I'm new to collecting here so I don't know a whole lot.. Can i get some help on information about them? How much (in oz) is their silver content? What is the average price for a nice example in AU condition? I'm looking at this guy's auctions and they all seem too good to be true. and you usually know what that means. Do these look like cleaned exampled that wouldn't grade well? Also year seems to have a big impact on values, which ones are good and which ones would you not bother with? I kind of want my first one just because it is such a pretty coin, a 44/45 wouldn't bother me. http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?LH_Auct...l&_fln=1&_ipg=200&_sc=1&_sop=1&_ssn=vette1986
hey 00birdy, the Walking Liberty has the same silver content as a franklin half dollar. So you can go here to see its melt value: http://www.coinflation.com Check out here for fair market values: http://www.numismedia.com Straight to values of Walking Liberties: http://www.numismedia.com/fmv/prices/wlkhlv/pricesgd.shtml
From the Red Book, a Walker (as does every 90% Half Dollar since 1873) weighs 12.5 gm with a net weight of 0.36169 oz. of silver.
From my limited experience of cleaned coins,it does not look cleaned.You wold expect to pay up to 16 to 17 for a coin like that.
"Choice BU" means different things to different people, but I don't see anything too good to be true here. Looking at his completed auctions, it looks like you should be able to land one of these in the $20 range if you're patient. That's a good price, IMHO. Melt value is currently somewhere around $13.50.
I'm not impressed with those Walkers. I looked at a dozen and couldn't find a single one with a good strike and in a reliable condition. Perhaps it's the photos. These are not pricey coins, the 1940's. You'd be better off buying a graded one, which will be problem-free, for only a little more money. Don't know if you have a B&M nearby (a coin shop), or can attend a show, but that would be the best way of picking out a good example of these very pretty, but otherwise common coins. Lance.
appreciate all the help.., and gbroke that coinflation.com link is priceless! I'm glad they are cheap because they are sweet! what for example, do you think this would grade?
To answer your question about the years, the earlier part of this series is where you'll generally find the more valuable date. The ones from the 1940's are all fairly common. The dates with the lowest mintages are 1921-D, 1921, 1916-S and 1938-D. There are others too, as well as dates that a very rare in high grades. I would recommend that you invest in a Redbook.
I would say that coin looks XF45. With the glare coming off it's surfaces its hard to see the finer detail, and more importantly, the smaller flaws if they are present.
This would be a fun series to collect. I ended up buying a 1917-S oversee mint mark as the first coin for my album. It wasn't too pretty bit it was a unique purchase as the mint mark got moved to the reverse after this particular year. I've bought a few from this seller, I was pleased with the purchase and the communication.
this is what scares me about coin collecting because i looked at some of the ones that graded a MS64 and some of those even looked worse than that one in my opinion. is it just me or is the grading quite strange? this one looks a little muted and dull in comparison yet grades way higher. http://cgi.ebay.com/NGC-1942-Standi...86?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item3cb7ff798e
All the coins in the ebay auction seem a bit too marked up to be BU (whatever that means). I'd put them at AU at best; a couple of them XF. < $5 is a good start price but they seem to go overpriced in the last few minutes before closing.
passed on a couple really sexy ones that ended around $25. I'm gonna hit a coin show up this week see if i can find anything nice in that price range, otherwise i'll just get a pcgs graded one for a bit more. Anybody here selling any?
Yeah, I guess you could call grading strange. And Walkers are not the easiest series to grade for various reasons. One reason is because some of them were struck better than others, and certain years are notorious for being weakly struck, while other years are much sharper. And I don't think a weak strike takes away from the technical grade. Also, I'm not sure how new you are to grading but sometimes, with any series, one coin might look "better" to a newer collector than another coin. But the one that looks better may have been cleaned or may just have really good eye appeal, when in fact the other one is original and has better detail. Do you own any grading books? They are a must for anyone who is going to be spending money on coins.
Oh, and if you're collecting Walkers I would also recommend "Collecting and Investing Strategies for Walking Liberty Half Dollars" by Jeff Ambio.
