I just sent in my family heirloom, an 1882 $10 gold eagle, to PCGS for grading. My great grandmother earned it working on our family farm well before the Great Depression. That about all I know about it. What do you think it will grade(of it even does)?anything else anyone can tell me about it would be great.I can't find a mint mark so I am guessing it is a P. And these coins are .90 pure, so it's less than a half ounce of gold. Is this a common date? Thanks all.
It looks like a normal circulated example to me, but I'm no expert. I am a bit nervous about the white discoloration around the date and the lower-right stars, but I don't see anything that screams "fake" to me. It is a common date. I probably wouldn't have spent the money on PCGS, but it can't hurt to have it authenticated and protected.
XFish details IMO, If you already sent it in, I would contact them on Tuesday morning about your order and have them conserve it first.(the white substance in date and rim} though fiscally wasn't worth grading. Keeping a family heirloom protected so it can be enjoyed for generations to come (hopefully) it's a minor fee
Thanks. So they would just slab it and not try to upsell me on the conservation huh. Ok I'll give than a ring about it. Yes I sent it in with a bunch of high end buffalo nickels and a morgan dollar. My intention is to never sell it but to slab it for protection for future generations. Thanks for the heads up on the "white" around the date. Most of my life it has been "protected" - wrapped in a pink tissue. That's how my grandma kept it. Thanks for the feedback all
Based on the pictures the coin is a problem coin and not worth spending the money to have it graded. As for protecting it, you could have spent 50 cents and protected it just as well as a slab will.
Well your probably right, but to me (and my family) when it comes to this coin, price is not an issue. I want to see what the professionals think about it's grade, and since some here believe it may need conserving, let them handle that too. My entire graded collection is PCGS as well, so why not. I don't think I'll bam the first to try to grade and slab a coin that's only worth melt. You guys were a big help pointing out the white blemishes. I didn't even see that, as I thought gold was inert and so wasn't looking for corrosion. I guess it was something in the tissue reacting with the copper part of the alloy. Anyway thanks all. I'll share an image of the slab once I get it back from PCGS
Great story, giving life to this coin, Evan. I'm glad to hear you'll be having PCGS conserve this family heirloom. Thanks.
I believe the white gunk in the recesses of the date is just some polish residue. If you've ever polished the tarnish off of old silverware, you know what I'm referring to.......it always gets stuck in the deep spots until you run it under some hot water. Nice coin and great family piece. I too will call it a "details" grade.
I agree with the others. At some point someone "improved" it with silverware polish. Still, that does not matter as much as family history.
So I read that in 1933 the president recalled all the gold coins to be melted in order to help with the great depression. So I guess that means my sweet old great granda broke the law by holding on to this coin. Guess she wasn't find of Roosevelt, lol
There was an exemption to let you keep up to $100 FV of gold coins for "numismatic purposes", if I recall correctly. It's a shame more people didn't take advantage of this, but $100 (or even $10) was an awful lot of money to set aside for most people, particularly during the Depression.
I am going to say XF Details, cleaned, polished, enviormental damage. But a great heirloom. That was the year my grandfather was born. I have a few circulated $5 & $10 golds that my grandparents never turned in either.
Great coin with a great story, the story behind it is worth much more then the actual value of the coin!! Please post images when you get it back from pcgs !!
Yes it's some kind of residue, dip residue, polishing compound residue, cleaning residue, or some other kind of residue. But it doesn't matter what it is, if the OP has asked them to conserve the coin, they'll get it off.
You were allowed to keep up to $100 worth of non-coin gold. US coins deemed "rare and unusual" could be kept in any amount except for quarter eagles which were limited to not more than four pieces of the same date and mintmark. All US gold coins struck before April 5th 1933 were deemed to be "rare and unusual". So all US gold coins were permissible to keep. The problem is most people didn't know or bother to learn that they could keep them so they were good little citizens and rounded up their gold coins and marched them right down to the bank to turn them in. Years latter when people would receive gold coins handed down to them they often thought they were illegal to own. Half and quarter eagles would often get slipped into rolls of nickels or dimes , and eagles into half dollar rolls in order to get rid of them "without getting caught". I knew a gentleman who have vending machines back in the 60's and he said he would often get half eagles used in the machines for nickels. People thought they were getting something and getting rid of an "illegal" coin at the same time.
