Hi All I got this coin from a box of coins I inherited. I have heard these type of coins are hot right now, and I would say, were this not cleaned, to would be a high AU, maybe a low MS? However the lack of luster makes me think it was cleaned at some point. What would this be worth in the grade was say Genuine, AU details - or - Genuine, UNC details?
I would say AU details. It's very likely the coin was UNC before cleaning, but it seems to have been roughly polished with toothpaste or jewelry cleaner. The little bit of what I see as wear might just be due to that.
from my 2004 Krause world coin catalog... KM#9.2 1891, 50 cents, .800 silver, mintage-70,000 grade/value F-$35.00 VF-$60.00 XF-$100.00 UNC-$550.00 looks very cleaned very harshly so I am not sure how much value gets taken away ? to bad it was cleaned that way.
Everyone associated with this box of coins has passed so I’m not sure what happened, but my theory is that this and a few other polished ones were handed down to my grandma from a parent or relative, and probably kept in with her jewelry which she would polish. She probably polished the coins as well because I assume they were al kept together.
That's been a very common practice of polishing the coins "along with the silver" [cutlery, jewelry, etc.]. Especially a problem if you collect old European silver.
