1925 California Diamond Jubilee Half Dollar

I'll go with 65. Interesting toning.

I was a little worried about the toning but it is not heavy and while it may prevent a plus or CAC, I hope it won't affect the base grade (value is always in the eye of the buyer). The coin was OBV up in the bottom of my mother's cedar chest (I have seen other coins that came out of cedar storage and they all have similar toning) and had probably been there since her father or mother put it there when she was a little girl. She was born in CA in 1925 and diied last year, just hours before turning 90. While my grandfather was not a super coin collector (a small collection of mostly circulated coins went my oldest cousin when my grandmother died) he apparently picked up his coin to commemorate the birth of his seventh child.

MS-65. Looks nice! Great story too.

I think that all toning is in some sense artificial, it really boils down to was it intentional or unintentional in origin (something that can be very difficult to discern these days). I like the look of some toned coins, especially Morgan dollars but I don't think even a "monster toned" coin is worth what a pristine coin one grade better is. At least for a while such toned coins were going for as much as ten times the price of a "normal" specimen. I do agree that unattractive toning lowers the value and that attractive toning raises the value, but only within the grade range of the underlying coin.

Thanks for all of the input. It sort of settles the keep or dump it quandary, this one is a keeper.

Nice find! I've been in the market for one, though I'm not interested in ones that high in grade because I'd rather spend my money on other coins. If I was in the market for one that grade I'm not sure I'd pay full price for it because of the obverse toning. If it was like the reverse it would be really nice.

I didn't say that to pick on your coin. I was just giving my 2 cents since you were mentioning how it might affect value.

By the way, very nice images! If the ebay sellers would take images that nice of their coins I'd be much more willing to buy a raw version of those halves. With the typical ebay pics I'd rather pay a little more to ensure it hasn't been cleaned.

The toning makes this coin unattractive to me. It might technically be a Gem+, but in my opinion, it would not be worthy of that valuation. This is a very common coin in Gem. If this were my coin, I would entertain the idea of properly dipping it. I realize that many on this board will vehemently disagree and I respect that, but for a very common coin like this, I see it as low risk and possible high pay off if white, gemmy surfaces suddenly pop on the coin.

Maybe I should put it OBV down in my wife's cedar chest for about 50 years (I'll be long gone by then) and my sons can have an evenly toned coin. I guess that is a major difference between artificial toning and natural toning, the amount of time it took to get that way.