I bought this coin raw about 30 years ago as a PR-63. It went to PCI in the early days of the green border label and it came back as PR-62. I was still happy with the coin. One point was not a big deal. Fast forward to this year. The coin gained some nice color over the years in the old holder. It went to PCGS to crack out and grade. They gave it a PR-66. I have never had a coin jump 4 points. One or two points has been the normal. I'm happy.
That’s a very nice looking coin. I agree that it graded a point high but it was worth holding onto all those years.
interesting in that several of my lower grade proofs seem to be under graded. not due to ugly. they also seem to be graded some time ago.
The 1950 Proof half dollars are hard to find in nice condition. Many of them were not well made from the beginning. The mint personnel had made Proof coins since 1942, and as it was with the 1936 coins, they had to overcome a learning curve. Many of the 1950 Proofs have a dull finish which is not consistent with the later Proofs. If you are familiar with Proof coins, you will see right away that they are Proofs, but duller finish led a lot of early owners to dip them. That often made the situation worse, especially if they OVER dipped them. (Dipped them too many times or left them in the solution for too long.) These facts make the 1950 Proof set tougher to find nice than the prices for full sets might indicate. If you really have a nice 1950 set, it's worth more than the catalogue values. You have to price the coins as singles. The Proof set numbers for the prior to 1955 sets are for PR-63 or so quality coins. In the world of Proof coins from this era, that's not that great.
Congratulations!! Wow! That's awesome! So, I have a question for you: Did you submit the coin in the PCI slab, or crack out and submit as raw? Just wondering what the best plan of action is, for someone who has some old PCI slabs and is considering sending to either PCGS or NGC, hoping for same grade or 1-point upgrade on a couple.
The first thing to understand is what generation of PCI holders you have. PCI had several owners and standards over the years. I have been sending my coins to Great Collections, in the slabs. They take them to PCGS to be cracked out of the holder and be graded. At that point, GC list the coin for auction. Some of the later PCI grading is questionable. Feel free to post images of the slabs you own. I may have better answers at that point.
