I hate to be negative but...

jtryka

...there is no way this coin is F/VF!!! I have a few classic heads in XF, but I seriously doubt on grade lower would result in a disappearing date! 1836 Quarter Eagle

numobri

Kinda looks fake to me,The eye on the eagle is still there and nothing else is.

Placid

Looks like the S in states is scratched into the surface.

Well for $64 I guess it's not bad if it's real.

jtryka

That one doesn't look fake to me, it just looks worn and cruddy (classic heads didn't wear very well). It could be fake, but if it is, then I would guess it's a contemporary counterfeit, after all, if you were going to copy a rare coin, why spend the effort on a coin like this that's barely worth more than melt.

This one on the other hand looks very fake to me 1861 Quarter Eagle. It's a foreign seller, and they made sure to note the correct wieght of a genuine piece. It's been cleaned, and it's not a terribly valuable date so I guess that's why it's raw, but the rims just look funny to me.

Placid

The 1836 isn't worth more than melt. I would have thought anything that old would be worth more than melt. Maybe I should look into getting one of those

Could the 1861 be a strike error of some sort? Not that I would want to buy a raw gold coin from Israel.

jtryka

Well Placid, I am a bit of a gold snob! You'd be surprised at how cheap some older gold coins are. 2 years ago, I bought a raw 1835 $5 on ebay for $250, and it graded XF-40. There are bargains to be found, but I would grade this coin AG/Ex-jewelry and so it really has little value to me. Even so, classic heads are pretty underrated, they are the ugly stepsisters of the early bust coins, and the oddball cousin to the later coronet types which more people collect. Still they are not very common. Another underrated series right now are common date $10 Libs, which can be bought in unc grades for scarcely more than melt (about $150), and many are selling for just over $200 to $225 in like MS-60 to MS-62. There's your gold lesson for the day.

PS-I just looked and Heritage has an 1838 Classic Head $5 in AU-58 for $1,700 and that is one of the better dates in the short series. Certainly the most challenging dates were the branch mint issues.

jtryka

Placid, on the 1861, there was a change in the reverse on some of the lettering and arrowheads, and both reverses were used in 1859, 1860 and 1861, so that could explain some of the bad feeling I get in the pit of my stomach, but I am not convinced. The obverse seems a bit off center, but the rims seem odd, and there is something that doesn't seem right on some of the lettering, like the Ts on the reverse. Unfortunately I don't have a quarter eagle on hand to compare it to.

Placid

I have always wanted to get one of the Dahlonega, Georgia, and Charlotte mint coins but the prices are out of my range.

jtryka

They are the pricey ones!

Cam40

HMMMM CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!!!!!

TheNumish

coin looks real to me but if it's a f/vf than I'm the guy who bought the 1933 Saint. What an ugly worn coin.

JD

I've seen, and own, quite a few fake silver cast copies and this has all the traits of a cast copy, porious fields, weak strikes, questionable wear, etc. And many cast fakes are quite good, although the weight and toning usually gives them away quickly. BUT, I've never seen a cast fake gold coin so I can't say whether this is or isn't. As to why someone would cast poor looking common dates it's because most times that's the only coin they have in hand at that time and it's a volume game. How many can they create before moving on to something else. But again, I doubt it's cast. Rather, it looks like it was either dug up and cleaned or recovered from the ocean.

pmh1nic

Here's an F-12 for comparison
1839-C Quarter Eagle F-12 Obverse

(Click the next button to see the reverse)