Here are two well worn better date/variety Classic Head gold pieces that I purchased as part of a large estate collection. They are worn but I’m not sure if they have been cleaned. Id love input about whether or not it would be worth sending them in for grading. I intend to resell them to subsidize other purchases. Not sure if the standard eBay listing is the best route or if heritage or someplace like that would be better. Thanks in advance!
That was what I thought, just wanted to confirm. I’ll just plan to sell them raw. Very curious what the crosslet 4 variety will bring since their are very few comps.
Yes, sadly both have been cleaned. The Plain 4 piece is quite common for a Classic $5 gold. The Crosslet 4 piece is really scarce. It’s scarcer than the 1838-D and even tougher than the 1838-C. I had to way overpay for an over graded piece that is in a PCGS MS-61 holder to get one that looked well with the rest of my set. I could trace the same coin to a PCGS AU-55 holder, and that’s where it should have stayed. A subsequent owner got lucky with a crack-out.
Many of the pitted gold coins of the era were cleaned with cyanide solutions. J. Sanford Saltus accidently killed himself on June 23, 1922 under peculiar circumstances: ...officer of the Numismatic Society, Saltus poisoned himself with cyanide , when he thought it was his water glass. Be careful with your dips. Jim
