Admittedly, I'm new to this forum. Also a newbie when it comes to coin collecting. I'm primarily interested in Lincoln Cents. So anyway, I recently obtained a 1909-S Indian Head as a raw coin, and I'm interested in thoughts/opinions regarding the authenticity of it. I don't have any particular reason to doubt it's authenticity. Prior to purchase, I examined what I understand to be some of the key features--such as the curvature/placement of the date, where the bottom arrow points to the edge of the rim and the location of the "S". Speaking of which, really the only thing that gave me the slightest pause is that the S seemed a bit flattened. However, I compared it with a number of PCGS & NGC certified 1909-S coins with what looked like a similar amount of wear, and the wear pattern of the S on my coin looked very comparable to the certified coins. Unfortunately, the scanner I'm using only has a 1200 dpi optical resolution, so these are the best images I can provide. I tried using a higher software resolution to enlarge the S, but it ended up blurry. The coin also looks a bit dark, but I did not brighten the photos because the color as is, is pretty close to the actual coloration of the coin. Thanks in advance for any insight you all can provide.
I definitely appreciate the vote of confidence in regard to the possibility of it being borderline AU. I was figuring in the ballpark of F/XF. Given the price I paid, AU would be a huge bonus.
I'm in the F- Xf camp some wear is noticeable as for the green spots. Those I would address asap to make sure they are in check.
I'm using a tablet so can't get a real good look at the photo. I have several Liberty "indian" head cents an 1853 that is so nice & clean I'm even not 100 % sure it's real. Being my location there's not a lot of coin shops to take it. All the research I've done it seems that the more letters you can see in the word LIBERTY on the head band leads to a lot about what the coin is worth.
I can't see anything wrong with it, but you should look here for reverse diagnostics. As for grade, I say VF 35 to XF 40, but I'd like better pics before I commit.
Thanks for the replies. Paul M., I can't claim I understand what exactly the arrows are pointing out in the Snow-1 & Snow-2 pics on the web page you referenced, but I do get that if it's a known die type, that would bode well in regard to the authenticity of the coin. The above pics were obtained using a document scanner at my work. My digital camera is a dinosaur, so it's useless. If I can get some better pics with the photo scanner I have here at home, I'll post them.
Here are a couple of new pics with a photo scanner using the max bit-depth and the resolution set to 2400. IMHO, they definitely show more detail than the ones I posted yesterday using a document scanner.
I am trying to upload photos of my 1863 to get your input on it but am unable to. Not sure what I'm doing wrong, sugestions?
Click on the "Upload a File" button (to the right of the "Post Reply" button). A box will pop up. Click right on top of where it says "Choose a File". A Windows browser window will open that you can browse to the file you want to upload. Click the "Open" button in the browser window. The file will be added to your post. You can then choose to insert it as a thumbnail or full image.
Sorry photos not getting thru. I hit the more options button which is to the right of post reply, but doesn't give any options to open or load any files.
Sorry photos not getting thru. I hit the more options button which is to the right of post reply, but doesn't give any options to open or load any files. I can build a plane that will fly but when it comes to computers & tech I'm way behind.