A Truly Horrifying Piece Of 90% Junk Silver...

That makes sense. So perhaps it was originally part of someone's coin collection and their house burned down (with the coins inside it). Later, someone went over the site looking for "treasure." The dealer did say that the individual who brought it in had a number of different coins in similarly poor condition.




It certainly would be! Too bad there weren't a few dozen available.




Ha ha, it might get an award for the worst "Genuine" designation in grading history!




Yep, just barely! That's why I picked the dime and the quarter up: they were cheap, and they are now my first two Seated Liberty coins. I figured that despite their condition, they would be interesting coins to have.




The dime is actually an 1891-O. The quarter is an 1853, but I do not see a mintmark anywhere on it (which would explain why the dealer didn't try to salvage it somehow; the Philadelphia one has the highest or second-highest mintage in the entire series).