1922 Gold $1 Grant Star Coin upgraded to MS 66!

Back in 2010 I acquired at auction a Grant Star $1 Gold coin graded MS 65 (286937-004) in a old no-line fat NGC holder. Under magnification the coin looked better than a MS 65 to me. While only a little over 5,000 1922 Grant Star Gold dollars were minted, today an MS 65 is an average grade with a wholesale value around $2,000 and worth about 2,732 points.

Selling the coin was an option, but I would likely lose money after the fees. Submitting the coin in the holder to NGC for a re-grade was also an option, but I have tried that and failed several times. The coins come back in new holders with the same grade. The better option seemed to be to crack-out the coin and submit it new to NGC for grading. For 1922 Gold $1 Grant Star coins there are over 300 each of MS 64, 65 and 66 graded coins. It seemed like a good possibility that my nice MS 65 would come back as a MS 65+ or even MS 66. If it dropped to a MS 64 I would not lose much money. The risk seemed to be worth the effort.

After carefully cracking out the coin I sent it in to NGC to be graded. I am now the proud owner of a NGC MS 66 Gold $1 Grant Star coin (2608339-001) in a new holder. Same coin as before but with a full point upgrade. The wholesale value is now up to around $2,300. Not bad really, but there was some risk.

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