I paid $28 for this 1921 Peace dollar I found in a local bullion dealer's "circulated common date tray". It appears to be about VF25, definitely dipped to remove all toning, and hairlines suggest possible light cleaning. Given the problems with the coin, is it really a $28 coin? If it's worth more, should I send it off for 3rd party grading?
I don't think it would be worthwhile to submit it for grading, but it's definitely worth a lot more than $28. Even with the scratches, that's a $100+ coin -- assuming it's genuine, and it certainly looks genuine to me.
Have you looked at 1921 Peace dollars lately? It's more expensive than the 1928-P in XF and higher. This one probably isn't gradeable, but I'd buy coins like this all day long at $40, and double my money on every one of them.
I hadn't looked in years. I sold an AU58 years ago for about $150 Now they are auctioning for over 400.
I got one in a lot 8-10 years back, sent it to ANACS, and it came back MS62. At the time, 62s from PCGS and NGC were going for around $300. Now they're $800-1200. This one probably would've crossed at the same grade, and was well-struck with great eye appeal, but I went ahead and sold it to a dealer -- for about what I paid for the whole lot originally, and that was when silver was higher than it is now.
Grading wouldn't help this coin much, because it has been cleaned on, but you did very well for the price. I was gonna say 60-80 dollars, but I'm not current on silver dollar prices I'm discovering.
I don't know if it was the 100-year anniversary, or if it's just One Of Those Things, but they went up long before the 2021 release. I don't remember if they were up before the anniversary issues were announced.