I came across a 1921 Walking Liberty Half Dollar today at an antique store that offers LOTS of coins. They had one 1921 for sale listed at $140. It is a nice looking coin but has some serious scratches on both the obverse and reverse of the coin. The guy offered it to me for $100 if I was interested. He does not have it graded and I am not knowlegeable enough to grade myself. But I can tell a decent looking coin from a bad one. This was not to bad other than the scratches. Should I pick it up ? Or, should I hold off ?? Let me know...I trust you guys.
If I were you I would not get it...the scratches really kill the grade....none of the grading companies would grade it other than ANACS. It would always be considdered damaged and it would be hard to sell it when the time comes. Speedy
what is ANACS ??? I don't know my grades yet. Is there a list somewhere on this site that has them all listed that I could print out ??
ANACS is a 3rd party grading service like PCGS and NGC. They are a little less popular than the other two, but have been around the longest of all grading services. As for the coin-I wouldn't take it for $100. You could probably find one on eBay for a lot less-$70 probably. You should buy the book before the coin-go purchase THE RED BOOK OF UNITED STATES COINS by R.S. Yeoman and it will be one of the best coin investments you could make. Go home and read it thoroughly-it has great info on all that you need to know about coins. After that, I recommend that you buy a PHOTOGRADE book (I think it's by PCGS) This will help you to distinguish grades. Both these books you should find at a local bookstore like Borders/ Walden Books.
I would go buy 2 books.....Photograde and the ANA Grading guide.....read and start to learn them (learning grading will take years) and you will be well on your way. YNcoinpro has already added what ANACS is Speedy
The bottom line is will the con make you happy or will you always look at it and think "if only it wasn't scratched!" Since you are asking the question my guess is the latter. I strongly recommend that you save up for the keys to this set and buy problem free coins because you will always be proud of having acquired such a nice example, and they really aren't all that expensive in circulated grades (good-fine).
Thanks for everyones advice. I am really glad I found this place. I will pass on the coin..... Cheers !
As already well stated, don't buy that coin. Sounds like your statement of serious scratches is just that. As to the Red Book I've done some checking and found that the Walmart Web site for books is about the cheapest for the Red Book. However, if your just getting started you may want to check out some flea markets, old book stores, etc for a 2005 or 2006 edition of the Red Book. Still lots cheaper and the only difference will be the prices of coins and they are off the wall with them anyway.
