1915-D Barber Half

Very sharp coin Johnny, and an excellent representative for the Barber type. It almost, but not quite, makes MS in my opinion.

On Barber halves and quarters the eagle's central tail feather is "first contact" location and your coin shows a touch of wear at that point. The talons are not fully detailed but that feature is often not fully struck. The real indicator of AU status is the right obverse field, which has the slight dull look that comes with light wear. The surface between the adjacent stars shows darker because that is a protected area which is not as subject to circulation wear.

I give her an AU-58, and a thumb's up!

Well, you might. But it sure depends on what you're photographing. If you have a good camera with point and shoot white balance with a 15% gray card or even a newspaper then the position of the light is usually more important than the type of light.

Thanks for the comments and photography tips! This barber half photo was taken in indirect lighting. What I've noticed is that photos taken in direct lighting show the details and luster better, but the color is somewhat muted and it tends to overexaggerate any blemishes or hairlines. The photos taken like this one(indirect light) are more representative to me of what the coin looks like in hand, but it's harder to make out the luster. Eventually I'll get the best of both worlds.

NGC had given this coin an AU-53, and she is super happy in my Dansco. :-)

Actually I got kind of lucky on this one, as I purchased it on ebay based off of scans. It did look better than a AU-53 though. It was in one of the newest NGC slabs, with the weird coin holders. The price was right as it only sold for $225.00. The reason I believe it sold for that low of a price was because the seller only accepted "pro-pay"(no paypal or checks). I was a little nervous going that route since it was the first and only time I've paid that way; but it turned out to be a great buy! I also feel a lot better about "cracking" them out of the slab when they appear undergraded.

Lately though I've really been looking for coins that are choice for the grade, or would be considered undergraded in my opinion. I'm trying my best to take advantage of the weak economy.

Ding!

Fruit:

I would have also jumped on that one too.

It looks nicer than a 53 - would have given it
an AU 55 at least. Nice pick up for sure !

Edit: This is my first post on this Forum.

Hope you like Barbers !