How would you grade? Pic isn't as crisp as I would like, but these were the best of the bunch. Thanks!
I would say VF, maybe EF. Nice coin. Do you know if it was cleaned? Looks like it could have been dipped, but hard to tell.
What would be a tell-tale sign of it being dipped? I Don't think it's been cleaned, but you all would know better than me.
As Ahab pointed out the brown spots on it. It's luster appears duller than it would be if not dipped or cleaned, the overall brightness of the coin is also an indication. Looking at the obverse, between the E and R in LIBERTY, there appears to be a substance that may be from whatever was used to clean the coin, same substance is on the reverse to the right of the eagle's head, and around the tail feathers. Not sure what that is, but it's not something you normally find on a silver coin.
There is no way in the world that this coin is VF or EF as has been estimated in this thread. The coin is mint state or darn close to it. The specks of toning are consistent with either storage in an ablum or storage in an original US Mint Set package. The 1949 WQ often comes with a slight off-white color and many times is found with some auburn spotting. I don't know why this is the case, but it is quite hard to find an undipped 1949 WQ that is completely untoned. I also do not believe the coin has been dipped.
Thanks TomB, that was more along the line of what I was thinking. I can't find a single mark on the coin and the luster is nice and even, much better in hand than the picture indicates. As far as a substance between the E and R in liberty, that is the light hitting directly on the coin, there isn't anything there.
Not a problem. Here are reverse images of a 1949 and 1949-D WQ as well as an obverse of a 1943-D WQ. Each has some brown speckling on it that is more apparent than on your coin-
