New Purchase - 1877 S Dollar (Update New Pics)

In hand the wear looks natural. I am not good at taking pic's, I think the flash seems to really make the wear look weird.

I tried taking some more pics, I think came out a little better.

As for why "insist" on buying a slabbed coin. No one forced me to buy the coin. And I don't really buy slabbed coins. While I have no problem, if that is what you want to do, I hope this site welcomes all types of collectors.

As for this coin. I was in my local coin shop, a customer came in to sell a collection of coins. After he left I looked though what was bought. I liked the look of the coin and worked out a deal for $100. That is less then VG price for a F/VF price. First we weighed it and looked at three different books to verify it as a real coin. Buying raw coins offers a chance to get a better price, that is how I like to buy coins.

The two fakes I bought, one was a long time ago. I was new to coin collecting, I ended up returning it for a full refund. The second was off ebay and I bought it hoping to get a super good deal, it was returned also, all it cost me was $1.36 return postage.

Johnny54321,
No the reason I got a good price was because I go there 2 or 3 times a week. I buy and sell a lot of coins with him, over 30K last year. I get a lot of deals like that, this was the only Trade dollar. Many dealers will make a good deals to their good customer, and if you are there when he has just made a big purchase, then he will sell at a very good price.

If you need the piece of mind to buy only slabbed Trade dollars, I promise I will never tell you to do otherwise.

Ever wonder how we did it before there were grading services. Yes Trade dollars may be the most faked coins out there, and for $100 that is a ok gamble for me. There were three of us checking it out with about a 100 years combined experience. By the way I have been buying .. and selling coins for over 30 years. In that time I have only had two slabbed coins and they were given to me. I would never claim to be a expert in any area of the Coin World, but I do know I have bought and sold a lot of coins all over the country and most time come out ahead.

I agree with Johnny54321. I just recently started collecting Trade dollars. I am VERY leery of all the Trade dollar fakes so all the 7 I've bought recently are from well known and reputable firms and are slabbed. I usually am the first one in line to buy cheaper, unslabbed coins, but not with these coins.

I do, however wish you great luck and hope you never buy another fake.

Here's the 1877S I got from Harlan J Berk. Enjoy!

I bought my Trade dollar for my 7070 in an ANACS slab (and cracked it out) a few years ago because I too was worried about counterfeits. More recently, they started counterfeiting the slabs also. So, I can tell you, I have weighed the coin and looked at all the diagnostics before concluding, yes, mine was real. Nowadays, you have to run diagnostics on the coin AND the slab.

So, I think given the circumstances you have outlined, you did all you can to ensure that this coin is real. A reputable source is #1 in my mind above and beyond whether it is in a slab or not and it sounds like you have that.

Just my opinion as usual...

Best regards,
Ken

Yeah, it was my fault for not choosing my words more carefully. I've seen so many folks(myself included) get burned with raw fakes in heavily counterfeited types, that I tend to question the purchase right off the bat if they don't seem confident it is genuine. I apologize goldrush. I in no way intended to berate you or tell you how you should collect.

Nice Trade dollar Moe!

-John