Today, my bank teller had a bunch of silver halves. I bought all 30 of them. There were a some Franklins, some Kennedys, and even some Walking Liberty halves. One in particular caught my eye. It's a1942-D Walking Liberty. It is a bit dirty, but in otherwise incredible condition. There doesn't seem to be much wear in the typical spots (stars, head, knee, or breast on front... eagle feathers and claws look good on back). Again, a bit of dirt, but not too much wear (I think). Any idea of a grade on this one? Is it a slab-worthy coin? The pics below are clickable for larger images.
Walkers are a series that are nearly impossible to grade by photograph. As one collector once told me, "Most walkers were struck in XF". Without being able to judge luster, I have no idea. If it was originally a sharp struck coin it could be a 55 but if it was a weakly struck specimen, could be a 64.
Thanks for all the info... it was a really great find. I used to search boxes of halves, but there were three problems: 1. It tied up my money. 2. They were a pain to get rid of. 3. I wasn't finding anything (I found to 40%'s in ten boxes). So now, I simply ask for loose halves whenever I walk into a branch. The teller today had these in an envelope in her drawer (not in her coin tray). When I asked is she had any halves, she pulled out an envelope and I could tell by the sound when she set it down that there was silver in there. She also knew it was silver because she told me so. I think she may have had them in the drawer hoping she could cash them out at the end of her shift. In all, I got 4 Walking Liberty, 4 Franklins, 8 Kennedy (90%) and 14 Kennedy (40%). There was one left that she put back in her tray and I didn't want to seem greedy. I may go back in the morning and see if it's there. I'm really happy. This bank is in an area with lots of older people and I think that someone may have simply deposited them not wanting to deal with selling them. There is one coin dealer nearby, but he's barely ever open and the others have gone out of business. Same with the pawn shops. Again, this is a big score for me! I'm really pleased.
Can not see any luster in the images and the strike is weak as is normal for the S coins of the period so I do not see it making better than about MS63 or AU58 at the most which would put it's value at about the cost of grading. So I would probably just keep it as a BU slider coin. Nice score anyway as you got it at face.
