Are these legit?

Disclaimer: Bear in mind this coin is absolutely flawless on obverse, EVERY SCRATCH YOU SEE IS ON THE PLASTIC PROTECTOR NOT ON THE COIN.
This is a 1943-D and this coin is mirror like (if you look closely you can see the camera lense in the picture). My camera can't take a good pic of this for some reason (I think cause its so shiny) and I know this is a horrible shot. I guess what I am getting at is this really a silver coin. This was a past collection of my Great Grandmother. It has absolutely no tarnish on the front at all. Is this too good to be true or is this a gem? I have 11 of these from 1942-1945 all mostly the same condition.

Thanks Mike B

 

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Looks to be a polished coin worth a buck maybe.
But the picture is hard to tell for sure.

 

Might be easier to photograph if you take the coin out of the 2x2. But it looks polished in these pics. If you have a scale to weigh them, they should be 5 grams each, or very close to it.

 

They are in one of those old wartime coinage things. Something very similar to this. I dont know if I want to take them out and touch them???

 

looks to me like it may be plated.

 

I agree, the coin looks polished. I wouldn't worry about it though. War nickels are relatively cheap even in gem BU. Only the top pop registry coins command any real money.

 

Polished, worth melt. Probably more sentimental value since it came from your great grandmother.

 

What do you polish silver with to make it look that good... That is some good stuff

 

Please, PLEASE tell me you are not about to polish any silver coins. They will be virtually worthless if you do.

 

This is what you want a gem war nickel to look like.

 

Just my Morgan Silver Dollar...







Just kidding I would never polish a coin unless it was worth a penny and was unrecognizable due to severe tarnish. Even then I don't think I would even waste my time with that... Cause I don't have coins in that state...
Mike B

 

Compare your coins to the one posted by Lehigh96: that one has hair; yours does not. They are shiny, perhaps, but they lack detail. They have been worn from use and then polished for display. They have no special numismatic value.

You say "great grandmother" and I think of someone born in 1870. I was born in 1949, my mom in 1931, her mother in 1896. My guess is that you were born in 1990. This set was purchased some time in the 1970s. It seems old to you.

The display is a nice family keepsake, a memento. As more and more of these are torn up, and taken apart, yours will gain in value... about the time you are my age.

 

years ago a client showed me (proudly) his 'collection' of coins.

Purchased at Sears (as I remember) they were all polished coins.

I said -- very nice-- and changed the subject.

Same holder as that one shown.

 

Buy the Holder, not the Coin

We say, "Buy the coin, not the holder," to warn people against taking PCGS or NGC's word for the grade and condition. Reliable though they are, generally, you need to grade the coin for yourself, and accept responsibility for that.

However, here, we have a different situation. Totally focused on the trees, you miss the forest: seeing only the over-cleaned common coins, you miss the value of the real collectible: the marketed commercial coin board set.

See here:

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is the true "literary guild" of our hobby, and these book lovers recognize coin boards as important aspects of numismatics.

Right now, some idiot is tearing the War Nickels out of a board just like that to sell them as scrap silver. It only makes this board that much more valuable.

 

Sweet coin

 

I think your coin is genuine and worth saving as it came from your mother. However, I have seen complete sets of UNC "War Nickles" sell for $14. It's far more valuable as a keepsake than on the market place right now. IMHO

My mom also used to buy sets similiar to yours and often the coins had been taken from circulation and cleaned before mounting on a card. I have sets of IHC,s, Cents, Nickles and Walkers that were all cleaned. The mint set of cleaned Walkers she left me is a heartbreaker. lol

Nice to have though, Congrats.

gary

 

Thanks Gary, those sets sure have given me a good start on my collection.
Mike B

 

Well I was merely wanting to know if these were real. Not wanting to know that you are thoroughly unimpressed with my sentimental memento I have from a passed loved one. And yes I would be "proud" of these because they mean a lot to me, not because they have little value if any over melt.:rollling:

Mike B

 

There may be no good way to handle that. A couple of years ago, I was in the office of the president of a Fortune 500 company on other business and his walls had such material, also, low grade things of metal and paper surrounded by frames worth more. I bought him something truly collectible from Heritage and asked them to contact him directly at that level. I never heard back from him. It is sort of a corollary to the maxim that there is no good way to tell your boss that he is wrong.

Not to flog a dead horse, but, again, I believe that in the next generation, those Bicentennial Era boards may become collectible in their own right.

I know, also, that we have a pot-kettle situation here. I have no problem telling people that their Morgan Dollar VAMS and World War II Walking Liberties in MS-65 and other such junk are over-populated examples of second-rate art.

The Buffalo Nickel, the $3 gold, the 3-cent silver and 3-cent nickel ... Large US notes, and much of the world paper money generally... certain Hard Times Tokens, many Conders ... City View Thalers... Many ancient Greeks ... You can find many worthwhile examples of numismatics.

But most of this USA federal stuff is hardly worth a tenth of the selling price: it was produced in astronomical quantities, saved and collected for a century without actual use, and cribbed from other designs, at that. It's a Ponzi Scheme: each buyer expects to find a bigger fool willing to pay even more for something that has no use: no marginal utility; no production possibilities curve.

In the science fiction novel, Merchant's War, the hero gets addicted to his competitor's cola drink and goes into detox where he meets someone addicted to collectibles. ("100% Genuine nearly silver Busts of the Mongol Chiefs".) Of course, they are collectible, he says, that's all you can do with them is collect them.

If you want to get down to trivia, imagine a Red Book about Red Books... What next, a Blue Book about Blue Books?

De gustibus non disputandum est.

It's usually best to find some common grounds, but, again, I know that I am not in position to give good advice on getting along well with others.

 

Sorry I let my emotions get the best of me...:foot-mouth: