THis is from an inheritance. Other than quick internet searches I know next to nothing about coins. Please lend me some of your polite wisdom. Thanks, kc
I don't collect gold, but the close-up with Lady Liberty on the obverse bothers me a little. The finish on the fields looks a bit rough to my liking. I guess it is possible that your forbears may have cleaned it too harshly. Chris
Agreed, most all jewelry pieces have been polished in some way and the holders tend to damage the edges. As lovely as it is, it doesn't hold much value to collectors beyond the intrinsic value of the gold.
So it is only worth the value of the gold? but that's only 1200 dollars worth of gold , how dissapointing
I have a 1915-S that has a similar looking roughness. ANACS graded it MS-63. The lady's nose always looks a bit strange on these.
On a small screen so can't comment on authenticity right now but lets assume it is. You very well could get more for the piece as a jewelry piece, if you try and sell it as a coin only though it will likely be melt. As a jewelry piece though you can probably do better
The year 1911 is a common date, worth approximately the same as all the other St. Gaudens from 1909 to 1920, with just one or two minor exceptions. But it is not quite an ounce of gold, just 0.9675 Troy ounces. A jeweler could probably improve its appearance for a fee so that it could be sold for jewelry once again. ====== LOL, baseball21 was reading my mind!
I suspect its best future is as a jewelry piece. If it has special family significance, I would leave it as it is. It's a nice piece.
No disrespect intended, sir, but exactly what is "polite wisdom"? We often have people come here expecting, even demanding, they hear only what they want to, and while doing so may give some a warm and fuzzy thinking they're being "nice", the fact is telling anyone anything other than truth, especially when done in the name of "feelings", is not only damaging but dangerous as well. Hopefully I've misunderstood and this isn't what you were hoping for. As the others have said, as long as genuine or of the proper (or higher) content, you're likely looking in the scrap range due to condition. If worth more as a jewelry piece, I do not know, but is worth looking into if wishing to maximize your gain.
By polite wisdom I simply mean don't insult me. I've admitted to being a novice here so if i ask something obvious to coin collectors it doesn't mean I'm stupid. If I misspell something I don't need a half dozen posts about it. I've experienced this on other forums. If that doesn't happen here then that's great. But I've had bad experiences so often that I may continue to ask for polite responses to make those who are tempted to be rude think twice. I don't care to be insulted for asking a question or making some minor grammatical error.
No, no... such corrections happen here too, unfortunately, but thanks for the clarification. It should be understood, though, that sometimes such corrections take place between regulars, and for reasons that may not be clear to the casual observer, and shouldn't automatically be assumed as one party simply being mean to the other (a guy named "Detecto" is a prime example). As for the sometimes harsh treatment of newbies, I wholeheartedly agree. Good luck with the coin, sir.
Is the bezel real gold as well? And have you had the apparent diamonds around the bezel tested to see if they are in fact diamonds? I wouldn't expect the bezel to add a ton of value but if it's gold and those are diamonds it may add some value. The coin based on the condition unfortunately is only going to be worth it's melt value or the value of the gold it contains at this point. If you were selling to a shop/dealer they would very likely only offer you somewhere from 80% or up of the melt value though.
On its' own it's a damaged example, albeit #12 out of 51 on the scale of lowest mintages in the series. It wouldn't fetch a whole lot more than the intrinsic metal value, sold as a coin. But, the same event which caused it to be "damaged" is also the reason why it becomes an object of desire. In the bezel, it's not just a coin, it's a story. It was a prized possession, something the owner only wore on important occasions. If we can assume the bezel is gold - as it likely is; you wouldn't wrap a heavy gold coin in colored base metal - then there's also a whole lot more precious metal involved. We don't care for new creations of this type using old coins, but the fact stands that it was done in the past and those creations are many times (as in this case) worth more than the sum of their parts. This is a really_cool_thing, and if finances allowed I'd be a highly interested buyer for something similar.
Probably the best pictures I've ever seen in one of these newbie "what's my coin worth" threads - kudos!
