Suprise basement find!

ad4400

I was going through some boxes, one I knew had two rolls of Morgans, when I noticed this cardboard packaging tucked in the side.

There was a circulated Peace Dollar, but much more significantly the gold piece. Sorry for the poor pics, just not terribly set up for good coin imagery. My thought is to get certified and make it the first gold piece into my 7070 registry. My concern is that it sat in the plastic flip for at least 40 years, and whether there could be PVC damage, in particular what appears to be some haze in the Star area on right obverse and in the fields under UNITED on reverse. Can gold get an acetone bath as safely as other coins?

Would appreciate any guess the grade input, although I know they are not the best pictures and do not reflect a fair number of hits on the obverse in particular

BustDMs

Acetone will be fine for PVC removal.

Cost to certify would not be recoverable on a coin of that quality. Just enjoy it raw.

Cougar1978

1898-S $20 CH BU - Super Luster

What a fantastic find. It looks really nice. Can’t see anything really seriously wrong with it. Not sure would want to mess with it. Perhaps a quick in and out dip (light haze in star area) but would need to see in person.

I would certainly send it in to our hosts. Don’t see it above 63, perhaps 62. Would want it slabbed - It certainly would attract attention of bourse room traffic.

In MS 63 CDN CPG MV $3040.

Crypto

I don’t know if I agree, that has a shot at ms62 and even the liquidity bump would be worth the money. That’s a cool find

Mineral Spirts would and a qtip (small circles) would leave that good as new and it def needs that. I find acetone can mute luster sometimes on silver. Less so on gold but still got out of the habit of using it.

Manifest_Destiny

That's a 60-61 at best

golden

Wow. Can I search your basement?

Walkerguy21D

Wow, nice find, my friend!

I’ve had good luck using MS70 on Unc coins with heavy haze.
Using conservation services may be a consideration, but will add quite a bit to the certification cost. But as your cost basis is pretty low…😉

CaptHenway

No point in slabbing that coin, but an acetone bath would be a good idea.

Downtown1974

Wow!…I’ve had a few Buffalo nickels go missing for a bit, but I know exactly where my double eagles are. Great find!

DelawareDoons

Looks like a 61. Acetone the PVC away and don't slab it.

ChrisH821

Nice surprise for sure! I would put that in the actual 7070 album.

Jacques_Loungecoque

I’d love to see what you pull out of the couch cushions.

ad4400

Thanks for input. Acetone and grading it will be. It looks like melt alone right now is $2.3k so I now understand why folks say it’s not ‘worth grading’ but if I am going to add a double eagle to my type, the cost is just the grading fee, obviously much less than a newp.

Then there is (a somewhat) vague story of it being ‘lost’ in the family, only to emerge some decades after storage. I slabbed a 1982 penny with similar story for my Type.

mirabela

That's a pretty remarkable thing to have just turn up! And while it isn't in high grade it's still an uncirculated double eagle, something I'd guess most coin collectors will not ever have.

Elcontador

I get it cleaned up (acetone bath) and put it in an airtite. Did this with some gold coins that were in my grnadmothers safe deposit box, who bequeathed them to my father, who bequeathed them to the three of us. Don't collect gold, but my impression is that you either have a very rare circulated coin, or a common gold coin in at least MS 63 to get a significant value bump.

Have an 04 S Double Eagle that looks to be in the 58-60 range, and a 14 S Quarter Eagle in the VF 30 range.

Herb_T

Details grade - it has writing on obverse. “Jon”

MWallace

Advice to all searching parking lots: "Start searching basements instead".

dhikewhitney

MS60

skier07

If you plan on selling the coin it perhaps might make sense to grade it, otherwise I would soak it in acetone and leave it alone. It’s a common date so grading doesn’t really add any value to the coin.

joeykoins

Wow!
Don't you just love pleasant unexpected surprises?
Notice, I said, "pleasant"?
Good for you on that Gold!
Esp now when Gold prices are soaring.

mark_dak

Nice find. I'd clean it up and leave it raw. No real upside on that coin in it's condition. Liberty DE's in lower conditions (Even low MS) are not commanding much over melt value so you may have trouble even recovering your grading fees.

Good luck whatever you end up doing.

Mark

Jimnight

Nice one!

tommy44

Perfect as the first gold coin for your 7070. Why bother spending the money to get it authenticated unless you are building a 7070 set in slabs. I would save the money and use it toward your next addition to the set..

Sweetpie

@Herb_T said:
Details grade - it has writing on obverse. “Jon”

Good catch, although I can see it as accidential markings.

OP- Is there a Jon in your tree?

ad4400

No Jon that I am aware of. Really hoping those are random marks.

OAKSTAR

You gotta love the smell of gold in the morning! 👍

TennesseeDave

ad4400, is this a coin you had bought in the past and forgot about? Or did you just find it?

mirabela

One other thing crosses my mind about this coin -- if the point is to have a really nice example in one's 7070 registry, for instance, the prices are so compressed right now because of high intrinsic value that you could probably sell that coin and get a certified 63 with an outlay of only a couple hundred dollars tops. Of course if this particular coin has sentimental value then don't do that, but rather than getting this one graded that's another path you could consider.