Indian Attack!!!

mhammerman

Went out chasin ms $5 indians last week, not like walking to the corner drugstore. Being from a fairly large city, it seemed like they should be available. After visiting 4 different shops, there were 4 ms indians to be had...1-$5 and 3-$10's. One guy was gonna get some, one guy had had some but didnt right now but he could get some...one was even laughable, he said one guy and just left a few minutes before I came in and bought the last one he had. I guess all the indian attacking is done on the net from what I'm seeing here. Photos will be posted on Tuesday probably of the two that came home but it isn't one of those fancy photos...just digitals from on top of a table.

That coin issue, particularly the $5 is a really nice part of history and I am just starting to learn about that period and how this coin was part of it. Any information on that topic is most welcome. The other thing that is like a bonus is that they are beautiful coins and not particularly hard to grade in the au-low ms state. Surely there is an art to the grading but the bright finish of this coin and the concise, clean detail and the quality of that honey color will speak its condition to you with out requiring an exceptional amount of inspection. Any information on this topic is also welcome.

More from the indian outpost soon!

Mhammerman

Stuart

mhammerman: to the forum!!

mhammerman

Thank you Stewart, I was hoping to meet you here since you're from Houston. Hopefully we will meet at a show or in a shop some time. Best of luck on your collecting.

Mike

ajc

I have been collecting the $2.50 for a year and have 13 of the 15. If you have a secret to grading these please let me know. I find the $2.50 the most difficult coin to grade. With about 20 of the $2.50 indians graded anywhere from au55-ms64 I still can't tell the difference. Since the difference in a premium quality au58 and a ms63-ms64 is unnoticable to me. I have decided to stick with the premium quality au58's.

mhammerman

Not sure how the 2 1/2's grade, they are kinda small for me to get a good look at but the $5 is not so difficult. Like you, I am in the au-62/3 are area for collecting. I don't know that there is a secret to grading these but of course the top of the eagles wing should not show any wear as this is the high contact area. If anything has happened to the coin, this is certainly the second place you can check. The first place to check is kind of like the morgans, on the cheek of the indian brave...he has a very high cheek bone...if this coin has been slidin around a lot or if it has had any wear it will show here. The next place I look is the stars and the headband/feather devices because this is the area that will show wear, particularly from handling. The other factors that are pretty interesting is the field and the color. The 5's have 10% copper in them so they get a honey color to the gold and it is pretty obvious if the coin has been cleaned or messed with by any chemicals. The field will show the typical dinks and reed rubs wear if they were pocket change. The interesting thing about the 5 as opposed to the 10 is that the $5 was a coin that was used...you have heard the expression "coin of the realm", though I'm still researching, this coin was in the pocket of anyone that had a job back then because $5 was one weeks wages for factory work so the coin was well used where it was in circulation. The $10 was kind of a lot of money for most folks in the teens so they were not so well used and the ms population of 10's seems pretty healthy. The 10's are truly beautiful but easier to find than the $5's and at about the same price (go figure...twice the gold for the same price). So, though there were between 34,000 and 3,400,000 of the 5's minted they were well used and populations for ms are kind of light (a few thousand on the common issues). So, if the coin is circulated, you can tell by the cheek and the eagle and the fields. If it has been cleaned, it will jump out at you. But...given the cost and the treasure of having the 5's, I'm a strong believer of pcgs or ngc slabbed coins just so you don't have to get in some kind of contest with whom ever you may be doing business with. It will cost you a little premium over raw but then that cushons your down side. Last guy I spoke with on the indian series is that "...I have never lost money on an indian." The other thing I like about the $5 is they are worth about $90 in bullion so your down side with an au/ms 62 is maybe 3x or so w/au and about $400 for 62's so given the beauty of this coin, the little pitterpatter you get when you own a nice gold coin, and the history quality of the issue, I think the dowside with the 5's is minimal. With the 2 1/2, I'm not sure because I know nothing about them but I would suspect that a lot of those ended up as pocket change too so the ms population may also be small but once again, I don't really know. Of course, I am very anxious to find links or information to the history of the $5's, I'm smitten!

Very best of luck to you ajc.


Mike