I have recently got some coins. I had even attempted to show pics amongst the community . My question is I know if I had choose to sell them, I should give a weight of the coin to document realilistic wear, but I have one real shininy peace and the rest are dull. I do not want to clean them right? So, how do you make out the authenticity of the silver? Sorry for such a crazy question.
All Morgan and Peace dollars should weigh 26.73 grams, and are 90% silver. You can use a good set of scales to weigh them; even if very worn, they shouldn't deviate from that weight by much at all. And yes, cleaning is almost always a bad idea. The shiny one might have been cleaned already, but not neccessarily. The others might have been cleaned, too: surface abrasion or discoloration is probably a better indication of cleaning than shininess. Shinyness. Shininess. However you spell it. If you don't want to spend money on reference material, you might try your local library for a copy of the guide to U.S. coins by Yeoman (the "Red Book") which will give you a good idea how rare your coins are, and what condition they might be in. It also lists the coins' weight and composition and other statistics.
And don't just sell them for the silver. Get some pics with all dates/mintmarks and show them. They may be worth a lot more than the weight of the silver!
Thanks for the awesome replies. I had took way better pictures if there is some one I can email to for a better examination. I had purchased The Red Book , however, I cant tell the true difference in the grade(i.e visible hair , concave eagle cheast, certain feathers.) I am in to sports cards which means straight clean edges, centered photo, corners and surface. So, I am sure I could understand it better if someone guided me through the first couple. Any takers?
