Hello All, I'm a confessed lurker and not much of a poster. I've been working on my type set for about 2 years now, trying to keep each individual coin cost below a certain threshold. This 20 cent piece is my latest acquisition. It's my lowest mintage coin so far, followed by a nice 1917-D Type 1 SLQ. It was in decent shape in my opinion for the price and I thought an acetone bath would remove the green PVC and loose dirt. I let it soak for about 24 hours and gently prodded the larger spots with a toothpick. There appears to be a tiny bit of PVC residue left on the "8" and the tail feathers. I planned on a second, longer soak to see if any of it will further dissolve. So... my 2 questions: I grade it VF20, what do you think? Do you think the acetone soak improved its appearance? Will a longer acetone soak help/hurt? Thanks! Andy
I agree with VF20, leaning towards VF25. I also think the post acetone was a great improvement. No one likes to see those greenies. Also, I love the twenty cent piece. Great pickup. This one is known for a repunched mint mark. Hard to tell from your scan, but yours may have it. Doesn't add any value, but it's interesting to me. For those not familiar with the twenty cent piece: 1875 S mintage: 1,150,000 weight: 5 grams diameter: 22mm desinger: William barber
The appearance is considerably improved, and my personal preference would be to leave it as-as. It looks exactly as it should for its grade, and it's a very handsome coin.
gbroke: I was on the fence calling it VF25. I figured conservative is better and call it a "strong" VF20. How 'bout VF22? I looked at the mint mark under a 16x loupe. I see doubled serifs (I think). I've attached a higher resolution scan. John: Thank you for your advice. I agree I've helped it enough and it will go into the Dansco 7070 as-is.
It sure does look like you've got an RPM there, but it's still hard to tell for certain from the pic.
It's the best I can muster with my scanner. I can see it better with a loupe. I'll break down and buy a camera light box one of these days.....
I had a Dansco type album in my youth - it was a very satisfying collection to assemble, and a very impressive show-and-tell piece. It was a challenge to find coins that looked good and fit my budget, so I understand what you're up against.
Good and bad. I believe your coin to be the "$" RPM, which (IIRC) is always paired with an MPD (strongest below 7 in denticles), but this variety is far too common to bring any real premium unless sold for the novelty factor or to a novice. FS-302 Grade wise, low VF on details, but I do not believe it to be gradable.
Old or not, the scratches are more than enough cause for it to be bagged (IMO) but yes... I do believe it very strong possibility. Play with the scans and I think you will see what I mean.
Oh yeah, I see what you mean. That one deep one in the right field would be of concern for sure. I don't know how forgiving they are on old coins either.
I agree that the scratches on the obv field are prominent, but can you please help me understand why you feel this coin has environmental damage? Do you feel it has PVC damage, or is it due to the dark spots? Thanks for the education! On a side note, I still like the coin regardless if PCGS would put it in one of its fancy slabs
Well, I wasn't thinking of the marks when Books mentioned it getting bagged. So I thought maybe he was concerned about the color/fields or the pvc. What's not to love? In any condition, it's a beautiful, low mintage twenty cent piece.
Overall, I think your coin looks a lot like mine. I too have some scratches going on. I suspect mine had an old cleaning as well. Still though, great coins.
