I haven't made many numismatic purchases recently, but I saw the coin below at a recent show and liked its price and how it looked in hand. When I gave it to the dealer to purchase, he looked at it for a while and said "this might be under-graded," but gave me a small price cut anyway (of course I thought, skeptically, "yeah, sure, right"). The flip said "AU," but I never trust flip grades, apart from using them as a rough guide. With some magnification, I'm now seeing some other things not obvious in hand. What are the copper-colored smudges? And do the date and the "R" in "QUAR" on the reverse look off at all? The slightly skewed final "A" in "AMERICA" matches other photos I've seen. I can't imagine someone bothering to counterfeit a common date such as this one (mintage: 12,380,000), but I've heard it happens nonetheless. I also now see marks at 12:00 above Liberty's head on the denticles and some worn denticles at 6:00 on the reverse. I didn't pay a ton for it - I actually paid less than XF price, which did make me wonder a little bit. I'm more concerned that it's been compromised in some way or that it's not authentic. So I'm just seeking additional opinions and thoughts. Thank you for your input!
Nothing jumps out at me other than likely cleaning. Detail wise it is AU but with cleaning you probably weren't far off paying XF money.
It appears to be the "compass point" reverse, with the circular void near the left side of the shield. Does it have the die polish lines mentioned in this link (check out Reverse B)? I can't really tell with the pictures, but you may be able to with the coin in hand. http://www.seateddimevarieties.com/Briggs/1854.jpg (I'm assuming that there is only one compass point reverse die for this year, so if I'm wrong please correct me.)
Awesome! Thank you everyone! As usual this forum rocks! It sounds like the worst case is that I have an authentic but potentially cleaned 1854 Quarter. The information on the "compass point" variety is also fascinating. I haven't been able to confirm the die polish marks, but I hope to look soon. I really like the look of the coin also and the price and some of the strange marks made me think I may have something "too good to be true." I'm now thinking, depending on the cleaning question, and any other opinions that come in, that I have something between an XF - AU. This is great because I really like the piece myself - it's my first Seated Liberty purchase.
