Questionable 1909-S VDB, Help Me.

The serifs and curve of the S are wrong. I would venture it is an altered coin.

There is a web site called http://www.coppercoins.com where you could see examples of real and fake 09S VDB Cents. In the book by the person from that web site there is several pages dedicaated to just that coin. And remember it is not necessarily the location of the S, but the shape that is wrong here.

100% fake wheat tips must come to a point. Google counterfeit 1909 s vdb and look at the first one by ebay it has the best info on the net for this coin and the pics of the tips will save you the TPG money no way it's real sorry

Yea it definitely looks questionable...i agree with everybody. Also, yes...the TPGers will NOT keep a piece if they deem the authenticity questionable. They wont put it in plastic tho...it will get "Body Bagged". ANACS is nice because they dont cost as much. Also the last couple years they have been really solid...i actually trust them more than NGC. NGC has has far too many screw ups (misattributing, grades etc) Not to mention ANACS & PCGS are real tough on DMPL grades...unlike NGC. Just my (and many others I know) opinion. But yea...send it to ANACS...you'll get it back if it's bad and won't go broke finding out. Good luck!

One thing that really concerns me is the reverse. The Wheat at right is finely detailed and shows almost no wear. The wheat on the left is very mushy looking and very lacking in overall detail. The stem at the bottom of each Wheat stalk look completely different. I'm not aware of a way that can happen. Very suspicious.

Does the rim adjacent to the mint mark show any signs of tooling?

Hmmm can you get a close up image of the s slightly tilted? I echo whats being said about indents or what not but that would be the best try acetone if it has a non legit s that some "stuck" it should come right off,but geez this is kinda a huge coin to do anything with hopefully its not counterfeit or altered does seem fishy tho

The shape of the mintmark is totally wrong. The real S mintmark on the SVDB coins is a compact square. Also, there are four distinct known mintmark positions ONLY known. If you are buying raw coins it pays to know the many authenticating diagnostics of GENUINE coins, and it also helps to have looked at many thousands of examples!

Also on the reverse of a genuine SVDB, the bottom-right angle of the N in UNITED is bulging and filled in, not sharp and well-angled. I don't see that here either.

Best Regards,

George