Sandon

Welcome to the NGC chat board. The "1804" dollar is a very crude and often seen fake that looks nothing like the Class I so-called "originals" or "novodels" struck at the U.S. mint in about 1834-35 for presentation to foreign rulers or the so-called "restrikes" (mostly Class III) struck after 1857 for dealers or collectors with connections at the mint. (The unique "Class II" piece in the Smithsonian was struck over an 1857 Swiss shooting thaler.) The genuine "1804" dollars were made from planchets with lettered edges that were crushed by the close collars used in striking the coins, not plain or reeded edges. Some years ago, someone showed me about a dozen of these same crude fakes with reeded edges. See https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/coin/1804-1-original-class/6907 for photos of and information about the very rare and famous genuine pieces. Regarding the 1870 Liberty Seated dollar, please post clearer photos of both sides of the coin. It appears that the date numerals are different than on the genuine coin, and all coins of this year would have the motto "IN GOD WE TRUST" on the reverse. See 1870 $1 MS | Coin Explorer | NGC (ngccoin.com).

1935-D Washington quarter, NGC graded MS 65 with unusual toning:

I think that the term you wanted to use in your title was "die rotation", not "marriage". U.S. coins are supposed to be struck in a "coin turn" in which when one side faces up while the other is upside down, so the dies were oriented 180 degrees apart. Most coins of other countries are struck in a "medal turn" in which each side is upright at the same time. Your photos show that the 1966 quarter was struck in its normal "coin turn" orientation. U.S. coins with a substantial improper die rotation, varying from about 90 degrees (right angle) to a full "medal turn" may be worth a premium and are more common on nineteenth century pieces. (I understand that NGC will attribute die rotations of at least 15 degrees.) They are sometimes faked by cutting coins in two edgewise and bonding the pieces together in a different orientation.

These are common dates within their respective series. I assume that by "small star" the seller means that it is a Redbook "Variety 1" silver three cent piece without any outlines around the star, as are all of these coins dated from 1851 through 1853, which are the most common type. Many of these pieces are excessively worn, "cleaned", damaged, or otherwise impaired, in which case even the $54 for the pair wouldn't be a good deal. You really need to look at and photograph them under proper lighting for us to give you some idea of their condition and value. It is unlikely that they are in nice condition for this price, and you should try to buy the best coins that you can afford. I did a topic on the copper-nickel three cent pieces, which I hope to continue once I have a chance to photograph more of my coins of this series, of which I have every date. It will show you what these coins look like in higher grades and information about them. Three Cent Nickels - US, World, and Ancient Coins - NGC Coin Collectors Chat Boards. I also have a registry set of the three cent silver pieces that includes at least one of each of the three types of these coins in AU condition, with photos. Set Details | NGC Registry | NGC (ngccoin.com).

What motto would appear on the coins of a nation of fishermen? "IN COD WE TRUST"

Welcome to the NGC chat board. In the future, please crop photos of a coin about which you have questions so that nearly the entire photo shows the coin and not the surface on which it sits. However, I can see this 1982-D cent well enough to know that it is a large date. Here is a diagram provided by @EagleRJO depicting in detail the difference between the 1982 large and small date varieties.

Welcome to the NGC chat board. It appears to me that what you want us to see is an optical illusion created by bright light reflected back from the coin's surface. What appears to be the outline of most of an "S" inside the "E" is white and doesn't match the reddish-brown color of the coin. There are similar, more randomly shaped white emanations around or within most of the other letters of the motto. Tellingly, the supposed "S" can't be seen in the photos taken at a greater distance, which are less brightly lit. It also doesn't match any "S" or any feature on the coin's design and, as indicated by @Coinbuf, can't be a "dropped letter" or to my knowledge any other mint error or die variety. See https://www.error-ref.com/?s=dropped+letter. As others have indicated, your coin is a 1982-D large date, which is common in either brass (95% copper, 3.11 grams) or copper-plated zinc (2.5 grams) composition. Here is a diagram supplied by @EagleRJO showing the differences between the small and large date varieties:

@R__Rash--The mint didn't package 1960 proof sets in those nice lucite "sandwich" holders held together with screws. Like all 1956-64 and some 1955 proof sets, they came in single flat soft sheets placed in a yellow "Treasury Department" envelope. Nor were they packaged in grading service holders, like this 1956 "Type 2 Reverse" proof Franklin half dollar that NGC graded PF 68 CAM: Photos courtesy of Stacks Bowers Galleries.

1956 "Type 1 Reverse" proof Franklin half dollar in original packaging:

@Golfnut1969--Welcome to the NGC chat board. Like the coin originally posted in this topic, your 1976-D bicentennial quarter is circulated (worn). Whether or not the clogged "D" mintmark resulted from the mintmark being filled by a foreign substance in the die or from the coin being worn or scraped, it has no premium value to knowledgeable collectors. Large numbers of these quarters were minted and saved, and they are only worth face value unless in uncirculated condition. As stated by @Coinbuf, who replied while I was typing, please start a new topic for each coin about which you have a question.

Don't take any Morgan dollars or any Kennedy half dollars dated before 1971 to the bank! All Morgan dollars (1878-1904 and 1921) and Peace dollars (1921-28 and 1934-35) contain over three quarters of a troy ounce of silver and are worth over $19.50 in silver alone at current prices, and they are generally worth some premium over silver value. There are also premium and rare dates and mints in each of these series. For example, if your 1879 Morgan dollar had a "CC" mintmark, it could be worth around $1,000. Kennedy half dollars dated 1964, like silver dollars and dimes, quarters and other half dollars dated before 1965, are 90% silver. The half dollars currently contain over $9 in silver. Kennedy half dollars dated from 1965 through 1969 are 40% silver and currently worth over $3.50 in silver. (Pieces dated 1970, also 40% silver, were only issued in collectors' sets.) You should check your silver coins for rare issues before selling them for silver. If you don't have a coin book such as the "Redbook", see NGC Coin Price Guide and Values | NGC, a retail (dealer selling price) guide for a general idea. See U.S. Silver Coin Melt Values | Silver Dollar Melt Value | NGC (ngccoin.com) for daily silver values of U.S. silver coins. Dealers will pay a discount from the retail or full silver values, the discount being less for items valued only as silver than those with collector value.

1909-S V.D.B. Lincoln cent, now NGC graded XF details, reverse scratch. I purchased this key issue uncertified back in 1991 for $265. The light reverse staple scratch has never concerned me.

Some of the "Guests" on the Online Users list may be members who aren't logged in. I usually don't log in until I find a topic to which I want to react or reply. No one can or should be online all of the time. I doubt that there are more than twenty members of the chat board who post anything on it more than once a week.

1886 Liberty head half eagle, NGC graded MS 62. (Gold is "wild", so the next post may be of any gold coin, as well as any coin or token dated 1886.) Photos courtesy of Stacks Bowers Galleries.

Welcome to the NGC chat board. It is difficult to prove whether a roll of coins is "original" or "unopened" or even to agree upon just what those terms mean. Similar issues arise with offers of "unsearched" groups of coins. Unsearched by whom and for what? Did the roll contain twenty 1964 Kennedy half dollars in uncirculated condition? How did you know it had been "opened and gone through"? What would you have expected to find if the roll had been "unopened", presumably since it had been transferred from a mint bag in the 1960s?

Welcome to the NGC chat board. Your 1879 Morgan dollar, a relatively common date, appears to be in Extremely Fine to About Uncirculated condition and has current retail list values of $40 to $55 or so. A dealer would probably pay $30 or so for it. I have assumed that the coin has not been "cleaned" or polished, which can't always be assessed from photographs. Many, though not all, Morgan dollar issues are still common even in uncirculated grades because hundreds of millions were retained by the government as backing for a form of currency known as "silver certificates" and not distributed to the public until as late as 1964. Their current prices are largely the result of demand rather than rarity.

You might want to check the additional photos of genuine pieces on PCGS Coinfacts at https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/coin/1918-7-s-25c/5726. Here is a closeup of the date and mintmark area of a genuine piece from that source: Here for comparison is a cropped photo of the same area on your piece: The "S" mintmark has a different shape without serifs on the ends and is in a lower position in relation to the pedestal and straighter than on the genuine coin. The "1"s in the date are too thin and the "9" is completely closed, also unlike the genuine coin. The overdated "8" isn't a match either. There also appears to be a lightly impressed additional "S" beneath the left lower star that is not present on the genuine coin! I'll revise my previous opinion from "almost certainly" counterfeit to definitely counterfeit. If you want to spend well over a hundred dollars for a third-party grading service to tell you what we are telling you without charge, that is your choice.

Welcome to the NGC chat board. First of all, never hold a coin that you believe to have collector value in your bare hands, except, if you must, by its edges! The oils in your skin can cause discoloration, and coins become worn from rubbing against any surface. Genuine 1918-S, 8 over 7 Standing Liberty quarters are quite valuable, which has led to the production of numerous counterfeits, one of which your coin appears almost certain to be. Compare your coin with the photos of the genuine example shown in the NGC Coin Explorer: 1918/7 S 25C MS | Coin Explorer | NGC (ngccoin.com). The blobby granular surface of your piece is in itself highly suspicious. All of these coins were struck from the same die pair and should match in every detail. Yours appears quite different in terms of such details as the shapes of the "S" mintmark and the numerals in the date, and the details in the shield, to name a few. If you still think the coin may be genuine, I suggest that you show the coin to at least one experienced dealer in your area, and if after getting the dealer's opinion you still want to submit the coin to a third-party grading service such as NGC for authentication and, secondarily, grading you do so through a dealer. See Find Coin Shops & Dealers | Coin Dealer Locator | NGC (ngccoin.com). If you insist on submitting it yourself, please review the various topics under the "Submit" tab on the NGC home page. Submission will require that you have a paid NGC membership (annual fee at least $95), a $40-$80 grading fee depending on the tier you select, a $10 processing fee, and a $28 return shipping fee, as well as your cost of shipping the coin to NGC.

Welcome to the NGC chat board. The only information I was able to find about this subject on the NGC website is in the following article: NGC Now Certifies and Encapsulates Cancelled Dies | NGC (ngccoin.com). Apparently, the dies are not "graded", just identified and authenticated. Some of your dies look like they may be too large for NGC to encapsulate; note the size limitations in the article. Personally, I think that the die holders are unattractive and that your display would lose much of its aesthetic appeal if the dies were encased in them.

For this issue, both the proof and the uncirculated pieces are "P" mint, and they are both .900 silver, as are all of the numerous commemorative silver dollars issued from 1983 to 2018. The fineness was raised to .999 beginning in 2019. Most of the modern commemorative half dollars are copper nickel clad, the exceptions being the 1982 George Washington and 1993 Bill of Rights/James Madison issues, which are .900 silver. All of this information is also in the Redbook. The BEP printed large numbers of Series 1976 $2 bills, and crisp uncirculated ones remained readily available from the Federal Reserve when these sets were assembled.

I remember reading one in a numismatic publication some time ago. It went something like this: One day in 1920, farmer Jack saw a newspaper advertisement that read, "I WILL PAY ONE DOLLAR FOR 1902 PENNIES!" Jack immediately checked his change jar and found that he had fifteen of the then common Indian cents bearing the 1902 date. He promptly mailed them to the address provided in the ad, which was in a distant city. Ten days later, he received a reply that said his dollar would be forthcoming as soon as the advertiser received the remaining 1,887 "pennies". Jack read the letter several times. Then he went out behind the barn and kicked himself. Well, you said a stupid coin joke!

I'm not an expert on this series and am hoping that a member who may be more familiar with Spanish colonial coins, such as @World Colonial, might be able to offer a more learned opinion. However, your coin doesn't appear to match either of the date styles on the 1805 varieties listed in the World Coin Price Guide, which I am unable to access this evening. The raised rim on the reverse suggests that the coin was struck in a close collar, which is also inconsistent with the photos I've seen of genuine examples of this type, which appear to be "open collar" strikes. Other characteristics, such as the color, look odd as well. Everything so far points toward the coin being counterfeit.

Take a closer look at your "Redbook." The dollar coin is an uncirculated 1993-P Thomas Jefferson 250th Anniversary of birth commemorative silver dollar, listed along with this set at p.331 of the 2023 edition. The dollar is .900 fine silver and struck to the same specifications as Seated, Morgan, and Peace dollars.

1859-S Liberty Seated half dollar, PCGS graded XF 40. I think that PCGS net graded this coin, which has XF 45 or better details by current standards but was lightly "cleaned":