Need some help on guesstimating grades for Indian Head $2.50 and $5.00 Gold

[Jakeblue]

I recently have been thinking about collecting the quarter eagle and half eagle gold coins. I have bought some Liberty gold in the past, but the incuse design of the Indian seems pretty difficult to nail down. I have looked at photograde, graded NGC/PCGS and some articles online.

 

Frankly, it appears that many were weakly struck on the lower headress feathers and the eagle's left shoulder. I have looked at many graded pictures of the same grade same TPG and sometimes the strike is stronger in those areas and sometimes it appears very weak. As an example, the 1908 in MS appears to have those characteristics.

 

What other areas should I be looking for that might help. Such as, does a cleaned gold piece present the same as silver with lines or bad dipping with marks/dirt around the devices (or in this case, embedded), other areas that will show the wear? Are rim nicks fairly common?

 

I understand that the best and safest way is to buy already graded. As I am looking I might find a raw coin that I am interested in and want to be prepared as much as I can be.

 

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Oldtrader3]

Incuse gold is one of the hardest series of gold coins to grade. This series requires some degree of experience and judgement to collect. Even slabbed coins vary quite a bit in quality. Plus, many AU and lower grade MS coins are market graded, despite issues with luster. This series also tends to vary greatly in price, at least for MS coins between grades.

 

What I did when I started buying these gold coins was go to shows or dealer's shops and look carefully at many coins until I gained some confidence on grading. There are also many counterfeits some of which are expertly done and very hard to spot with ungraded coins.

 

Many collectors have learned the hard way with these coins and I personally will not buy uncertified coins anymore except from certain dealers, whom I trust. There are too many nasty surprises out there with these coins which require some deep experience to stay away from. Go slow and be careful.

 

There are some posts on these coins in the WYNTK section which may be worth reading.