Help with a Barber Quarter

I am way out of my league when it comes to Barber Quarter's. Would you say the coin below is legit? If so, what would you grade it?

Thanks in advance!!

 

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not sure why the reverse didnt size up - so here it is again View attachment 70931

 

It looks really nice. Maybe too nice. But I suppose there are some real really nice ones too.

 

Looks legit to me, i would give it a AU55. Seems to have a little wear on the top right tip of the shield on the reverse. The chin on the obverse looks like it has a break in luster as well.


nice piece.

 

That is a notoriously weak-strike spot on Barber quarters and halves. Even MS64 coins will commonly show softness there; it's not necessarily rub.

Which means let that be one of your "zoom in" spots when shopping such coins.

 

It looks mint state, but I can never tell for sure from photos. In any case, it's a nice coin. If you see rub, I would call it AU58. If not, maybe MS64.

I like it.

I certainly don't see anything which indicates it's a phony.

 

Nice coins!!

 

From those photos, which bear a great resemblance to Great Southern Coins, the coin appears to be uncirculated. Whether the coin is actually mint state or not depends upon the accuracy of the photo. Regardless, the obverse bears some hairlines which are probably the result of a light cleaning. I would not purchase this coin raw for mint state money.

 

From the look of the luster in the photo, it just doesn't appear to have the same look as other coins of MS64-65 grade, the diffused look of the luster reminds me more of coins that have light cleanings, so beware.

Also agree that you can't grade by the slight weakness on the shield. I have MS65 barbers that show weakness in that area, but it's usually limited to the branch mint coins, especially New Orleans issues.

 

I'm not an expert in that series so I'll just say, NICE COIN! :high5:

 

I think Lehigh and illini are right... the soft luster "not quite cartwheel" and the cheek, neck, and field hairlines point to light cleaning.

The other clue... why is a fairly nice, fairly valuable coin not slabbed ? Because it won't pass muster.

Pass.

 

I appreciate the help here everyone!

I wasn’t too sure about the faint scratches. To me the scratches were not quite enough to indicate cleaning. And, since I generally do not silver I wasn’t too sure about the luster. My big problem was just what 900 said - Why isn’t a coin this nice slabbed if there isn’t a problem?

 

Even proof halves are often not fully struck in that area. I don't remember this as being a problem with proof quarters, or at least it was nowhere near as noticeable.

 

Very nice coin! I'd say mid-60's easy.

 

My opinion, formed before reading the other posts, is that the coin has uncirculated details but very likely a cleaning. On the obverse, I see fine horizontal hairlines. Also, a halo of toning around the right hand stars which suggests to me that toning in the fields has been removed. The fuzzy luster noted by illini and Lehigh (2 very sharp collectors who are way ahead of me) is a subtle clue that I missed. By way of illustration, here is how the luster on an MS63 should look, in this case a half:



(In retrospect, mine doesn't exactly look cartwheel in these images. I defer to PCGS, who graded it)

 

Of course it is almost imposable to tell a grade of a coin from a photo. I was grade the coin it would be a conservative MS-60. I agree with Lehigh that I would purchase the coin at FULL MS price.

 

I think you meant you would not purchase the coin a MS price.

 

I agree with 900. The coin looks to me to be Unc but it also looks to me that the marks across the cheek could be album slide marks instead of cleaning. Looks about MS-62 or 63 to me.

 

wouldn't the album "slide" then mean it has wear? making it a AU58 or so

 

maybe technically, but in reality no... i've seen PCGS MS64 Barbers with significant slide marks on them. doesn't seem right, but they are out there.