Was it an online purchase or an LCS ? If you have a receipt and pics, unless the guy is dishonest, I'd think he'd try and do right by you. I would.
It was online. My only LCS wants crazy money for anything and everything. These guys seem legit so I presume they'd have verified the lot. I should certainly weigh it at least, since I now have a gram scale. BRB LOL
Thanks and sorry I was having computer (actually tablet) issues. Here's the pic of the one in hand. Please be gentle—I don't ever spend four digits on coins. Well, except Maple Leafs. Even crappy tablet cameras can be quite unforgiving. None of these (admittedly minor) artifacts are visible to the naked eye, and my close vision is perfect. Well almost perfect. To his credit, the dealer said that any of the lot might well get a details grade if submitted. Still it's tempting.
I really like the design. Weak in the presence of beauty! https://www.cointalk.com/threads/hottest-liberty-babe.389900/ Though someone in that thread made reference to Liberty's overbite and now I see that every time. IMHO: mere mortals such as we should not presume to second-guess the likes of Augustus St.Gaudens.
Just two days ago, I got my hands on three "supposedly" gold coins - a 1914 $5, a 1916 $10 and an 1898 $20. All of which are fakes.
For those of you who like the Saint-Gaudens Indian Head design....there are gold and silver commemoratives with the Indian Head and other designs being utilized instead of what we see today on the IH and Saint gold coins. High-relief and UHR for both.
Not being one to be deterred, I'll throw in my own guess on grades. The fields on the $20 are amazingly clean. Were the coin original, I'd guess that it could 65? Amazingly there are NO 1898-P double eagles above MS-64 ever graded according to PCGS or NGC. Thus yours would be the very 1st. You are indeed extremely lucky (old Chinese Proverb). Did the dealer provide any details as why he would sell you such a wonderful coin at presumably a very good price and not bother to have it graded? Always on the lookout for an interesting story...
The digits used in the date of the 1898 double eagle are of an incorrect font in my opinion. I just compared it with a 1898-S double eagle in hand. None of the 4 digits match; plus as I said in an earlier post, there are no designer's initials at the base of the neck. So, . . .
The 1898 is a fake for sure, compare with any example in the Heritage archives. the 10$ looks fishy but I'll defer to ToughCOINS on that one
Hi & thanks for the info ToughCOINS Yes, I know that the coins are counterfeits. My question is: What reason did the seller give for not slabbing the $20 gold? All higher value US coins are slabbed in this country. That 1898-P would be amazingly nice so why would one not be suspicious of such an apparently rare coin being sold unslabbed? Presumably slabbing it could increase the price greatly. I'll give some background. I normally seek foreign/ancient coins where the characteristics are not so well known. A few years ago, at a major coin show I ran across, a dealer selling a high grade Roman sestersius of Vitellius (69 AD). It was unslabbed and he initially wanted $40K for it. The dealer specialized in much more modern, generally lower-end, world coins so the fact that he was offering such a rare Roman piece, unslabbed, that did not fit into his usual offerings was an immediate cause for concern.