My first Dahlonega gold(half eagle)! Calculated ebay gamble.

Ok, so I thought I was done buying gold for a while. NOPE! Bug hit hard again in a way I didn't expect it to. I have always revered the elusive southern branch mint coins of Charlotte and Dahlonega, but never really considered one because of the high cost needed to own a decent example. This one caught me by surprise. I initially bid on it, and ended up being the highest bidder except I was stopped cold by the seller's "reserve", as the next highest bid was way below mine. Oh well, moved on. 2 days later, the seller sent me a second chance offer at the bid that ended below mine! My first thought was it was possibly fake. But no, it was legit from ebay and I confirmed it with the seller. Honestly, I can't believe how inexpensive it ended up being. I couldn't find ANY in the Heritage archives that went cheaper than this until like 2002 or so, evern ones that were cleaned/hacked up/graffiti-ed whatever.

Now this coin is certified by NGC and looks pretty decent from the pics, although the obverse picture leaves something to be desired(It's not very clear). The reverse looks quite nice to me. This US seller(hcc coins) has sold thousands of coins and has a 100% feedback rating, and a 7 day full refund guarantee. I have also heard really good reviews from him in the other forum. So I jumped on it. It is a gamble based on less than great pictures, but given all of the conditions it was a calculated risk. I will say what I paid for it and the grade later and will post better pictures when I receive the coin. Now from you guys.

What would you grade and value the coin based on the pics? First impression?

 

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Judging by the reverse pic I'd say XF (obv. too mushy). It would be nice to add one of these to any collection. I'd like to see your pic's (when you get it) and hear about how satisfied/dissatisfied you are....

 

I have no idea but beautiful coin

 

I'd say 40, but I suspect NGC said XF 45. I have no idea of value.

 

Hard to tell from the photo. The obverse has VF20+ detail, but I'm guessing much of the lacking detail is due to poor strike. Reverse maybe VF35.

Big step up ! Big congrats !

 

Well, eBay completed auction shows an 1846 D in NGC XF45 which sold at $ 1900. This is below Numismaster price level for that date in XF40. However, that listing had great pictures compared to the ones in the listing you won.
If you paid less, and your coin is comparable to that one, I would say you did well. You took a gamble based on poor pictures, and I really hope you are pleasantly surprised. But, as you say you have full return privilge so the risk is low.

 

Can't tell much from photos and I defer to those with real gold expertise. But owning a Dahlonega or Charlotte coin in itself would be a nice thing. I am not a type collector but I have often thought it would be nice to put together a set of coins with one from every mint. Dahlonega and Charlotte would be toughies.

Hope it turns out to be a good find for you.

 

NGC gave it a VF details(improperly cleaned) and it sold to me for $660.00.

So taking into consideration that the coin is probably hairlined or heavily dipped underneath the toning, I still think it is undergraded at VF details, especially since most Dahlonega coins are weakly struck. NGC is much stricter, but maybe there is more wear on the obverse than what can be seen in the photos because it's blurry. Even still, Dahlonega's commonly have weak details for the grade, and there are a TON of cleaned ones in problem free slabs from what I've seen/read. So my hope is that NGC suddenly got much stricter on both detail and problem status with this coin, now that they slab problem coins.

But even if the coin looks nowhere near as good in hand as it does in these pics, $660 seems like a good price for a cleaned certified VF $5 gold dahlonega to me at only 2.5x melt. I'm quite surprised the seller sold it to me for that price in a second chance offer. I will know a lot more when I receive the coin(fingers crossed). Here is the listing.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370307182776&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

 

GDJSMP said:

Really?? I have never heard of this with any coin, and have not seen an XF graded coin that had >50% of it's original luster ever. I thought that was the rule for AU-50??

You and 900 fine are correct about the grade. Everyone else on both forums figured it to be at least XF so good call.:thumb:

 

Neither have I about the XF, I think that's AU too....

As I said on the other forum Johnny, great coin!

 

GDJ I am not sure if that is necessarily true on some types of coins, but may be different for gold. I don't know. Even so, I've seen many graded XF gold coins without luster, but with nice crusty surfaces. I've also seen this with many silver coins, with the 'battleship grey'. Probably the rule rather than the exception with silver, actually.

I guess I also see a widespread ignoring of that rule with AU coins and TPG's, as long as it's not overdipped. I mean, I still see AU detail coins without much obvious 'luster' (maybe 10%) that are natural...

 

I believe I see a twinge of luster on this coin in the words "UNITED" and "AMERICA" on the reverse. Certainly not 30-40%, but I rarely see that much on XF coins. Again, even if it is lusterless, I will be fine with it for the price I paid. It obviously was cleaned in some way, and if being overdipped is the worst of it, then I will be quite pleased.

 

Received the coin, and am overall quite please. It has a crusty look to it, slightly olive colored with some orange/brown highlights around the protected areas. And yes GD, it does have remaining luster in protected areas. Especially on the reverse, it even has a mild cartwheel effect.

I don't think it quite makes XF, but is very close. It looks very similar to a PCGS VF-35 I was looking at on heritage. If cleaned, it left no hairlines and still has a fair amount of crust. Downside is that it does have quite a few circulation "nicks", although they aren't very noticable in hand. The picture seems to bring them out more.

Overall, it was well worth $660 in my mind. 1 picture is with direct lighting, and the other with natural lighting.

 

Glad you like it. That type of piece needs to be with some one who would appreciate it.
It was the end of the year & I had to take my losses on some coins. You know gotta keep the books in order n'all.
Thanks for the positive feedback on Ebay as well.

Just some FYI for you- The coin was purchased raw & it was sent in to NGC for details grading on 10.28.09

Bud-
Numismatist HCC

 

Thanks for the info budgood! It will be well taken care of. And thanks for tending to all my questions.

I have one more while you are here, since you have seen the coin in hand, why in your opinion did NGC grade it as cleaned? I don't really see hairlines, and it has more than adequate luster for the remaining details. It may have been overdipped at one point, but it sure has retoned. It does have a slight sheen to it, but there are a lot of these scrubbed up worse than this in problem free slabs. Did you expect it to come back as "cleaned" when you sent it in?

GD, I agree it is not quite XF quality, but very close. In looking through Heritage auction archives, this one strikes me as being similar in detail level and contact marks. It is graded VF-35 by PCGS.

 

Personally- I did not want it to be sent in ,the owner of the Company I work for did.
For the most part I choose & screen all of our coins that go to service. In this case I did believe the coin was a VF details piece. I knew that it would only get a details grade . The other party wanted to take the shot due to the date & mint. Sometimes the TPG's will slab a coin problem free when it really isn't just for that reason. In addition the price that the buyer paid for it was at problem free money so that is another reason that we took the shot. Obviously it did not work out in our favor & we took our lumps & let it go for what the market dictated. I do not believe it was dipped - there is a touch of luster hidden around the divices but if you get it in the right light you will see enough light lines to have the TPG give it cleaned opinion.