Original Gold coins

ARCO

I am looking for a type Saint for my collection. Haven't looked much, but seems every single Gold coin I have seen, seems cleaned to me. Sure they still golden Beautiful, but rotate them in the light and hairlines pop up, or they have a general scrubbed/cleaned look.

What are the characteristics of a circulated original (with great eye appeal) Gold coin? How about Unc? Photos or descriptions would be helpful.

Thanks,
Tyler

DaveG

It sounds like you've been looking at raw coins - and coins that have been abrasively cleaned or dipped, as well.

Slabbed coins (especially MS coins) shouldn't show a lot of hair lines - bagmarks, yes, especially in MS-60 to MS-62 grades, but not hairlines.

Neither a description or a photo can convey as much information as just looking at some original coins - rotating them under the light, etc.

RYK

I only purchase gold coins that have been slabbed (NGC/PCGS). It is far more likely that the expert graders will pick out a problem coin than I will. SG $20's tend to be very shiny, and I expect that most have not been dipped or cleaned. They were far less likely to circulate than the $20 Liberties.

There is an ebayer from whom I have bought 5 old coins over the past several months. His name is Duane (user id is duvallgold), and he is very pleasant to del with. He is usually offering a few SG $20's in the MS-62-65 range.

Good Luck!

darktone

Almost all original gold coins in grades of 60-62 by pcgs or ngc look pretty marked up if you are not used to looking at classic US gold and if they are not marked up they have most likely seen some type of cleaning that is detectable by the loss of luster. In my view an original 60-62 coin with luster is much better to look at than a coin graded 60-62 with less marks and little luster but this is only my preference. In grades of 63 these coins are much nicer and the price reflects that with sharp increases. The $20 saint can be found in 63-64 for a reasonable price and be a great looking coin. I try to stay away from the $20 saints with scaly surfaces and of course I am referring to common date coins. mike

nwcs

Here is one. There are no hairlines on this coin, just some light marks. The luster is almost full, broken up by light marks here and there. It's PCGS 63. Easy to obtain date.

ms71

I too have had good luck with duvallgold (ebay name), got a fantastic 1911 $10 Indian PCGS MS64 from him.