Learned My Lesson

So my wife and I just got back from a couple days vacation in my home town, two states away. Yesterday we stopped into an antique mall where they had several cases filled with coins - mostly Morgan and Peace dollars, WLH's, some Franklins, and other various.

I came across a 1925 Peace dollar for $32, which was the cheapest silver dollar I saw. It was marked BU on the 2x2, and had some beautiful cartwheeling going on, and since I didn't have a Peace dollar in my collection yet (been wanting to though), I decided to go for it.

After I got it out to the car and into better light, though, I noticed scratch marks across both sides that look like they came from a scour pad. I doubt anything more harsh, since you can only see the scratches if you hold it a certain way. Unfortunately, all sales final....no refunds.

I'm debating if I should keep it as is until I can manage to upgrade (most of my mad money goes toward Kennedys or Franklins which are the current sets I'm working on), or carry it as a pocket piece until the scratches wear down (which of course would also wear down the remaining cartwheeling). I'm hesitant to take it into the LCS, since with the scratches I'm sure it's worth only its silver value, so I'd be taking a loss.

But in all this I learned an important lesson. I can't say that purchasing from an antique shop is all bad; my 1942 WLH came from a different one (in the same town) and I have no complaints about it. I should have asked to examine it closer before I committed to buy it. I am fairly confident that were this same coin for sale in a coin shop, it would have probably been in with the damaged/junk silver dollars and NOT in a 2x2 marked BU. And it probably would have been considerably cheaper too; I've noticed that you pay more in an antique shop just because of it's "antique" value - and the price on the 2x2's probably don't get updated too frequently based on where silver is at either.

I won't be doing coin business with antique malls from now on, that's for sure.