1870 Seated Liberty Half Dollar - Grade, Authenticate, Chat

Very nice, Bobby. I see nothing in the photos that would drop this coin below MS-67. I also can see nothing that would scream "fake" to me either. My only concern would be that the photos are almost too good, leaving me to wonder a little about what the photographer is hiding. (I guess I'm a glass half empty kinda guy with a bit of distrust showing right now.) (Edited Friday...I see Bobby converted the photos to greyscale. That probably accounts for the appearance that I found so disconcerting.)

I'm not that familiar with this series in this high of a grade, so have to ask about Liberty's hair at her forehead and top of head. That doesn't look quite right, upon reflection, but could that be the result of a weak strike? I notice that some of the stars in that region seem incompletely struck as well.

That's probably the best looking SL 1/2 Dollar I have seen. (good thing I got my bib out to catch my drool) Is it proof? Maybe give us a shot from the side.

OK, here's why I ask...

This is an image of an MS64 that sold on Heritage for $2300.



The one above, sold on ebay for only $612.

I converted the image to greyscale to show more detail here. Now why would this guy sell this gorgeous coin raw and take the serious beating that he did? If that coin is truly problem-free as he states, it's got at least 2 points on the Heritage coin. Agree?

He's got perfect feedback, lots of repeat customers, and seems to mostly sell nearly perfect coins waaaaaayyyyy too cheap.

I guess some people just don't believe in slabbing coins. But I agree, something's not right but he does have a return policy, so who knows. The coin might have been body bagged for something very minor that most people couldn't see. I think that Prethen is right, that those images cover it's flaws up. Look at the world "HALF DOLLAR". Notice how the area looks kinda bumpy around it and then it's really smooth? Looks like someone was messing with it.

I'll suggest the same thing I did to trdhrdr007 in that other thread - perhaps this is a money-laundering operation.

Without going into a lot of detail, many years ago I associated with people that might have had a need to convert shoeboxes/duffelbags full of cash into legitimate funds. These people made some poor lifestyle choices, but they weren't stupid when it came to money. They might have paid 10-15% for this service, but that was about the limit. I can't see selling coins for way under market fitting in those guidelines, although I suppose it's possible.


I made this post & then mowed the lawn. While I was doing that I thought about all this, & I think we are asking the wrong question. The real question is.....Why didn't somebody here, with the knowledge they have about coins & the market, buy this coin, have it slabbed, sell it at Heritage & put that big spread in their own pocket? Even if it didn't slab & you couldn't return it, you could only lose the grading fee, & any costs to relist on ebay. It's already been established that the unslabbed market value is what you paid for it. Before you ask why I don't do this, it's because I don't have the ability to accurately grade.

I wonder what kind of feedback the buyer will leave...