break it out of the holder and find myself with a card that another grader rightly or wrongly concludes is ungradeable. I suppose it's possible that these things are actually drops of glue, since it is a lowgrade card.

Thanks in advance.

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Posted By: T206Collector

...that SGC grades cards with drops of glue on them, but hammers the grade.

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Posted By: Paul

I've now looked at it under a microscope, and my guess is that it's glue or shellack or some such thing. Each of the spots is invisible under the microscope, except that you see a series of very fine cracks in exactly the same area where the spots should be. The cracks are not visible without a microscope. I'm guessing that someone must have splattered something clear on the card and, with age or drying, it cracked.

The other possibility is that N284s have some kind of shiny gloss on them that cracks with age (like T207s), and all that remains of the shiny gloss on my card is a few spots.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Paul- if that is the case, and I apologize for not getting back to you, then I think you should leave it in the holder.