Help, please -- 1849D Quarter Eagle

Good luck with whatever you do!! It's a beautiful coin :thumb:

 

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Joel,

I would contact Heritage and seek their advice. They have the experience to know what will be your best course and who/how to submit to get the best results. Because of the potential substantial value I cannot think of a better suggestion.

Let us know how you make out.

Best Regards

Darryl

 

An interesting piece, and one that would certainly be very valuable if it is authentic. I thnk sending it to NGC is probably the way to go with this piece. However, I must say that I have a very bad feeling that the piece is a counterfeit. I don't have great knowledge in southern gold, but that piece seems struck way too well to be a Dahlonega piece. They are generally poorly struck and appear of rather poor quality.

That said, maybe contacting Doug Winter and sending him the scans of the coin would help.

 

While generally true, Bob, this issue is often found with a relatively strong strike. Take a look here:

http://coins.ha.com/common/auction/...ion+Archives&hdnSearch=True&txtLotNo=&stage=1

Winter says about this coin's strike:

"Beginning with this issue, the quality of strike for Dahlonega quarter eagles goes deteadily downhill. The strike for the 1849-D is buch better than many of the 1850's issues, but it is not as good as the 1846-1848 run. The obverse shows a better impression at the center than at the border. The hair and curls are well detailed although the curls near the eye are often weak. The stars are mostly sharp but the dentilcles are always very weak from 11:00 to 2:00. The reverse shows the same pattern of strike. The eagle is well detailed [except for the right leg and the arrow feather above the mintmark] while th edenticles are very weak from 5:00 to 7:00. On some coins, the denticles at the left reverse become weak as well."

Like you, I am also concerned with the the coin being counterfeit or otherwise damaged, and believe that the coin should be examined by a TRUSTWORTHY professional and sent to PCGS or NGC for grading.

 

I would be very wary of anyone who approached you, and I would be very cautious in how you handle this. The coin game is full of those who would take advantage of you. TREAD CAREFULLY OR YOU RISK BEING RIPPED OFF.

Yes, there is something to be gained by sending it through an expert. They could pre-view the coin to see if it is counterfeit or othwise damaged, and could save you the money (and time) of having it sent to a TPG. If you choose the right professional, they could also advise you of which TPG to send it to to maximize its value, and they could also recommend a method of selling it and can probably negotiate better terms with the auction house than you could ever get. I would also get more than one opinion.

If I were in your shoes, there would be only two people I would trust -- Doug Winter and Mark Feld. I know Mark better than Doug, but both have sterling reputations. Mark is not an expert in southern gold, but his integrity beyond reproach. He will not steer you wrong. Also, both Mark and Doug are superb graders. Mark was a grader for NGC in the past. If you end up doing a consigment with Heritage, ask for Todd Imhof. He's another standup guy.

I also disagree strongly with 900fine that NGC is the better grading company for this issue. PCGS coins, graded equally, will fetch a stronger price, and one only needs to look at auction records to see this fact. However, this decision should be made after the coin is in-hand and probably best left to the professional's recommendation, as they will know which TPG to send it to as to maximize selling price. To recommend one over the other without seeing the coin in hand is shortsighted, in my opinon.

Good luck. And please DON'T SIGN OR SEND YOUR COIN ANYWHERE WITHOUT ASKING FOR HELP....Mike

 

Thanks for the good info Leadfoot.

 

I totally agree with your posting! However, I was under the impression that Heritage always sends coins to PCGS if they are problem free! That they only send coins to NCS or ANACS when there is an issue with damage and/or cleaning??!! If the coin is authentic and problem free, then I am sure that Heritage will go the PCGS route!

Although the pics of the coin are not that great, I used several techniques to get a better view of the coin and I cannot see anything that stands out, to make me believe that it is a Counterfeit. Even though it appears that there may be some slight dings in the fields, a gouge, ding or Struck Thru between the "4" and "9" of the Date and maybe some minor rim issues, the coin appears to be close to MS-64 which would make it the finest known. If some of the issues that I think I can see, are in fact due to the quality of the pics, then the coin may grade even higher and fetch a record price for the Date! If we had some better closeups of the coin, then I believe we could better determine a grade and give a better assessment of it's authenticity!

It is truly an honor to view such a nice specimen of an extremely rare coin! Thanks!


Frank