My grandfather collected coins as a kid and he gave me this coin recently. It is a 2.5 dollar gold piece which i think is called a liberty head. It has a small o mark on it which i looked up as new orleans mint. The date reads 1840. It has no wear or dents on it that i can see whatsoever. It also has no nicks or scratches. The yellow color is very deep yellow. I know thats a fairly terrible description and i will post a picture soon. Any idea if this coin is valuable at all or just a common coin?
It's not worth much; you should just send it to me. If it's a genuine 1840-O, and truly in excellent condition, it's worth quite a lot. Pictures will help, but you need something that can take good close-up shots. HANDLE THE COIN WITH GREAT CARE. Don't touch the faces, or slide it around on a rough surface. Whatever you do, DON'T CLEAN IT. You can look up values for this type of coin here. The columns represent different coin grades. The 1840-O goes up sharply in value in higher grades, assuming it's never been cleaned. People used to clean coins all the time, so yours has probably been cleaned, too -- but if it hasn't, you're in luck. Looking forward to pictures!
This coin i dont think has been cleaned. I have a digital camera so ill have high resolution pics up in the next few days. My grandfather started pulling coins out of circulation in the 1930's to add to his coin collection. So i have high hopes he would pick out good coins!
Take a look at this slabbed example on eBay to get an idea of grade and price... and because it's cleaned, it becomes a problem coin. http://www.ebay.com/itm/1840-O-2-50...80?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item2eb86aa090
It looks sort of like that but darker, how can you tell if its been cleaned or not. Should have the pics up soon.
It's hard to imagine a 1840-O gold coin was pulled out of circulation in the 1930s. Most old timers Iv'e talked to say they never saw a gold coin in circulation.
