Grade This 1921 Peace Dollar

bloozeman

All,

I'm considering starting off my Peace collection with this 1921 specimen. Judging by the pic what do you think the grade is?

Bloozeman

P.S. Ignore the $165 price on the obverse because the asking price is considerably less.

supercoin

Judging from the photo, and if I were to assume full mint luster, I'd say MS64. Maybe even clean enough for a higher grade, but a typical weak strike keeps it from gem.

However, judging from the price, I suspect that assumption would be false.

Nice looking AU coin.

Dog97

Judging by the amount & severity of the marks I'll say 62/63 but it could be a slider 58. The rim is lightly gouged above Liberty's head. Otherwise it's a clean coin but I wonder what caused the white stripe through the date area. I would either want to see it firsthand or in a slab before I made up my mind.

supercoin

Severe marks? Guess I'd better take my bleary eyes to bed.

Placid

Nice au or a weak struck 63. The eagle seems to have some wear and a flat spot, might be the picture thou.

lordmarcovan

High Relief Peace dollars are prone to incomplete striking and are therefore difficult to grade. In my experience, I would say that the coin you have there has a somewhat above-average strike, as the hair details are pretty good. The HR Peace dollars I have seen in the market also seem to be prone to discoloration and/or streaky, brownish toning and stains, as if they had been dipped in someone's coffee cup and only partially dripped dry. Your coin there doesn't seem to have that. On one hand that's good, but since it is a raw coin, it also makes me wary. It could have been dipped. If you are going to keep it as a raw coin (to put in an album, perhaps), that may not be a problem. But if you intend to submit it to PCGS or NGC, watch out. Make sure it is original.

Grade? I'd be scared to guess. I never was any good at grading those. Could be a nice slider AU coin, could be a low Mint State piece. On any other coin, I would unhesitantly say "AU". On a Peace dollar, particularly a High Relief, though, I am not so confident of my grading skills. The HR coins are prone to incomplete hair details and the later, lower relief issues usually have pretty squishy strikes. If you can deal with the uncertainty of buying a possibly-cleaned slider raw, and the price sounds right to you, go for it. I've definitely seen worse.

leothelyon

I grade this one somewhere around AU50 and value it at $95.

Leo

lordmarcovan

Hmm. I would have graded Leo's coin higher than that. Maybe not MS, but 55-58 at least.

But what do I know? I have already confessed to being totally unable to grade Peace dollars and Pratt Indian coins.

leothelyon

Hey....thank you LM.
I'd would then say it's worth $110......going once...going twice.......s
Actually have two of these and this one is.......

Leo

Also for those who collect the FS Jefferson's (and I don't believe too many will see this) the strike
of this dollar, the high relief strike. is what I look for in the Jeffersons I collect, not the flat strike.

dorkkarl

the grade on the 2x2 seems appropriate to me.

K S

TheNumish

I think bloozeman should forget about the Peace Dollar he showed us and buy Leos. The Peace Dollar he showed us looks like an AU coin to me. Leo's coin looks like a nice original unc coin with a better than average strike. I'm almost tempted to buy it.

darktone

From that picture I say cleaned au. The coin Leo posted is a nice original looking coin-very nice. mike

DHeath

Just for reference, look at the strike on this PCGS MS64 that just expired on ebay. She has a mark on the cheek, and a gouge on the eagle, but the look of a MS66 coin.

PCGS MS64 Peace Dollar

darktone

TheNumish- I guess we are thinking alike on this one
. mike

nwcs

I've got an AU-55 one that looks like any of the MS ones except the field luster shows a little bit of wear. I think the luster needs to be examined before a good determination can be made. If the luster is complete, then I'll go with MS-63. If the luster (expecially around the rim) shows some incompleteness or wear then I'll go with AU-55.

Spudmasher

Look very carefully on the high points of the coin! Wear..Cleaned! Not the normal luster associated with a true mint state specimen.

its4real

I'll have to go with LM on this one - after carefully studyiung my NEW Photograde book....hmmmm

AU to MS slider

There is wear on the high points and rim dings so if it's MS it'll be low

leothelyon

Hey Don......Thamk you.
Did I say $110.........I must be nuts!..........$115.........going once.........going twice..........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

au58

The Peace Dollar is one of the most difficult series of the 20th century to grade properly. Within the Peace Dollar series, the 1921 is the most difficult issue to grade properly, even with the coin in hand.

If I was just starting the Peace Dollar series, I would try to make it to a coin show and then examine as many coins of this date as possible in order to determine what sort of quality is available and at what price.

Using this photo and electing to pay more than AU money for this coin would not be prudent.

HuliganRS

It looks AU-58 to me!

Carefull - Buy this year slabbed!

Rusty.

keets

AU58

al h.

dorkkarl

i agree it is a difficult date to grade. not much in terms of luster lines to go by either, because of the satin finish. i suggest you begin grading this coin by the rev, because the 1st areas of wear are well defined for this coin.

K S

bloozeman

All,

Thanks for the responses. They were very insightful. This was an eBay auction and unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it ) some yahoo picked it up for the $95 "buy it now" price. The opening bid would have been $85 and I was hoping to pick it up for that if possible because I figured it was an AU55 to AU58 as well. For what it's worth the person auctioning it off did advertise it as AU+ and no the BU+ that was on the holder so I think he/she was trying to honestly represent it.

I plan on building two sets of Peace Dollars, i.e., a higher-grade (translates to more $$) slabbed set which will probably be in the MS63 and MS64 range and also an unslabbed set for a Dansco or Interceptor folder. Basically, I'll keep the slabbed coins in the safety deposit box and the folder at home for constant viewing enjoyment. I eventually will get a safe for the house but I doubt I'll ever keep my higher-grade coins in it for long periods of time anyway.

-Bloozeman

Dog97

Oh well you didn't miss much. They turn up slabbed often on eBay so you can find another. 21 HR Peace dollars are not hard to grade. You just consider below average/average strike as gem when it comes to the 21. The hard part is applying NGC or PCGS standards to the 21 since they are market graded and the market is always changing.

BillJones

The coin looks like a dipped out AU to me. I recently sold a PCGS MS-63 for around $240. That coin was weakly struck, but it was an Unc. and it had decent luster and no distracting marks.