Hey guys, I was looking from some opinions on this 1795 Flowing Hair Half Dollar that is going to be auctioned off at our annual coin club spring auction. My thoughts are that it is a VF coin, and it does have adjustment marks on the reverse. What would you guys grade it? If nobody minds, what would you guys pay for the coin? I know the various price guide valuations of the piece, but was just looking for some additional input. Thanks in advance for your responses.
I'd say VF20. As to value - it's all over the map. Value varies greatly for these depending on variety attribution and whether the coin was ever cleaned or not. Personally, I would never buy one that wasn't slabbed. But that's largely due to wide price swings - a VF20 cleaned can sell for as little as $1200 or $1300. A VF20 not cleaned can sell for as much as $2700. So, if you can attribute it correctly and accurately judge whether it was ever cleaned or not, then bid away. If not - I'd pass. The holes on the reverse bother me some.
This coin is suppose to be 89% silver and it looks nothing like a silver coin with the color. I am not sure if it is real so I wouldn't buy it. Parts of the coin are shiny like the top of numbers 1795 and the reverse rim for example which you wouldn't expect to have on a coin that is over 200 years old.
I've seen a few 150+ year old silver coins and the color this has seems to be consistent with that, so I don't think it can be called fake purely on the basis of color. Check the weight though, should be pretty close to 13.5 grams or so.
Possiblities: Point 1. Many collectors (like me) just don't like slabs, and like to have coins in trays. Point 2. It might have been lying around in someones draw for the last hundred and fifty years, pocketed as an oddity in the mid 19th century Point 3. It might be fake Satisfied ?
I'm not a big slab fan, a coin like this is cool to have out of slab, you aren't going to damage it, however slabbed it becomes more saleable... even the remains of the slabb after cracking it out, would help to prove it's genuine. I kind of liked the old ANACS photos from the 80's, with those and a coin like this with some unique marks, you could be certain the photo was of this coin, and therefore it's legit. I haven't seen enough of these 1795 halves to know them well enough to buy it raw, but I like it.
A lot of color difference between obverse and reverse, not sure why, for grade I think low VF is there, certainly a real strong fine at minimum.
How do you handle a coin to wear one side more than the other ? I don't see much difference, strike could be what you call wear. As to color difference, one side exposed to air could do that, if anything that leads me to believe its real. The coin looks like a real nice mid-grade example of a real rarity, the half is probably much rarer than the dollar.
yes, that's doable. I remember split grades, but realistically a coin should ordinarily be circulated in a manner so that it receives roughly equal wear on both sides. The split is more on mint state, like you can have a Morgan $ with a big contact mark on the cheek making it maybe MS-63 obverse, but it could have a MS-67 reverse. Big money difference between MS-63 and MS-67 with many coins. I guess I pick the one with the MS-67 reverse over another that fits MS-63 for both sides, but hard to price the difference, thus split grades didn't work well. Something circulated should fall more closely to equal sides. It's like impossible for a coin to be VG on one side, and EF on the other.
