1799 Draped Bust Silver Dollar 15 Stars

This coin needs to be certified. I count 13 stars. What is the coins weight?

Nancy . . first - to the forum.

2nd: I agree that this coin needs to be certified. It is an example of "Irregular Date, 15 Star Reverse". http://www.earlydollars.org/coindata.asp?ID=42
The edge should be lettered "HUNDRED CENTS ONE DOLLAR OR UNIT" and it should weigh 27 grams. It has VG-10 details but I would grade it VG-8 due to the dings on the rim both obverse and reverse. This is a $1000-$1200 coin if real.

How did you acquire this and do you have other coins?

I saw that originally too and if that's the case, would put at 14 stars and most likely, a counterfeit. There should be 3 stars left and right.

This is Bolender-4. The larger clouds left and right masked the accidental two extra stars punched into the reverse. Note the prominent (and characteristic) radial die crack between obverse stars 11 & 12 - in a clearer pic, you'll also see a striking crack running through the left stars into the bottom of the date. Another runs from star #1 into the hair, and later die states have one through LIB of LIBERTY.

This one's R-4, among the rarest of 1799 varieties, and although counterfeits are always a possibility, B-4's distinctive marks lend credence to its' authenticity.
Heritage has offered only 10 of these in the last decade.

NancyMcl, welcome to Coin Community. This is a bit of a splash into our pool. I'm going to call it VF20 or so, with a value of around $2000 - maybe a bit more - depending on a third-party grader's opinion of the two rim dings around 9:00 obverse. As I mentioned, a counterfeit is always a possibility but yours is a very distinctive variety.

This coin needs to be evaluated by an expert, in-hand. If you'd like to inform us of your geographical area, we might be able to steer you to an appropriate person.

Try this link for a little help:
http://www.earlydollars.org/wizarddate3.htm

According to your pictures (kind of hard to tell which date style is on this coin), I came up with the final result of:
http://www.earlydollars.org/wizarddata.asp?ID=112

I may be wrong, but the problem I see with the online reverse and yours is that some of the letter spacing (like the space between the E and D in United does not look as wide on your coin), as some of the lettering looks different (like the E in States - the bottom horizontal member of your E appears to have an end that is pointed on top and bottom - the online one only has a pointed top), and some of the stars do not look to be shaped properly (could be PMD) such as the one directly above "Unum" on the ribbon in the eagle' mouth.

I deliberately bought a silver replica from China a few years ago:



Mine is different than yours an the only way I see to tell it is a fake is by some of the letter spacing and the bottoms of the serifs on mine are slightly curved (A,T,and E in STATES) while the legit piece has straight bottoms on the same serifs. Also the spacing in the lettering in UNITED on mine has the letters spaced slightly further apart than on a legit.

Remember - I am NOT an expert. And I hope yours is legit.

No trouble getting on their pages on my end Mac OSX and Safari. Maybe was a tempoary issue? Try just typing in the earlydollars.org part and see if you can get in that way, the site is pretty easy to navigate.

Many thanks for all your information. To answer a few questions:

Coin weight is 27 grams

This coin was part of a small collection from my grandfather stored in a small metal box.

I live in the San Jose,CA area and any recommendations for a reliable dealer are welcome.

I will have this coin certified.

Again, many thanks for your input.