1853 Seated Liberty Silver Dollar

You are one of the best graders on the forum, echizento, but this time I will disagree with you to the tune of at least 10 points. Although I'm a little leery of the surfaces, this coin looks barely circulated to me, and a minimum of AU55. Considering what lighting can do to to the reverse devices of Seated and Bust coinage, I wouldn't be surprised if this one's Uncirculated in-hand.

Beautiful $kilocoin either way, fmtaxguy. Definitely a keeper, and honestly not worth a whole lot less than a Double Eagle in the same grade.

Thanks. It may be a keeper, but not yet mine to keep. I just don't want to grossly over pay for it. Although the shield and lettering appear very sharp, the rims appear like they may be a bit beaten up, and there is wear on the hair and at least on the left stars (facing). Am I really being that overly conservative? Am I attending to the wrong things for when attempting to grade. Anyway, your feedback is most helpful and surprising to me. And I thank you.

OK. With regard to price, it's necessary to consider a few anomalies regarding this coin. Who is offering it for sale? Why is it not in a slab? What caused the color? Why (as the OP mentions) is there rim damage when the rest of the coin seems excellent?

Unless this is being offered by a reputable dealer who will guarantee the authenticity and surfaces, I would be a little cautious. It's too nice. If you trust the source and the coin, anything under $1000 is "how fast can you get your checkbook open?" An ICG AU53, which was technically similar to this coin but of lesser appeal, went for almost $1400 on Heritage earlier this month. An NCS XF went for $800.

What is the price, if you don't mind my asking?

I'm not 100% convinced that it will slab with NGC or PCGS other than as 'genuine.' It looks like (or from a grader's perspective, it could be) that the mottled color was caused by cleaning and there are enough rim issues to make me comfortable with a price no higher than in the 'net EF 45 range' myself.

But that's just me.

I think the reason you are confused is because everyone has their own version of what I call the BuT CeNTS rule: Buy the Coin Not the Slab. There is some truth in what you say--why would people who generally prefer raw coins really care why any particular coin is not slabbed? When it comes to frequently counterfeited coins, you will always find people who would prefer to rely on the authenticating powers of the 'professional' graders. I prefer to do my own grading on raw or slabbed coins. If a coin is not slabbed, I don't ask why it's not slabbed, I just grade it as best as I can and try to determine which slab it might go into. I don't think the premiums on slabbed coins are all unwarranted. Some coins in slabs sell for the same amount whether slabbed or raw. There is an expense involved in having coins graded, and having several people agree on a grade and condition does make a difference. To me it's mainly for coins with very few examples that I'm unlikely to ever own .

As for the coin in question: what grade do you give it?

OK, let's talk about this for a bit.

Obverse: Strike quality requires one to look at the flag and hair. In this coin's case, both show decent detail, indicating a good strike. This is also a good place to look for wear. The best places are the right (our left) arm, leg, chest, and hand holding the flag. Unfortunately, they're the places which wear first, and also the places which are least-likely to show wear in a photograph. It's just plain difficult to grade a Seated coin from photographs, for that reason. In this case, the leg seems to be showing color, supporting my belief that this coin may be a slightly-circulated example which has been artificially toned to hide wear.

The reverse of a Seated coin is very deceptive. The "flat spots" in the wing detail are among the highest points of the design, and will appear slightly flattened even in a fully-struck coin, under the right lighting. In this coin's case, the true highest points of the design, the eagle's head, tops of the wings, and talons, all look pretty good, causing me to consider it no worse than AU.

Until I hold this coin in my hand, I call it Cleaned, Net AU55.

Like any other coin, series-specific knowledge is essential to grading. That's why I won't attempt a Jefferson nickel or Washington quarter, for instance.

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This coin is particularly worrisome with regard to slabbing, since I have concerns about the originality of the surfaces. Even though there is still a plurality of collectors (and dealers) who prefer to work with raw coins, TPG's have become the defacto Gold Standard for authenticity. Rightly so, in my mind, because of the increasing prevalence of counterfeiting, and ever-increasing values of coins. I will not spend a month's salary on a raw coin, and that's all there is to it.

Most collectors, even the ones who like their coins raw, agree with me. The TPG's will make good on a coin in one of their slabs discovered to be counterfeit; that's yet one more layer of protection to a buyer. Nothing trumps the ability to grade the coin yourself, and I consider the grade on a slab to be a guideline rather than a fact. It's an authenticity issue.

This coin is being offered at auction. In cleaned AU condition, it's worth $800-ish. In a Mint State slab, the value at least doubles. This one has beautiful fields and few marks; it'd go MS63 at a bare minimum in a slab, and any collector would write a $5000 check for such a coin. In MS64, that number more than doubles again. What halfway-intelligent seller would fail to thusly guarantee his return on investment, given that it would cost far less than 10% of the value of the coin even if just AU?

One who had something to hide, in my opinion.

So what happened to the auction?