1909 S VDB - Genuine? Grade? Value? Thanks For Your Help.

Fake. The dot after the D should be almost equidistant between the D and B.

This coin is washed out and all beat up. even if it were genuine it would not be very collectible IMHO !

At first glance the S looked 'funny' to me.

Thanks all. I will bring it back to the store and try to break it to them softly that their coin priced at $900 (tag price- the offer on the table was for $650) will not happen.

I want to address statements about the coin being close to "die pair #1".

First, 1909-S VDB were struck with just 4 obverse dies. The one generally numbered #1, has the top of the mint mark above the bottom of the nines in the date, and the left edge of the mint mark is below the right part of the first nine.

Before one ever compares the mint mark to any of the 4 genuine dies, one should first examine the mint mark itself. Only one mint mark punch was used on all four dies. Thus, the mint mark is the same shape on all genuine 1909-S VDB coins.

This is the shape of a genuine San Francisco mint mark used on the 1909-S VDB.



Note the serifs are flat ended, and the sides of the mint mark are parallel. If the mint mark does not resemble this mint mark, one should start suspecting a fake.

The mint mark on this coin is different. The bottom serif is not flat ended. The mint mark itself is also not slanted, like on a genuine die 1. This mint mark is not "damaged", it is just fake.

This is a comparison of die #1, with the subject fake coin.