So it has taken me a lot longer than expected to get some good photos of my grandpa's collection. I have the afternoon off and finally got a decent number of good pictures of some of the coins so I'll be posting them and hopefully getting some help to hone my grading abilities. This coin was incredibly difficult to get a decent picture of but here is the best I could do: It is the only trade dollar in the collection, so I am having an even harder time guessing an approximate grade than I am with some of the other coins as I do not have any comparisons in hand. I'm also worried that it might have been cleaned but since I do not have any others to compare it with, I am mostly basing that on the fact that its luster is VERY different from the Morgan dollars but that may just be inherent in the coins... What are people's thoughts?
Cleaned but it was your grandfathers so hang on to that coin. It's meaning to you is worth far more than its value.
All are correct. Keep in mind that previous generations of coin crazed folks didn’t necessarily view cleaning the same as the current generation of numismatists do. And cleaned coins can “heal” over a period of time. Regardless, it belonged to your grandpa and in my view that makes it priceless.
It seems real so that's a good thing with Trades. But def. cleaned. You can see the cleaning scratches, and notice the clean areas and the dark areas around the letters stars and numbers.
Yes, it has definitely been cleaned. The good news, however, is that the coin appears to be genuine. Trade dollars are highly counterfeited, but I don't see anything that worries me here. As for the grade, compare yours to the pictures here: https://www.pcgs.com/photograde/#/Trade/Grades I think yours has the details of a mid-grade VF, and is probably worth $125, even having been cleaned.