1921 Philadelphia Half Dollar For Grade

Solid Fine and technically it probably would make 15. Nice circulation cameo that hasn't been cleaned. The problem is those long fine scratches on the reverse. Those would cause a lot of potential buyers to look elsewhere.

Overall I do like it. 1921 Walkers of any mint always hold a key date appeal.

If you're looking to sell it, I would send it to PCGS or NGC. Those always garner a good premium on coins like these. Anyway, it's an attractive coin, and I don't think the scratches are bad, distracting, or deep enough to cause it to get a details grade. F-15.

I'll go VF-20, Maybe Details . I like the full date .

VF-20

Definitely a price jump, probably a hundred or two. Again, I would definitely send it to be graded.

Re prices: A good place to look online for prices is Numismedia.com. BUT this is just a price guide for collectors can expect to pay when buying from a dealer. I think that the prices are high. It is a quick reference for finding out whether you have a coin that's worth a few dollars or hundreds of dollars.

You can also see what similar coins sold for on auction sites. An advanced search on ebay will get you that information.

But the chart on Numismedia will give you a good picture of how the price jumps -- even though it doesn't show every single grade.

Cruisinfusion said:


And yet on this thread and the other one more than one person mentions them right away when they see it.

If it does come back details - what would that do to the price people would be willing to bid on it? I don't know. Is it worth the 30.00 gamble to find out or not?



Unfortunately there is no way to say something to the effect of, "If there are exactly 5 marks on the coin that blemish a .5mm square area for VF20 and only four such areas for VF15."

People who have handled a lot of coins over the years ,and have seen many of one grade have a better "feel" that experience brings. But even then the "experts" will not always agree.

Disagreement is common from one TPG (Third Party Grading) company's "experts" to the other. In fact, I find it hard to believe, but there is even another group of "experts" who (for a fee of course) will put their own Green sticker (CAC sticker) on a slabbed coin if the CAC "experts" think the grading company's "experts" did a competent job.

For this reason, the wisest saying that is found in the hobby concerning this issue to a buyer is, "Buy the coin, not the slab." However, b/c of marketing, especially since the internet, a lot of people automatically perceive slabbed items as being "safe" to buy, despite the above facts about all the differing "expert" opinions, and so buyers will bid more for the coin.

I say all this to make sure are totally informed about the process.

There are even people who swear one of the TPGs is better than the other. Yet it is not hard to find many errors from both, and see where people used to break coins out of a slab and resubmit it until the TPG gave it the higher grade - hence more "value."

Yes - you can tell I do not like the TPGs, but I have had some coins slabbed myself. The ones I had done were so if something happens to me, my wife will know the coin must be something special and not just take it to the bank and dump it.

I also can appreciate that slabs really look nice and don;t fault anyone for wanting to collect them.

Just take all this into consideration before slabbing.