Another newbie re: 1855 $50 gold coin

[bgjones]

Hi there, 

I am a new member here, as I recently inherited a large coin collection from my dad, which originally belonged to his father.  My grandfather did have some knowledge about coins, as he used to get together with a trusted friend and compare acquisitions, etc.  His friend was a fascinating gentleman by his own rights, a German lawyer immigrant whose background included the prosecution of war criminals during the Nuremberg trials, and he was quite knowledgeable on the subject of coins, much more so than my grandfather.

There are a number of gold coins—probably 30+—and probably 10 times that with the silver count. Included in this “collection” is a US gold coin: 1855 $50 WASS Molitor.  (Could only upload one pic of coin.)

 I am trying to educate myself enough to understand the right channels that I should follow in the process of grading, valuation, etc. before selling off any coins that may be of considerable value. 

Thank you for your time in reading my first post here in this forum. Any guidance, suggestions will be greatly appreciated. 

Respectfully,  bgjones 

 

[BillJones]

I will start by saying that I am not an expert in territorial gold, but I have concerns about this piece. The roughness of the surfaces and lumps in the dentiles (teeth like design around the edge) give me concerns about its authenticity. The best course is to contact our hosts for authenticity. If this piece is genuine, it would be quite valuable.

I hope I'm wrong.

[JKK]

Welcome. I hope you enjoy learning about the carefully gathered coins that your father left you.

Your first step is probably to buy a copy of the ANA Grading Standards book (Amazon, or any major bookseller). Each coin issue applies the standards in specific ways and there's no substitute for the nitty-gritty of looking at the coin and seeing what grade level it reaches. Eventually you would get to the point where you'd have a pretty good grading eye just on basic consistent criteria, but the standards are key.

Bill's right about that gold coin; it has a sort of lumpiness and granularity in the fields that is characteristic of contemporary counterfeits (and perhaps modern ones as well). You'd definitely want to start by verifying its authenticity. One thing you can do without sending it in is to weigh it and compare that to the expected weight; if they are any meaningful distance apart, you know it's counterfeit. Another is to hold a magnet near it. Obviously, any attraction there is no bueno.