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Can someone please identify this?
Toadman455
Posts: 26 ✭
Hello, I just acquired some coins. About 40 Kennedy half dollars, a can of 1976-77 pennies, a few other coins, but one is so worn I can't see a year or anything that identifies it, I'll try to load a couple of pics. Anyone know what it is, year, and possible guestimation of value? Thanks.
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Howdy and welcome.
If it's a genuine US Mint product it is a Morgan dollar and appears to have the date 1881. It has also been heavily polished and/or cleaned and might have been in jewelry or a belt buckle at some point. It currently has about $28 in silver value.
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Wow, thanks for the fast reply and the cool info. These were my Grandfathers and my Dad had them in a box since 1978 so no telling what happened to it before.
I could be wrong, but that looks like a 9 instead of an 8.
It does. My Grandfather passed in 1978 and these coins have been in a box and unopened since. The newest coins in the box are 1977.
The last year of production for Morgan Dollars of that era was 1921. The second digit in the date is an 8, even if the heavy wear on the coin might lead you to speculate otherwise.
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Look at the rims. Definitely a 1921.
I sure don’t see the third digit of the date being a 2
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Any suggestions to what I can clean/wipe it with that may reveal more detail?
don't clean or wipe it. keep it as is
trying to bring up the date will only make that area an ugly mess and damage it further
what won't hurt to try, in this case, is a putting a sheet of paper over the area and use a angled pencil side to side over the date to see what that shows
My initial read on it was 1921. On that third digit, the curvature through the center coming from the upper right to lower left is wrong for an 8, and it does not look like the lower right curve comes all the way back to the center.
For coins this worn, I actually find it helps to hold the coin further away, zooming in on the picture creates too much noise and prevents patterns in the image from being recognized.
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The date is definitely 1921. The way they were made that year gave them a distinctly different wear pattern in low grades - as @OnBendedKnee mentions, much of the design mushes together while the rims can remain nearly full. It is a good lowball example, and if the mintmark, or lack of one, can be determined, it could be worth $35 to the right person.
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The Silver Dollar, regardless of date, has an odd wear pattern that suggests that the rims were somewhat protected while the devices were subject to very heavy wear. As TomB wrote, it was probably in some sort of item like a belt buckle. Some collectors like heavily worn coins like that but I don't know how they would view that particular coin. (I'm not one of those collectors. To me it is strictly a bullion item at this point.)
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That would be my guess. I don't know rims but the reverse looks like a C4 since I do not see anything but a gap between the eagles neck and the viewers right facing wing. The C4 reverse started in 1900 on some Morgans and the 1921 also has a similar open gap. Here is an 1889 CC, with a C3 reverse, that is a poor 01 and the feather in this gap is fairly clear.
Note: I grabbed an 1889 CC because I figured one would be in coinfacts but other C3 reverses should be very similar in this respect.
Bottom is a 1921 poor 01 with no feather in the gap.
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I can make out the 1921 date fairly well.
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Nice thread. Toadman is getting some top numismatic analysis on his low-grade Morgan dollar, and I learned something new as well.
Agreed, it's a 1921.
I will try that, thank you.
Thank you, I will try and create some better pics.
Yes, thank you all for all your help and info. I have to say this is my first coin experience and something tells me it won't be the last, ha.
This is the stuff that makes these boards do great.
Well, glad I could help, ha. This is VERY interesting stuff...
I took two more pics using a lighted magnifier and it's clear you can see 1921. I just thought everyone may want to see what it actually turned out to be. Thanks again to all.
Here's the second, not sure why it didn't post along with the first one:
Nice job on the pics! They are definitive.
good job on the second set of pics
1921 morgan dollars are wildly common to the point that dealers- looking at much better condition ones- will pay "less base value than other earlier dates
yours is so bad off it won't have any premium over silver value (some better coins like morgan dollars have allure and bring a bit more than a bunch of worn 1964 quarters)
1921 melt value
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Thanks again everyone! It was an experience that I enjoyed. This may have got me started on something else to take up more of my time, lol. I got some magnifying glasses and one on a stand with a light ring around it yesterday.
Good picture.
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