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1855 $1 gold -- grade help please? -- UPDATE 1/21/06: PCGS grade posted
jonathanb
Posts: 4,063 ✭✭✭✭✭
This might be the consolation prize for one of my bigger recent mistakes. Unfortunately, I don't know the series well (or really, at all), and this coin's value is very grade-sensitive. The pricing roughlly doubles between 50 and 58, and then roughly doubles again into MS.
Understanding all of the problems with grading from pictures, would anyone familiar with this series (or anyone else) be willing to help me out with a grade opinion?
Thanks!
jonathan
Understanding all of the problems with grading from pictures, would anyone familiar with this series (or anyone else) be willing to help me out with a grade opinion?
Thanks!
jonathan
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but for me it is au-63
IF THE COIN in hand sight seen has NO rub then ms63
and of course in hand sight seen the above might be totally different
AS PER THE ABOVE ONLY A HIGHLY SUBJECTIVE GUESSTIMATE
That coin is really great looking.
It looks nice and probably is Choice MS (or at least the picture is)
Best advice - buy a PCGS,NGC or ANACS one
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since 8/1/6
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
If it looks as good in hand as the photos/scans, 63+
Nice score. What did you pay?
Check out my current listings: https://ebay.com/sch/khunt/m.html?_ipg=200&_sop=12&_rdc=1
i could see ms64+++++/ms65
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Looks like there is some wear to me on the head-dress, left hand flower and bow on the reverse. It is a great looking coin however, and the type II's are very tough to grade, so it could be a ms-63(4). I had an 1854 type II in an old rattler holder that went from a VF35 to AU55 when I sent it in for regrading so who knows ???!!!!!
<< <i>Nice score. What did you pay? >>
Well, I might as well tell the whole story. Maybe someone will learn something from it. This was part of a larger group off eBay. As it happens, this particular coin "came along for the ride" and wasn't the reason I was interested at all. The one I was really looking at in the group was another $1 gold piece that the seller described as "1853". Thing is, I looked at the picture, and it was absolutely positively an 1853-C. There was nothing to guarantee authenticity, of course, but no question about the mintmark. None.
Except for the little detail that when I got the coin in hand, it was really 1853-O, not 1853-C.
It's definitely the same coin, but even when I went back to look at the original pictures, I still thought that the picture looked like a C. And then when I took my own pictures, those pictures also made it look a little like a C, although less than the originals. So go figure.
I've attached the rest of the group below. The British coins are half-guineas. I assume that the holed ones aren't worth more than bullion value. The seller admitted she didn't know coins, and based on past sales it looks like she buys stuff at estate sales. She said she found this group in an old sewing chest, I think. Again that says nothing about whether the pieces are authentic, but at least I believe that she wasn't running a scam. Everyone here knows the adage about buying raw gold on eBay (don't!) and especially about buying raw key-date gold on eBay (DON'T!). But we've already demonstrated that I can be stupid, and so I bit.
If the 1855 comes back authentic, I break even at AU-55 or so, and anything better than that would be gravy. I like group lots specifically because they do offer some measure of insurance against mistakes of this type. But I'm still really annoyed at myself about the 1853-not-C.
Total cost for the group (7 coins, including the 1855 $1), was just under $1000.
Edited to add: It sure is odd, not to mention against extremely long odds, that it would be the best coin, quality-wise, among the 7 coin group.
Hoot
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
I left it with a dealer for submission to PCGS. I'll post the results when I get them.
This is fun!
jonathan
NOTE: No trees were killed in the sending of this message. However, a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.
Type collector since 1981
Current focus 1855 date type set
<< <i>It's a $3K-$5K coin >>
I was actually offered $10K+ (Greysheet is $8K for 63 and $15K for 64, roughly.) Probably stupid of me not to take it, but I figure I'm not going to spend that kind of money on a coin, so I might as well hang onto this one now that I have it.
Of course, now watch it come back as 62, or 58...
jonathan
<< <i>Of course, now watch it come back as 62, or 58... >>
So crack it out and sell it to the person for the 10K.
I personally think Type 2 gold dollars are the most overrated and overvalued coins in the U.S. market, at least in AU-58. But even if this coin is AU-58 -- and I think it's better if it's genuine -- it's still a hell of a coin and worth at least a grand.
It LOOKS real to me, but I'm not an expert.
<< <i>Of course, now watch it come back as 62, or 58... >>
Have no worry of this. If it comes back 63 resubmit it until it 64's.
I already have a Spade half guinea like the holed one you have, but if the price is right, I would take it off your hands as well.
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
NOTE: No trees were killed in the sending of this message. However, a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.
Type collector since 1981
Current focus 1855 date type set
u suck!