How would you grade this coin? Does it looked cleaned or dipped? http://cgi.ebay.com/1915-KEY-DATE-P...Individual&hash=item3cb3e60639#ht_3204wt_1141 Thank you for your time and expertise!
I am not well versed on Barbers, but IMO it is a nice coin. Looks like good, honest, circulation wear. Has a circulation cameo as well. A bit light on the front, dark on the back, but natural looking to me. I don't even want to pretend to know what to look for on grading a Barber. Someone will give it a shot though.
VG-10 Details. But I would not buy this coin. The dings, scratches and gouges on the obverse devices make it look like the coin was stepped on while lying face-down. The obverse appears to have been cleaned and I wonder what all that black gunk on the reverse is hiding. This is a key Barber Half. I would not buy it raw. I suspect this coin is not slabbed for a reason. I would run from this coin.
the obverse fields, stars and design are easy to tell. grey with black at the edge and what looks like some finger prints? the reverse fields are nearly all black while the design, motto and stars are grey again with some stain left. the kind of coin that should stay on ebay.
It's got substantially better than VG10 details! Here's my take on it... Assuming that it's what it looks like in the scans, it's probably going to grade at PCGS between 20 and 25. That's assuming it grades at all. I don't love the toning progression on the coin, and the back is suspect.. toning that dark on a Barber Half will frequently get it to come back in a Genuine holder - Environmental damage. It really depends what it looks like in hand, but if that's really thick.. it's not going to grade. Then there's the other consideration, Mid Grade Barber Halves bring big premiums in PCGS plastic on eBay, why is this coin raw? Not to say that's an automatic condemnation of the coin, I know someone who picked one of the 2 holy grails of mid-grade Barber Halves off of eBay raw and it did grade XF40 at PCGS (A 93S!!!!!) but it's worth keeping in mind. Also, remember that the 1915-P is like the 97-O and the 01-S to a degree, it's not a sleeper date that brings huge multiples of "sheet" or "guide" and isn't as tough a date in VF as you might think.
