I have been fortunate enough to have inherited seven gold coins, all of which I have graded by spending MANY hours on the internet looking at thousands of coins like them. They are all +/- MS 65.....really. They are as follows: (2) 1913 $10 Gold Indian Eagles (1) 1907 $10 Liberty Eagle (2) 1911 $5 Indian Half Eagles (1) 1912 $5 Indian Half Eagle (1) 1915 $5 Indian Half Eagle If I am correct, and they do grade +/- MS65, I know they are worth a lot of money, but I don't intend on selling them all necessarily. I have joined PCGS as a Gold Member and intend to submit the coins at the $50 Express Special level. Good idea? Also, what I am wondering is if there may be a good submitting strategy that I might employ so as to stand a better chance at getting the best grades. Do I just submit them all at once, or a few at a time? One at a time? Does this matter? Any advice is much appreciated! This experience has taught me quite a lot where I thought I had a laymans conversational ability before but now realize that I knew next to nothing about coins. Its been a lot of fun learning about a totally alien world. I look forward to more. I find myself looking at piles of ordinary coins now to see if even my novice eye can spot a special coin!
If the coins you have are indeed as you describe them - yes they are worth a good deal of money. And having them certified & graded would be an excellent idea. However - I think I might choose another submission tier besides the $50 express. You have 7 coins there that may prove to be very valuable - or they may not. With your PCGS membership you should get 4 free submissions - I suggest you use them. As for the remaining 3 coins I would submit them at the cheapest submission tier you can. The reason for this is simple. Many of these kind of coins were counterfeited over the years. I am not saying your coins were - just that it is possible. And for you to spend $350 and then receive nothing in return - well you understand. It is also possible that the coins may be not be gradable. They could be altered, damaged, cleaned or any of several other things that would prevent them being graded. If this was so - you would still be out the $350 and again have nothing in return. I sincerely hope that my worst case scenario does not come to pass - but you must always remember that it may and do what you can to lessen the potential cost. I wish you the best of luck and look forward to hearing what the results turn out to be.
Thanks for the reply. I had the coins looked at by an area coin dealer and he `graded' them as MS63 and 62. The reason I say `Graded' is because I later found out through another forum that this particular dealer is quite well known for intentionally undergrading coins when in a situation with someone who knows little or nothing about the true value/grade of a coin. As for their legitimacy, the fact that a very shrewd dealer offered me almost 10k for the coins tells me they are indeed quite legit.....non-counterfeit. There was also a note from my grandmother as to where they came from: a gift from a friend in 1962. As for sending them into PCGS economy class, the maximum value a coin can have for economy status is $300. For regular service its $3000. If I am correct that the majority will grade MS65, then they are all worth more than 3k each. In any case, I have heard that Express special grading can sometimes yield a better grade. Who knows if this is true or not, but it can't hurt. My real concern is whether they are better being submitted together or as individuals at different times. Either way its a bit of a crap shoot I suppose.
Very well - it sounds like they need to be submitted. I would still use my freebies if I were you and I would still use the cheapest submission tier I could. I wish the best for you - and don't forget to let us know how it turns out. And pics would be great
On that note.......are there any tutorials as to how to take good pics of coins with a digital camera? The ones I have tried to take `freehand' all have way too much glare. Also, the camera I use is only 1.3 megapixel......do I need a newer camera???
I learned quite a bit from this basic article: http://www.uscents.com/articles/DCP/DCP002.htm I use a similar setup with two goose neck lamps (one with a 75 watt bulb and the other with a 40 watt. I have to adjust light angles to get different coins to come out well. Lighting, white balance and useing some kind of tripod/stablilizer are very important, IMHO. Everything else is just tweaking for your particular camera and the type of coin.
meta - Stujoe has provided some good information. But do you see that link in my signature at the bottom of every post ? Click on it sometime. There are quite a few links there regarding digital coin photography. Along with a whole lot of other stuff you may want to know about coins
