1853 Rays & Arrows Half - Your Judgment Please

I very much dislike purchasing raw coins from a person that I do not know using photographs. My eyes tend to play tricks on me. I am biased because I love white coins and I need some neutral opinions here please.

Does the area to the right of Lady Liberty scream out that she has been harshly cleaned to you?

 

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Not just cleaned but highly polished.


PASS!

 

The whole coin was cleaned at a minimum, with the area you are referring to scrubbed and polished. That is at a minimum, and @okbustchaser very well could be right the whole thing is polished.

Its unfortunate, but we do not know the circumstances here. Maybe it had terminal black toning, and this was done because it was the only way to save the coin. I have harshly cleaned before terminal coins to save them. Some were beyond saving, (already corroded), and others turned out like this. Better this than letting it rot away completely. If I am right, its not the person who did this who is to blame, but the person who allowed the out of control toning to happen.

 

Yeah.... The price point was just too good and I didn't want to acknowledge the obvious.... Thanks Fellows.

 

Nothing of substance to add to the above comments but as the old adage goes, a 168-year-old silver piece isn't going to be blast white.

That being said, it's otherwise a pretty coin.

 

Sorry Randy, but it almost looks like a proof coin...

 

She still looks beautiful.

 

Yeah.... She does.... I have a beautiful rays & arrows half calling to me from somewhere. I own several, but I want one.... No, I NEED one that is more like my avatar half.

 

I have a pretty worn one that I traded a few "W" quarters for at the last Baltimore Whitman show. One of my favorite US designs.

 

It's a sin that the mint only used the arrows and rays design one year. I understand why they did it.... But danged if it didn't make for one handsome coin.

 

Well crud..... I guess that EBay dealers know when you look at their coins. I just got an email offering me $40.00 off the cost of the coin. Danged digital footprints!!

 

I agree with the comments. Even though it looks cleaned and polished, it's still a pretty coin.

 

Did you have it on a watch list?

 

Yes

 

That's why

 

IMO Randy, walk away and don't look back. I thought I read something about a new dipping/cleaning process that doesn't cause pitting. I think it is called "feather touch" or something like that.

 

On the photos shown, magnification does not seem to be a white coin. I detect toning, and a lot of toning, on the obverse and reverse. Was it cleaned at one time or another? Of course. increasing the magnification in the area you referred to, shows the same consistency and depth of toning. It appears to be a nice circulated piece, and I like the die crack and the shield anomaly.

There is another reason I like it, but that is not important.
What is the ask?

 

$400.00.... That is too good a number for a problem free coin.

 

Pass.

 

Considering its book value, if it isn't slabbed, I'm not interested.