I was rummaging through the safe and found this little bugger in an air-tite. I'm not real good at grading these, so what do you guys think of it ?
There are a number of coin series that are particularly nasty to grade. This series is one. Peace dollars is another. Takes a specialist almost. I'm not. I'll pass on rendering an opinion. But what I can do is show you my slabbed one for comparison.
Kanga's right... tricky to grade unless in hand. Roto, yours has good detail in the headdress feathers. I would call it AU53. Decent fields; since they lack rims, many of these endured field nicks and marks.
I have a terrible time grading these things in-hand, so from photos I'd guess somewhere between XF and MS.
I have been hesitant to mention this - and I am NOT saying I think this coin is counterfeit - but the marks on the Indian's neck concern me. Tool marks on the back of the Indian's neck are one of the most common indicators of counterfeit $2 1/2 and $5 Indians because this is the lowest point on the coin and correspondingly the highest point on the obverse die. Counterfeiters often try to clean up this spot on their die and leave a few "tool marks" which appear as raised lines on the coin. Can you take a close look at these marks and determine if they are raised?
I'll dig her back out and check. I honestly had suspicions about it, due to the chest area on the obv. It didn't have that frost look on it that you see on Kanga's example.
wow thats the same year that i have when i forst saw i thought my old thread came back up yeah look for those marks if its good i would grade it a 55 ( my mentor runs around with olive oil these days ready to burn me in it if iguess grades wrong) lucklily his memory isnt bvery good
