About a hour's drive away is a medium sized city that I go to once or twice a month to do some shopping. There are four pawn shops there, one of which deals mostly in numismatic material, while the other three really just dabble in coins. At the first of these today was a bunch of well worn Franklins being sold at 19X face value. Among these was an AU 1964 Kennedy, so for $9.50, that was a no-brainer. Actually, I probably should've bought all the ratty Franklins, too, at about $2 shy of melt value apiece. At the second shop was a slabbed 1963 Frankin "authenticated" and graded VG. Well, it's way better that that, as you can see, maybe even uncirculated. Priced at its silver content at spot + $1, it was also an obvious buy even though it's pretty common. I expect I'll break it out of this holder. I've saved the best for last, and this unexpectedly came out of the place that mostly sells coins. It was an 1861-O, and I won't say what I paid lest somebody has a heart attack. Suffice to say that it was graded as just VG and valued accordingly. I'd judge that it's substantially above that, at least XF. It has some very slight toning and if it's ever been cleaned it was a long time ago, and not done abrasively. What do y'all think? Maybe submit it for certification?
Wow. You scored! I love to buy at or around melt. In a pawn shop you usually have to pay more, not less for coins. I think I would have scored the Frankies even if they were worn if they were less than $10 a piece.
Still hoping for an informed opinion on the grade of the 1861-O. I've posted some different photos, although the luster is somewhat better and pleasing than the impression these new views give (actually approaching that of the Franklin, especially if comparing reverses). One other detail, it appears as if there was a die clash that shows in the eagle's shield.
I'd say an EF , probably cleaned and retoned , but from your pics a nice coin . Sure wish more shops would grade that conservatively .
For what it's worth, here're a couple more shots taken under oblique incadescent lighting, but they still don't convey the coin's eye appeal adequately.
Well, here's a couple more views. I'm still experimenting with technique. At least for me, it's hard to capture both luster and detail without one being at the expense of the other, and these current shots still make the coin look somewhat duller than it actually is. EDIT: I've been scouring images of other examples, and I'm pretty well convinced this one is reliably low end XF. There's a slight flattening of the hair as well as to the folds just to the right of the shield. The bottoms of the "T" and "T" in "LIBERTY" both show a little weakness. For whatever reason, the reverse is crisper and shows less wear than the obverse. If you looked just at the reverse, you might even be duped into judging it to be low AU. For that reason, I don't think it overall slips down into the VF range. I concur that it has likely been cleaned, but as I have said, I don't think that was done very recently. Unfortunately with coins this old, that's a pretty common affliction. It's still an attractive, representative example that was an absolute steal being that it was priced as VG.
