I saw this coin the other day while in my LCS. I know it’s AU details but it was nice to see a seated dollar with so much detail left. What do you think? Coin is not mine.
This coin looks like the OC-1 die marriage which pairs Obverse 1 and Reverse A. Rarity is R-1 so a common coin if any LS dollar can properly be considered common. I have included the cropped obverse and reverse photos plus blow-ups of the relevant die markers on the OP's coin below. Now, as to this specific coin. The below are just my impressions from the two photographs provided and I do not pretend that my observations are authoritative or even correct. Things are hard to judge from only two so-so photos. That said; There is a greenish color pervading about 30% of the obverse and 20% of the reverse. That coloration does not look like toning and it is pretty splotchy over large areas. It looks remarkably like that on a LS dollar I saw a couple of years ago. That one was completely covered in PVC residue which lent it that same sort of dull, olive-drab coloration. So, I will just call this coloring on the OP coin "PVC" for the sake of convenience while acknowledging that it may be something else. The OP coin doesn't appear to have any luster, which I would expect to see some of due to the low wear of the coin. Plus, the coin just looks to me like someone has tried to clean the PVC off and not done a very good job of it. On the plus side, I don't see any evidence of the pitting that might be expected under a heavy coating of PVC. Nor do I see any evidence of abrasive-type cleaning. So, as a speculation, do you suppose that someone tried to dip the coin (as opposed to using acetone) to remove PVC and thus only removed part of the PVC while destroying any luster that might have remained under the PVC? Finally, I would say if this coin was in a TPG slab, it would be graded as AU-50 to AU-53 and have a value of greater than $1K if it was without problems. But this coin appears to me to have problems which might explain why this 50 to 53 coin remains raw, i.e. the owner knows it would not straight-grade and thus won't submit it. It would please me no end to have someone refute my thoughts with reasoned arguments since I would undoubtedly learn something from the conversation.
Enjoyable write-up. What are your thoughts ( and certainly agree the lack of in-hand exam, combined with the limits of internet photos, are restrictive on in-depth commentary) concerning whether there was any tooling employed on the piece?
I don't see any evidence of tooling. But, it would have to be pretty gross and apparent for my poor skills to detect it. I remember at one meeting of my local coin club when a well-known ANA member showed me a draped bust dollar he had purchased in a straight-graded PCGS holder. Obviously upset, he asked what I thought of how they had missed the retooling around the bust. I looked it over and then said "What retooling?" Of course, after he pointed it out I could then see it.
Could it actually be an original uncleaned coin with pvc residue that makes it looked cleaned? I know it’s unlikely, but could be possible.
I agree that it's a details coin. I don't know about PVC in its various permutations, just the green goo and surface erosion from the acid it produces. The coin does look AU, but I would expect more luster around the obv. stars which leads me to think the fields have been burnished or polished, and I would expect them to be fairly reflective (can't tell from the pictures.) The toning, to me, looks artificial as I just haven't seen those colors or that mossy look on NT coins. Of course I could be wrong!
