1850-D Gold Dollar

Welcome to Coin Community, ghagen. This one is a very tough call. As you might understand, there's no way to confidently pronounce the legitimacy of *any* coin from *any* photograph regardless of quality. The coin you offer here is one of the rarest in the whole series, carrying a substantial premium in any grade.

I see nothing to cause immediate alarm, in the sense that the features tend to match what is known about this issue. The weakness in DOLLAR and 1850 are typical; the odd letter relationships are accurate for the single die pair used, and I've seen examples with the letters in UNITED filled as shown. The obverse stars seem a little funny, but that's something I could easily attribute to distortions caused by your phone.

Keep in mind, this coin (if pronounced legitimate and having unaltered surfaces) is worth well over $2000. The necessary method here is to submit the coin to one of the recognized Third-party Graders (TPG's) - PCGS, NGC or ANACS - for authentication and grading. You would be hard-pressed to sell it at all (should that come to pass) outside one of their slabs. The best bet - unless you have many other coins worthy of grading - would be to partner with a local dealer who is affiliated with PCGS or NGC on a submission.

Thank ya'll for the responses. I had acquired the coin through a bulk lot purchase from a friend of mine. I am led to believe he inherited them some time ago. I had no idea about the rarity until I had looked up the various coins and realized this one was special. I guess my next move is to get it authenticated from one of the aforementioned graders.

Ghagen, with all the post.
The next question is, do you know how to submit to a TGP?

I don't see anything suspicious but it should be submitted to a TPG to make sure it's genuine. I could see it grading a mid AU and while unlikely, I won't rule out the possibility of a low MS. The surfaces appear lustrous. Quite a nice coin!