I'm having trouble assigning a grade here. What label would you hang on this pre-Civil War lass? It looks like she picked up a bit of the pox. Is the grade difference enough where you'd assign a net value or a split grade?
AU 55 or 58 details cleaned. Over-dipped or lightly cleaned. I must admit grading gold, particularly not in hand, is not my strong suit.
AU sharpness. The obverse appears to have been lightly polished. It may have been used in jewelry with the obverse facing up. The reverse suggests a Mint State coin, but the obverse has some marks and issues.
Bought it already, at not too far above melt. I'm debating keeping it as a type example as I'm not planning to collect the whole series.
Despite the generally low montages, you can get a nice, certified Mint State example for not that much money. Generic gold is really cheap now now relative to melt.
To give you an example, I think that the grade on this coin is conservative, but it's only in an NGC MS-62 holder.
Look at the obverse closely. There are a lot of small marks and the overall surfaces have wiped or smoothed look. Generally the grading on these coins is quite conservative.
