JKK

Think about it. From that photo, how is anyone supposed to answer your question? Try again.

Could easily be, and I don't mind at all. I didn't look very hard because I knew that a full ID was unlikely, but you might be right. Good work on looking at enough coins to consider that. What's really a drag is we can't see the exergue (an area at bottom reverse containing the mint mark), but we get what we get.

No problem. Odds are the reverse legend is as described. You won't make out much of the obverse legend; look for shape of the bust, which looks draped and cuirassed, right. By that era, they no longer made much effort to engrave a legit likeness of the Augustus.

Well, that'll get us started. The diameter puts it as an AE3 (bronze small change coin, second up from the smallest of the late Imperial era). most times, when they're nice, one can get them for $10-12 unless it's a rare emperor. The only part we can make out worth a *spoon* is the reverse type, which looks to me like the emperor raising the kneeling woman (typically comes with a reverse of GLORIA ROMANORVM). That reverse seems most common under Valentinian I, Valens, Gratian, and Valentinian II. Now comes the fun part, when you get to look through Wildwinds to see if you can find an AE3 image under one of those four emperors that is otherwise a match for the diameter and other stuff. Link goes to Val I. Make sure you click to display the thumbnails. Welcome to ancients--once you have done this, it'll give you an idea of what is involved.

It's a very tough ID, as in problematic, but if you get me weight and diameter I'll at least be able to tell you the era and denomination.

I don't think it's 5FS, based on the ding 90% to the right. The clip is another story; I don't know enough to judge that.

I'm not seeing FS either, sorry to say. As you probably know, most nickels of the era were never FS at minting; it took a sharp or better strike for that detail ever to have been present. Then it had to survive the logistics of release without getting any dings across the steps, which are a high point. That winnowed the field a lot.

I'm glad you won't be disappointed. The coin is damaged. Whatever clamped onto it, clamped onto both sides.

You mostly don't, depending on what you paid and where bullion prices are at. They're modern bullion coins.

What foreign substance do you see that is damaging the coin? That, as I understand it, is what conservation deals with. I don't see anything like that on this piece.

Here's some more information. Note the importance of determining whether a mark is in a prime focal area, secondary focal, or outside focal areas. If you overpaid, and I think you may have somewhat, consider the extra a form of tuition because it caused you to learn just how you should have evaluated them. You'll do better next time.

It's hard to tell from those pictures. Also, there's the thing about teaching a man to fish vs. giving him a fish. Here is a good site showing the high points (where you would expect wear and/or strike weakness) of the Morgan design. Examine yours, under mag if necessary, to see if the high points have wear (a simple magnifying glass can tell you a lot). What looks like wear could also be detail that did not strike up fully. Note that, while you would not grade most coins with magnification, you would use it to ascertain questions like this, seek evidence of cleaning, and/or investigate damages and varieties.

My understanding is that rim dings attributable to circulation (i.e. accompanied by other evidence of circulation) will generally keep the coin from getting EF or better. However, pre-circulation rim dings do not; they are viewed like any other handling impairment. So when you look at this reverse, you see the breast feathers prominent and free of wear (nicely struck, too). I see bag marks, and I think that's how the rim ding would be classified. The MS grades depend in part upon where the handling impairments (a general term I use) occur, and the periphery of the reverse is a secondary focal area (not a good place to have dings, but better than having them in a prime focal area). Based on what I can detect in the pictures, my guess is MS-61 to 63, depending on how we classify a rim ding of that magnitude and whether the edge is included in secondary focal. I could be wrong, of course. Absent that ding, I think it could grade higher.

We all hopefully respect our numismatic ancestors. I don't expect new arrivals to realize just how overrated the state of ancestral numismatics are. It just is. I helped a lady get rid of her dad's collection of gold coins, for which he probably paid $350K. She thought he was a Major Expert. When the two counterfeits were subtracted, the total gross hammer was about $150K. My wife's boss's husband had passed away, and he went into *spoon*loads of debt to buy world coins. Had a gorgeous collection in my view, including some very pretty ancients. I estimated that a dealer might give her $1600 for them. You can see where breaking the news of "Hubby/Uncan Sherry/Bampaw/Dad didn't know what he was doing" would get old, because no one wants to tell people that. One wants to gush, be excited, get psyched, fire up cigars and drink single-malt. That's probably the weight, yeah--although I would weigh it myself rather than take anyone's word. It's not that I don't like submission posts. I think they are fantastic, topical, and necessary, and I also think that I have no useful contributions to make about submissions. I was trying to help you understand how to get more attention. I'll leave those questions for someone who either works for NGC or who has ever actually sent a coin in for slabbing, rather than inflict an ignorant answer on you. And believe me, all my answers about slabbing would be ignorant. I love looking at ancient coins, which is why I spent an amount of money that would shock you on buying the necessary references. Kindly: one coin per thread, describe the coin as best you know in the thread title, sharp obverse and reverse pics with good cropping, a photo of any insert or label you have (just as you did with this one), weight in g, average diameter in mm. Try for lighting as faithful as possible. I don't claim to be an expert, but I know where to find the experts if I get stuck.

It's hard. Numismatic photography is a fine art (one often abused by online sellers). I am awful at it.

I looked and the reason you got no replies over there is because you chose a thread title that might have seemed perfectly descriptive to you but told the potential responder nothing about what kind of coin it was, so it went completely under my "do I give a *spoon*" radar. Ancients are my thing, but I ignore all thread titles about stuff like submission forms and methods, just as I ignore nearly all the "I found a modern penny in the parking lot, what kind of mint error is this" and "is this a small date?" stuff. It was the right forum, though. No problem; so is this. Anyway, here we are. The lighting makes it hard to evaluate authenticity, but it looks more authentic than many of the ancients people post here. No offense intended and nothing personal when I say that the more someone talks about the numismatic greatness of the person who bequeathed it, the less faith I have in the presented conclusions because my experience is that everyone thinks Dad or Bampaw was the world's greatest collector and knew all things about coins--and then it very often turns out he bought fakes for triple what a legit coin should have cost. (And lest you think I'm being gratuitous, my own father-in-law was one of these.) So that statement is a red flag, though you do not intend it as such. How's that for a hell of a note? Seaby is a very legit name in ancients. They are publishers of some key numismatic references and as a rule, if they think it's real, I think it's real. Of course, anyone could have printed up that flip insert, if that's what the card is. We don't get the weight and average diameter, so we have nothing to work with there. If authentic, this would be Sear 1763 (this is a catalog attribution; it tells people "it's positively IDed as one of these"), which same listing in Sear contains a note to the effect that Bob mentioned. He's far too polite to say it this way, but I'm not: anything that smells Biblical turns out fakers in mass because the crooks (who love to pose as Brethren In Jesus) know they are often dealing with dumb suckers. In VF, in whatever year of the 1980s or 1990s my Sear was published, they booked this for US$280. I didn't find any recent sales on Ebenezer, but knowing that it is RCV 567 and Sear 1763, and I believe RIC 26, will help you enormously in searching auction histories, which is your next stop to get an idea of current value. What it's worth is what it hammers for. Even though I'm missing some of the key information, I'd say you have about a 75% probability it's real because it contains some characteristics of real ones, and is missing some characteristics of fakes. Here's a page where someone's selling some of them. I think you could do worse than sending it in.

The pics don't make it easy, but from them I suspect the surface is original and that the light makes it look a little worse than it is. The coin definitely looks uncirculated with the limiting factor being some very nasty prime focal dings, so I doubt it gets above 61 (or at least it shouldn't). My grading guide for 61 on a Morgan: May have a few heavy (or numerous light) marks in prime focal and/or secondary areas [definitely present]; may have noticeable patch or continuous hairlining over surface [not present, yay]; luster may be original or impaired [I think it's original; could be wrong]; eye appeal unattractive [could be true based on the nasty marks].

Any silver coin is a cool find. I came across people at a convenience store once who'd just found a Mercury dime and they were excited; it was fun to tell them more about what they had. In layperson's terms, even if that coin were brand new, it probably would be worth about $5. To be worth more, it would have to be in truly exceptional shape. This would be true no matter where it was minted. However, being mostly silver, it wakes up in the morning worth something just for existing. At yesterday's price, that would be $2.81. So while it's cool, and definitely worth more than a quarter, you definitely would not want to put up $30-60 getting it graded.

It's noviceness. From people not understanding that the U.S. Mint is in Philadelphia, and that there have been branch mints over the years (and still are). They don't know what descriptor to use, and they mean 'no mint mark' but do not realize that this means Philadelphia. They do not realize that all they have to do is state the year, and if they do not append a MM, origin at the U.S. Mint is assumed.

Yes and sometimes. Yes, there are 35% silver nickels from the war years, easily distinguished by a universal and abnormally large mint mark above Monticello. Those marks are P, D, and S, so yes, some of them have a P. Until about forty years ago, nearly no Philadelphia mint coins had a P mint mark; no MM meant Philly, and a MM meant a branch mint. The war nickels minted at Philly were that rare, brief exception. And yes, your nickel is one of those, so it's worth melt at least (probably about 80-85c).

You're right about the date on the first one, which has post-mint damage. The second is in nicer shape, embedded in something for purposes and reasoning unknown. Neither is silver, just so you know.

Which same: if we didn't respond, they wouldn't be given a pass for it.

About $0.02. Its best use is to give to a young person today, in honor of VE Day's 75th anniversary, and point out that this penny was probably made partly out of shell-casing brass from the war.

Oh, for the love of pete. What do some newbie posts have in common with menopause? NO PERIODS. Would it really harm people writing twelve lines of text if they were to end some sentences with punctuation and start new ones? Otherwise it reads like this except usually there are far more misspelled words because that seems par for the course I know that nowadays people are typing on their phones and with educational standards in the toilet people can barely write anyway but please think about those of us who have to try and make sense of this *spoon* it really gets tiring and you gain nothing from making us struggle to help you this reads so garbage it would surprise me if anyone were still reading it but somehow one needs to get the message across as to how unhelpful this is let's go back to basics sentences are supposed to begin with upper case in English and end with a period question mark or exclamation point it might amaze you how much clearer your writing can be if you will bother to learn that simple truth if you do not then do not be surprised if no one replies to your posts because I for one am not going to shovel my way through this sort of *spoon* any more I have better things to do and I suspect most regulars do as well at least except for one or two who are regulars from under the bridge if you know what I mean anyway by now I trust I have made my point not that I expect it to make much difference in the ultimate outcome.

When you post a question about a coin or coins, it's worth remembering that the people giving you answers--unless it is specifically about an NGC policy matter or submission--are volunteer hobbyists who do this for fun. They are not speaking for NGC; they speak only for themselves, and they want to help people. When you do a good job of posting your inquiry, you increase your chances of helpful replies, because you show respect for the volunteers' time. Please do: Ask a question, or multiple questions. We need to know what to focus on. Authenticity? Grade? Identification? Value? All of these? Think about your questions. "What would this grade at NGC?" and "What grade would you give this coin?" are two very different questions. If you ask the first one, only people who know a lot about NGC's ways have much to offer you. "How much is this worth?" is another nebulous question. Better: "What would a dealer pay me for this?" Or: "What would a dealer sell this for?" Post clear photos of the entire obverse, reverse, and if necessary the edge. If need be, add zoomed photos of specific features, but always clear shots of both full sides. Post all pictures of a given coin in the same thread. Accept that if you have photographic limitations, and you keep posting badly photographed coins, you'll keep being told they're not good enough to use to answer your question. You can't expect everyone to read all your threads and know your circumstances, be they poverty or Parkinson's or can'tbebothereditis. It's not their fault your photos can't or won't get better, even if it is also not always your own fault. Use a thread title that describes the coin(s), so that people who know the subject matter are likelier to read the thread. If you just inherited Bampaw's silver dollar collection which you can see spans the period 1850-1921, you could title it "Evaluating silver dollar collection 1850-1921." People who know a lot about those silver dollars will see it and be likely to help you. "Grading advice" is bad; everyone wants grading advice. "Morgan dollar grading advice" is good. "Is this fake?" is bad. "Is this Chinese silver coin fake?" is good. Post only once per coin. (If you have received a huge collection, and you want to start with a picture of the whole hoard with zoomed shots of parts, that's no problem. This guideline is intended to keep people from slamming multiple fully photographed coins into a single thread, making it difficult to figure out which one the answers are talking about. So if it's a hoard, and you single out some for close scrutiny, go with new threads for each of those.) If the picture files are too large in terms of data, learn to make them smaller without losing necessary information. Paint.net is a free image editor for Windows. Open your pictures in it, crop them, and save them as .jpgs. Look at what sizes they are now. This is too easy. If there is any question of identification or authentication, include weight in grams and diameter in millimeters. If you don't know the metric system, use an online converter. Weight is one of the key diagnostics of authenticity and unless the coin is too obviously bogus to bother, you will be asked for it. Just include it with your first post. Tell us what you know, or what you believe to be the case, about the coin. It's okay to be incorrect. Understand that the term "melt" does not automatically mean someone plans to melt the coin down, nor is anyone suggesting you should. It refers simply to the value of the metal for its own sake. Do not freak out when someone says "melt" about Bampaw's Morgan dollars. We really do not want or expect you to throw it in a blast furnace, all right? Use punctuation. Being easy to read works to your benefit. When you write a twelve-line paragraph with no periods or commas, people tune you out. For those who need reminders, this , is a comma. You use it to separate phrases, more or less. This . is a period. You use it to end most sentences. Hitting Enter will insert a paragraph break. You use this between series of thoughts. Live them. Love them. Use them. because ill tell u what really suxors is when some1 posts sententses like this 1 4 about half a page its impossibel 2 read and some people including me will prob not finish readin it which means u arent gettin as many respontses think about it ur only hurtin ur own cozz notice how stooped this reads ur in affect makin urself ten times harder 2 help and frankly its disrespectfull 2 assume entellegent people should do all that extra work 4 ur sake now kinely clean up ur act and rite like u at least got thru 6ixth grade im glad we had this little talk Come prepared to accept responsive answers. Brace yourself to learn that Bampaw or Opa, always considered the family's Great Numismatist, may not have been so great at this. No one seeks to offend your relative's legacy, but the coin must be called what it is. Be patient. No one who doesn't know the answer is going to post "I don't know." It can take days to a week for someone to notice. Remember that some inquiries may require research, for which volunteers are not being paid, and are doing as they have time. Expect that opinions may vary, even among experienced numismatists. Realize that if you're rude and/or difficult, your problem is not the people who take time to fight with you. Your problem is the people who, without a word, mark you down as someone not to bother with in the future--because you have no idea who or how many they are, and thus have no power to alleviate that diagnosis. Kindly do not: Just post pictures without giving any indication of what you want to learn. Post glare-obscured, blurry, or otherwise poor photos. Post only partial pictures of errors or damage. Complain that your pics are too big to post. Use an image editor to crop and save them as .jpgs. Get defensive when told your pics are not good. Maybe you're bad at photography; maybe you don't have a good camera; maybe the photography gods just don't like you. If you can do better, do so. If you cannot do better, than just accept that this limits how much we can help you. Post a new thread for every photo of the same coin. Post new threads in the same forum, or other forums, with reference to the same coin. Once suffices. The shotgun approach makes one look impatient and immature. Use a meaningless thread title like "looking for advice" or "no idea what 2 do" or "plz help." Those tell people nothing about the discussion except that it was begun by someone who picks meaningless thread titles. Omit weight and diameter, unless they are completely irrelevant to your question. Get annoyed if you don't like the answers. If you disagree with them, fine; act on your views. Ask us to tell you how we know it's a counterfeit. While that's a legit question on its face, the problem is that even if you didn't mint the fake, those who make them are always looking for ways to improve. We frown upon supplying helpful feedback to criminals, and so should you. So no, don't ask us that. And if we tell you politely that we aren't going into detail, don't get annoyed because you don't like that answer. Grouse about not getting any replies. No one knows everything; no one has unlimited time; sometimes no one knows the answer. Come in telling how many Youtube videos you have watched about coins. This will lower your credibility. Use Photobucket links. If you do, don't anticipate that people will use them. Photobucket has been connected with numerous malware and virus infections. Spell 'nickel' as 'nickle.' Whether referring to the element or the five-cent coin, this misspelling is a very bad look. If you take the time to do this correctly, you can learn a lot more here than if you skip important steps. If you do not take the time to do this correctly, some posters may decide that their time is better spent helping other people. Lastly, here is a Cliff's Notes version that would take care of 95% of the most common disappointed inquiries. If you want to post yours anyway, fine, but just please kindly do not engage in a protracted and dullard debate when you are told that: Your 1804 silver dollar is a bad counterfeit. Look up authentic examples and compare closely. Your 1776 Continental dollar is a bad counterfeit or a souvenir replica. Many were churned out. What you think is a double die is almost surely mechanical doubling, which carries no premium. What you think is a mint error is likely post-mint damage, and your coin is worth face value. Your "silver" non-1943 penny is plated, replated, has had the plating come off, is altered, or somesuch. Your "bronze" 1943 penny is altered somehow, and is worth very little. Your Greek "silver" coin with flanges sticking out of its edges is a bad cast counterfeit. Your cheesy-looking brass token is not gold, and is not a coin. Any clown can mint brass tokens with bad designs. Cleaning your coins is a stupid idea. Yes, even for you. You, too. If you ask how, listen to the people who tell you not to do so. If you cite Etsy as an authority, people will laugh their heads off with good reason. This is horrible for your cred. If you cite a Youtube video as an authority, people will laugh with good reason. This is bad for your cred. If you have more than three supposed error coins you found in change, and plan to post them all, the odds are overwhelming that none of them are mint errors worthy of note. If you keep posting these without seeming to learn, people might conclude that learning is not your thing. There, that rounds up the usual suspects. I'm not saying those answers are automatically always right. However, as the strongest probabilities, they should be presumed correct unless they can be proven wrong. If you have one child and something is broken in the house, not by you or your spouse, typically the child did it. If you can prove the kid innocent, fair enough; but you know the kid almost surely did it. If you argue about a "double die" at fatuous length when it's clear you don't know what one really is, you will look like the kid with soot all over him insisting he didn't really dig around in the fireplace. Don't be that kid. === Opinions, comments, additions, suggestions?