My wife brings home a few rolls of cents from work for me to go thru, I keep the coppers and wheats and look for keys and ddo's. I had 2 rolls this morning dumped out, saw a wheatie on top, nice red/brown color and under the loupe saw a 1909-s, yee ha, but no way is it going to be........ Yep, there it was, vdb. Now my next thought is it real? Meets all the markers so I'm 90% sure and it looks au50 rb. Coin store opens at 10am. I have a slabbed (anacs) xf 45 with sentimental value so this one will be sold or traded for a 1955 ddo at the store today. Just might buy a few lottery tickets also!
I'll see what the store says, if their number is right I'll let it go unslabbed today, if not in it goes. I would never buy one raw myself so I'm with you on that.
The 'S' seems to be at the right height, but seems a little too far right, perhaps? Tough to tell from the picture. Can you get us a better picture of just the date/mm? In any case, what a fantastic find. This could well be legit, but I definitely agree with sending to a TPG.
I only know one diagnostic for a 1909 SVDB and it's on the reverse. I would like to see a sharp reverse image. But even then my opinion would be based only on that one feature so what I think wouldn't be worth much. I do see a fingerprint in the date area and there appears to be some verdigris. BUT If it's really a 1909 SVDB then you got yourself one heck of a find. Congrats.
Gives renewed hope to all CRHs. This is one of those stories thst will bounce around a few forums. Congratulations!
Coin store guy didn't like it under 40X mag so I'll send it in and see what happens. More pics to follow.
He thinks he sees doubling on the mm which if it's hub doubling would only be on one side of the mm according to him. All of the markers are right however, even the position of the s corresponds to one of the 4 positions. The cross bar on the b in vdb slants like it should, the serifs on the s are correct, etc. I'm sending it to NGC as an express submission, so I should know in a few weeks. Always an adventure!
Even with the small so-so photos, that mintmark does not look at all right to me. From what I can see, I don't like it as genuine. Before submitting, perhaps you should try to take and post higher quality photos. If real it would be an exceptional find, but I'd hate to see you throw sub money away if it is indeed bad.
http://www.ebay.com/gds/Coin-Fake-Detection-1909-S-VDB-Lincoln-Cent-/10000000015293333/g.html scroll down to the 3rd mm, looks like mine
I'm really 50/50. Maybe I'm scrutinizing too much, but it does sort of have the look of a very well added MM. Then again, I'm used to looking at 14D and 31S. 09SVDBs don't pass through my hands too often.
I hate to rain on your parade and I hope I'm wrong but I'm fairly certain it's a fake. The overall mushiness of the devices, the mintmark position doesn't match up with any of the four positions in my opinion and the flattened ends of the wheat stalks are the things I'm seeing that make me think it's iffy.