1899S Five dollar coin

My friend wanted me to post this coin and get comments on it. He inherited a lot of coins from his grandmother who had been collecting coins for a long time. This coin weights in at 8.27 grams.

 

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The Red Book has the weight at 8.359 grams. Close, especially with some wear.

 

Color seems off. Appears cleaned. Here's mine, also from Grandma.

 

I have had a number of these over the years. I believe the coin is genuine. Not a rare date and has been used for it’s intended purpose. I believe it’s an honest half eagle.

 

Looks pretty original and authentic.

 

Good to hear. He had a hard time believing his grandmother had such a coin. I don't know if it's been cleaned, I can't really tell.

 

I thought the light and pink areas on the bust and the dark halos around the stars,
were markers for it being cleaned. I'm not saying it's fake, just the gold color is not there, and gold doesn't tarnish easily.

 

While gold doesn't tarnish, the copper and silver in the alloy does. This deep orange color shown on the OP's coin is absolutely original, and considered to be quite attractive on older circulated gold like this.

 

Now for the next question...should he send it off to a TPG?

 

No, definitely not. This is a VF coin which is quite common. It's worth pretty much the gold value - very low numismatic premium on this one. There are no questions of its authenticity. I see absolutely no reason to certify this one.

 

So does the possibilty it was cleaned lower it's value? I mean, the prices I'm seeing for this coin are pretty high accordng to USACoinbook at VF, I''m not even looking at prices on eBay, but several other sites.

 

A lot of these gold coins, unless in the higher grades (or very rare) are just worth bullion value (or slightly above).
At 1200 an oz I believe the gold value on these is $290.
It's true that in high retail VF it might list for $450. If it were cleaned, yes that
would reduce it to $290 bullion value.

 

The only reason to send it to a TPG is for
the authenticity question. At worst it will
come back "Details" concerning any cleaning
issue. I would send in just prove that it is
genuine for future reference.

 

That's an unnecessary expense in this case. And unwarranted.

 

Why would it be unwarranted? There have been many discussions here that a slab puts a premium on a coin. And given its value, I would think the cost of getting it graded would be worth it.

 

A slab does not put a premium on a coin. For certain coins, the slab adds liquidity and a guarantee of authenticity.

For this coin, there is no question of its authenticity, and you should have no trouble selling this for a small premium over spot.

While it's value may seem high to you, it really isn't a very valuable coin - nearly all the value comes from it's gold content.

The expense of getting it certified is unnecessary for this coin.

 

The authenticity of the coin is proven by
the TPG plastic it resides in. This not only
aids the seller but the buyer as well. I've
collected coins for over 50 years. Gold coins
of any kind are not my specialty, but if I were
to buy one, then I would want it "slabbed".
It must be nice to have the confidence that
some have here just by looking at a photo.

 

Why is it unwarranted? Because if your coin is only worth bullion value,
now you are going to have that much more into it unnecessarily.
You want to grade it go ahead, but it doesn't require it. A coin dealer or even gold
buyer will give you around spot for it.

 

As others have said, there should be no question about the authenticity. You can sell it as is for bullion value, or spend $30-50 to put it in a slab and sell it for bullion value. That's why some have said slab bing is unwarranted. But in the end, you have some expert accurate opinions, so the choice is yours

 

Yes, and I do appreciate the opinions given. What I don't understand is why $30-50 spent getting it graded is not worth it when some of the sites I've looked at place the value of the coin at over $200 in VF. Seems worth it to me.