Significance Of X Scratched On Larger Silver?

I saw a bust half with a big X the other day--do you suppose they were checking silver content?

Now that's just not nice.

Interesting - I have a 1908-O Barber quarter, probably in Fine condition EXCEPT for an "X" across the face of the obverse AND a hole at the top. Luckily, I don't recall spending anything for it - I vaguely remember trading another coin for it, maybe a nickel that had been flattened on a railroad track.

I once came across a Morgan that had the date obliterated with some sort of power tool--and the same sort of damage on the reverse.

At first I just assumed it was "vandalism" but upon further reflection I think that coin had been tampered with (date altered) and when someone discovered that, they obliterated the date and thus rendered the coin's worth to "junk".

Perhaps these coins with an 'X' on them have been damaged by people who knew the coin had been tampered with and are actually protecting unsuspecting collectors.

<shrug>

Egads. You're kidding.

I've never liked Vegas.

Damaged coins, no matter their rarity, have no place in my collection. I used to have a few but they bothered me too much. When you have one like that in your collection, guess how fast your eye will go to that damaged spot?! Now, imagine showing off your collection to a layperson...what do you think they'll notice first (after the "strange" designs)?

That is weird, because I also have a circulated morgan that has an X on it.

You may be closer than you think. I just heard a story at a local coin/stamp shop regarding a recent widow from the Detroit area who took her newly departed husband's collection into a dealer. She was informed that she had spent her life in a tiny dilapidated home so her husband could amass a $100,000+ stamp collection. She burned it. While this story may be apocryphal, who could not understand the rage behind it. And, as you know, coins don't burn as easily as stamps.