Seated Liberty Half Dollar 1853 P A&r Grade Request

your lighting is washing out the surface to determine originality. based on these photos UNC details (cleaned). present better photos for a more accurate assessment.

Here is the cropped image from my phone that I mentioned.

Unfortunately, no.

Larry Briggs calls this one:

"Probably the most common year of the entire Seated quarter series, one could spend a lifetime, perhaps two, studying this year alone as 119 obverse and 120 reverse dies were made for usage."

Not unlike my beloved 1864 Two Cent coins. so many varieties to choose from and lots of interesting die cracks, breaks and Cuds on them.

I can't even begin to come up with a guess on the variety but the grade I think I'm in agreement with Panzaldi and Ty at Uncirculated Details surfaces altered.

AU Details Surfaces Plated, Corroded

AU details, that pic of the obverse makes me think whizzed.

DOH! In my defense I had the Briggs book open on my lap from the other two Seated quarters that the OP posted. I was concentrating too hard on the date position on the obverse, and had one eye on the Stanley cup playoffs. My grade still stands.

I guess we will all see when the coins and PCGS grades came back. I hope for your sake you do really well, and if not, it seems like you have a good attitude. However, not knowing your financial stature in life at the moment, (not trying to be nosey either). Spending $5K+ on a guess might not be the best idea either. Have you been working through a dealer or an advisor? That is what I'd suggest as there are so many real professionals in the coin business that earn every penny they charge in commissions. Experts in certain series know which coins to buy and NOT to buy, due to inflated population reports or insider knowledge.

Overall playing the rare coin investment game is a tough ride. I buy what I like and only spend real money when I know I can get out at any time without a real loss, but for my own fun collection I will overspend a bit (I don't go crazy overboard, maybe under $100 too much) on my Two Cent die variety/die paring collection.

In my past when I was a dealer I thought very differently than I do now as a collector, I didn't have the comfort of holding a coin for years at a time, most needed to be turned over within 30 days at the least, and 90 days at the most. As a collector I plan on holding my coins good and bad purchases long enough that I will probably not loose anything on a single one, but I'm talking 35-50 years of holding on to them, unless the market goes crazy and makes it obvious to sell.

The only time I sold my personal collector coins was to pay for my Dad's medical bills when he couldn't, and he had run out of insurance. I lost a ton, (actually I only lost a couple of thousand at the time), but because I sold them so early, I consider it as I lost a ton. At today's prices they would be at least 5-10 times or more than I sold them for. I bought from 1998 through 2004 and sold them all by end of year 2006). That was my MS and Proof 66 minimum Two Cent sets in PCGS or NGC holders, also including all the major varieties in MS 64 or better. I didn't have the Small Motto Proof (obviously) but had everything else. Most individual coins sold around $1200-$1500 then, they would sell in the $5K to $15K range today.

So that's my story, I only hope you do well on these, and if not, I hope it doesn't discourage you, look at what they would bring at the levels you thought they would after they come back, and stay the course, find a good mentor/dealer/advisor and keep going - but with a better strategy, look to auctions, not just locally, major shows, etc. There are very few raw coins left in the wild at dealers shops or on ebay and similar places that haven't been looked at and passed over by several dealers already. Finding the new stuff that hasn't been seen in decades is the real challenge or being able to ferret out the uncommon coins in the wild takes a special skill set, not many have. I think I had it once, but not any more. I've been out of the game way too long now.