What would you grade this 1909 Barber Half?

I'd love some other opinions on this one. To my inexperienced eye. The would appear F12, but the lack of horizontal lines on the sheild threw me off, and I have no idea what the black markings are around the rim on the front. When I bought this coin it was inside of a brooch; luckily brooch was removable.

 

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Its been cleaned so that throws the grade down a bit.

 

My guess is that the black gunk is crude that the whiz bristles failed to remove. My suggestion is don't buy a coin that has nasty looking scratches that all line up in the same direction. Whizzing really hurts the value of a coin, and makes it hard to judge the grade, as the surface has been altered.

 

Hey JC, dat the Fam (avitar)? Wonderful pic of you guys.

I think that coin could have graded out as XF is somebody hadn't o' cleaned 'er....

 

Boy am I glad to run into this site. I appreciate the the advice and thanks for the compliment Green, hope little kyle will take an interest in coins.

 

I agree on both accounts. Great coin, would have been a solid VF-30 to XF.......tooo bad about the cleaning :-(

 

Yep cleaning

 

So does it retain any value? Or is it just that people don't collect cleaned or scratched coins? I payed 22 dollars for this coin. Its weird I know I have no clue what Im doing but I have so much confidence when buying. According to coinstudy price guy there is a jump from Fine $21 to XF $131. When I see number changes like that it makes me feel like this is a great longterm investment coin in the fine condition. That eventually the market should be in favor of the next grade. Is there any truth to this?

 

Harshly conserved I'd say.

 

Well when it's cleaned it looses alot of value but not all.
I'd say 1/2 to 1/4th of value but that can be moved alot depending on the coin.
sorry there is no short answer.
It's still a nice coin.

 

Somewhere I read that the dies for 1909 were redesigned. And that this retooling gave all 1909 half dollars a new look much sharper with well defined devices. All mints got the new dies. So part of the beauty of your coin is due to the newer dies.

 

Harshly cleaned (polished) with VF Details.

Probably worth about $16 as-is. Still a nice piece of US silver.

And welcome to Coin Talk!

PS - You look exactly like a younger version of my friend Peter Romano, one of the most knowledgeable coin collectors I have ever met. You could be his little brother!