Here, I snagged the photos for us to see, Boy, thats a hum-dinger!!!Let me look for a minute first before I say....
I can tell you this, Thats a wounderfully struck coin for that year!!, These are usualy med-struck to light, some die crack evident, back in the day the old timer coin dealers and collectors hated and wouldnt like any die cracks!, these days things are turning around on that subject, another words(Acceptable) wont down grade becouse of it.I dont know about your pocket book, but that coin is way expensive! in the thousands.....It appears from the photo that all the mint luster is there!!!Some times its hard to tell just from a photo and lights they use, but I would bid my limit on that if I had some more money!!!!Nice coin!!!
The lines down by the date...that could either be flow lines...or it could be hairlines from a light cleaning.... A few things wrong with the item... Its not slabbed. (Well... graded by UNC...but that isn't anything)..anybody would slab this coin....nobody can see who bid on it...or who won it....they also want payment in 5 days...why are they leaving the country??....also if it was such a good coin...why didn't it get a better price. Here are some photos....if that isn't wear...then I think its UNC...if that is wear..AU58 with maybe a dipping to make it look all nice and UNC!!! I think the high points are the same or around the same place for Bust halves....as its the same design....I know that you don't grade a quarter like a half dollar...but this looks like it might be some wear....hope I'm wrong Speedy
When I first looked at this coin there was something about it that was bugging me, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Sure, the coin has been dipped and the pic brightened to show the remaining luster. But that wasn't it. Then it struck me what it was. Look closely at the pic of the obverse below - I think the coin has been altered. See the smooth spots the arrows point to - I think the coin has been puttied in order to cover heavy marks. Could be wrong - but it sure looks that way to me.
They can, they have, and they will continue to do so. If there is a dollar to be made by altering a coin in order to improve its grade, change the mint mark or variety - anything to increase the value - they will do it. They also use lasers to alter coins. The truly bad part is - that was an awesome coin. There was no need to alter it. It was only done for greed.
Thats the truth....do you think the winner will send it to NCS and try to have something done to it?...is there anything that can be done? Speedy
He is right about "Coin Doctoring", Ive seen it before, but I believe that is just die flow, These are a crazy series, Ive seen all kinds of die flows.But as stated the luster seems to be really bright, possably dipped, like I said, hard to judge from photos sometimes,It doesnt matter slabed or not, can you believe that there are only 1-2% of the total coins are slabed!!These bust halves were BULLION coins and really never circulated in public well, many, many wounderfull examples exsist, they were toted around bank to bank.That coin grades(from photo) a full MS-65 all day.A great strike like that, I wouldnt care if dipped or not, if the price is right...... :whistle:
Die flow ? No offense 2coins, but metal flow from the coins being struck with the dies does not produce flattened and smoothed over blobs. It will either produce radial lines or the appearance of a finely grained mottled surface - which in this case is just what the rest of the fields of that coin look like. By the way, that coin was slabbed - as MS64 by some company called United. And you may well be correct about the percentage of these coins that are slabbed. But it should be taken into account about the survival percentages for these coins. The vast majority of the total mintage no longer even exist. Even at that, as of about 3 1/2 years ago, NGC & PCGS had slabbed over 56,000 Bust halves with over 22,000 of those being AU50 and above. Believe it or not, it is much harder to find high grade examples of these coins raw than it is to find them slabbed.
