1864 Twenty Cent Piece

I am new to this website. This is my first post.

I bought this coin on eBay a few months ago. I was looking for a twenty cent piece to add to my type collection. I bought this one because I fell in love with the idea of owing a coin with a mintage of just 14,000.

I think it's in pretty good shape--somewhere between VF and EF. What do you think?

Is there a way to look at photographs of other 20 cent pieces that have been graded by PCGS to get a feel for what they would do?

I am wondering why it isn't worth more with such a low mintage. 1909 S VDB is worth 3 to 4 times as much in the same grade and has 35 times the mintage. I guess it's just low demand as there are not many 20 cent piece collectors out there.

Thanks!

 

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1876 twenty cent piece, that is--sorry!

leave it to the new guy to mess up right away.

 

Great coin, I love the 20 cent pieces, just dont have the funds to afford one. I would say that is EF as a grade.

 

The only thing I would do is get a professional opinion if it is authentic. Ebay is a good place for people to sell counterfeits. Not to be negative, but I would make sure if it were mine.

 

I did take it to my local dealer, who thought that it was authentic but maybe had been lightly cleaned years ago.

 

Good to hear! I am always cautious when buying anything even remotely uncommon on ebay. There are a lot of dishonest people, and it's a lot harder to tell if they are lying if you can't look them in the eye.

 

Nice coin! I'd say at least EF.
Guy~

 

That is an interesting 20cent piece. It has good detail, generally EF details, IMO, maybe EF45. But it seems to be missing some of the critical detailed areas where grading is done. For example, in an EF40, according to the ANA grading guild, you should have a cap that shows wear but details. This coin virtually has no cap. It does have a lot of hair though. More than what a VF might have. Looking at the Scroll on the shield where it says liberty, "LIBERTY" should be sharp, and scroll edges should be raises. Your LIBERTY is not sharp, and I'm beginning to think this might be a strike issue. You have EF detail in the head, more than half that is needed for a VF-30. So you think the coin would be EF-40 accept for the nagging problems I discussed above. And the same thing with the reverse. The Eagles head is EF are defined. The Obverse drapery is even EF45 details.

I think this coin is an EF40 overall with some strike issues. It looks to me like the cap and the letters in LIBERTY where never fully struck. Its a nice coin and I'd be happy if I brought it for EF money.

Ruben

 

Nice piece. I don't collect 20 centers becasue all that I see ar the 1876 S's.

I would like other ones, and this is a nice one.

Oh, and welcome to the forum.

 

First Welcome to CT you sure will learn a lot. That looks like a great coin but be careful on ebay.

Nickeldude

 

Way to get past the ANA grading guide, Ruben. The coin is a no-question XF detail coin, IMO -- and is weakly struck in a few areas like you suggested. All IMHO & respectfully submitted...Mike

 

translate please from the original hebrew?

 

p.s. IMO, the OP is correct in that a lack of demand (along with an unusually high survival rate for this "oddity" -- like the 2C and 3C and even half dimes) have kept down prices.

 

I forgot most of that language when I was 14, and my grandparents who were fluent (in yiddish, not hebrew, per-se) have long since passed away. Sorry, I can't help.

 

p.s. what I was trying to say is that you almost fell into the ANA trap on this coin, but recovered nicely to identify the reason for the lack of detail, and didn't let the arbitrary way the ANA defines grades get in the way of assigning (what I consider to be) the correct grade to the coin. Well done!

 

Ah - Good. I owe anything I learned about grading from Doug. There had to be a problem with the strike because the wear points I was looking at didn't match the common descriptions. And if you look at enough SLQ and Mercs you know there are problems with caps. If I looked a little further in the text I would have found the Notes: Coins of this design are sometimes weakly struck, particularly on the obverse and the eagles right wing. The real give away, though, was that the scroll was sharp and up and the letters still had troubles, similar to some Ikes. Meanwhile, assuming your right, I was still too hard on this coin.

Ruben

 

BTW - I can't see how it can be XF with that bald Eagle breast. It looks a lot like the EF45 picture on page 175 of the guild.

Ruben

 

I thought the same thing when I first saw it. Sure hope it's real!

 

Nice coin Squaredealer and I can see it meriting an XF40.

Low mintage for sure and although not as highly rated as some other more popular coins this is one I don't think you have to worry about losing value.

They have actually gained substantially in the past few years.

 

isn't 40 EF or is XF and EF the same thing?