GTG: 53 Proof Quarter
Coinflip
Posts: 845 ✭✭✭
I was thinking of submitting this one, can I get opinions on grades
THX!
THX!
SMILEFORSOMECHANGE LLC
RAD#306
RAD#306
0
Comments
Attractive coin.
Steve
<< <i>Looks very clean apart from the haze and toning. Recognizing that you can't see hairlines well in a photo, I think the haze would limit it to a 66 CAM.
Attractive coin. >>
Would an acetone bath clean up the haze...or is it better to leave it alone????
The issue of whether to give the coin a bath to remove the toning/haze or to leave it alone is a personal choice of the owner.
To me the coin looks fantastic and totally original. Very eye appealing, especially with the frosted devices on both sides. Many collectors of proof coins would prefer to have there coins be original, unmessed with and eye appealing. This coin fits the bill.
Other collectors of proof coins prefer to have their coins blast white, without any toning or haze. Especially collectors of Cameo proofs who love the intensely white frosted devices contrasted against deep, balck, watery, mirrored fields.
If you do give this coin a bath you will forever lose its current look. You may find a high grade, hariline free CAM or even DCAM coin emerges from the bath. Or you may find an impaired coin with hairlines, marks, ugly toning that can not be removed which is low grade.
Kind of a roll of the dice. Before you decide what to do, you should look at the coin very, very closely under good lighting and magnification to see what defects, if any, exist beneath the haze and toning.
Looking at your excellent photos of both sides of the coin leads me to believe that you may have a coin that has DCAM frost on the devices on both sides of the coin. I also suspect that there may be hairlines on the obverse right side fields and that under the haze present on the obverse and reverse fields there are spots or blotches that have eaten into the metal (if so, then the fields will not look good with the haze and toning removed). Further, the colorful peripheral toning on both sides of the coin serve as a nice frame to the frosted central devices.
I have collected Cameo proofs from 1950-1970 for many years. Initially I would dip and bathe any coin I picked up that had toning or haze to make it blast white. I still love the blast white look of the Cameo, but as time has gone by I now appreciate coins like your 1953 quarter and do not mess with them.
If your coin were my coin I would leave it as is unless there was a good chance of getting a high grade DCAM grade from a TPG that would translate into a large sales price in a sale to a registry set collector.
<< <i>Would an acetone bath clean up the haze...or is it better to leave it alone???? >>
SanctionII provided a pretty good summary of your coin.
I don't personally believe that an acetone dip would do anything for your coin. I believe it'd need to go to a Ez-est Dip which would remove the color. I tend to agree with Kevin in this case, that I'd probably leave it alone. The attractive, original look of the color outweighs the potential to make a $75 blast white coin (if my 66 CAM grade was accurate).
Here is my Washington Quarter Variety Registry Set
This is my Washington Quarter Proof Variety Registry Set
I have a similar looking coin - a 1954 proof with somewhat heavier peripheral toning. PCGS graded it a 67 cameo when it has strong claims to deep cameo. That coin was one of Pepperdoodles' "set back" coins - a coin that he thought was strong for the date and one of his "keepers". Why he sold it to me, we will never know, but he had strong opinions on lots of issues. (sorry, no pics - one of these days I'll dig it out of the vault and shoot some.)
Back to your coin - I'd leave it alone. I really like it the way it is.
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!