Ben Franklin 1953 S question: Should I have this graded? 0

[Jeff_H]

Hello!  I'm new to collecting and am trying to figure out if I should have these coins graded.  1953 S Ben Franklin Liberty Bell, 1912 British Sovereign, and a 1906 Sovereign.  I appreciate any and all opinions you folks may have.

I wish everyone a happy holiday season and thanks again for your input!

JeffH

 

[Jade Collection]

nice gold lancek!

[grip]

Great post Lancek .

[Jeff_H]

21 hours ago, Lancek said:

The Franklin is circulated.  XF-AU.  At best a $12 coin.  At worst, $6.22 worth of silver.  Not worth $20+ to get it graded.

With the gold, first make sure they are sovereigns and not 1/2 sovereigns.  The only difference is size.  1/2 would be 19mm and 3.99g.  Full should be 22mm and 7.99g.  If full, at todays gold prices there's $348 worth of gold.  Unless you go well back into 1800s, British sovereigns don't command a huge premium over gold prices.  Here's pricing I pulled from NGC's foreign coin price guide.

1906

1912

Both appear circulated.  With the 1912 probably getting the better grade.  St George slaying the dragon on the reverse of both look pretty good.  But there is some wear to the head of the monarch on the front of both.  It's possible to 06 was cleaned, but if not, I'd call the '06 XF-AU53 and the '12 a 53-58.  And I'm bumping those up a little because is so hard to grade from a pic.  But as you can see, even with those as a best case scenario, the value doesn't increase enough to justify grading.  But there are other reasons you may still want to.

If you want the coins more protected and able to be saved for future generation.  Encapsulation will help with that.  Are you planning on selling these on your own at some point?  Third party grading (like NGC) tells buyers these are legit and real gold.  I got my sovereigns graded for that reason.  If you were going take them to a coin shop to sell, they can figure out if they are real without the need to grade.

Before sending them in though, a couple quick things you can do to check if they are legit.  Make sure the diameter is what I mentioned above.  Make sure the weight is aprox 7.99g.  Use a magnet on the coin.  Keep a thin layer of fabric on the coin so the magnet doesn't scratch it.  Gold should not be magnetic.  Those won't guarantee coin is real.  But they can weed out some of the fakes.

With US coins, there is a good tool on the PCGS site to estimate a coins grade.  I don't know of one for British coins.  But I do have three NGC graded sovereigns that are in this range.  They are older.  Different monarchs.  But they will might help you tell how much wear determines various grades.  I try to post some pics in an hour or so. 

 

Thanks so much for your extremely informative reply Lancek.  This was actually the way I was leaning but was hoping that maybe, just maybe...    With the Franklin I could almost convince myself it was full bell lines.  The sovereigns are full sovereigns, weighing right where they should, right at 7.985 g. According to the coin shop they were purchased at (International Coins and Currency in Montpelier VT) they're graded Extra Fine, so you were spot on.  Thanks again for taking the time and posting example pics.  I've been into the coin thing for a few months, I inherited my grandparents collection a while back and have found it to be extremely fascinating. I believe I'm hooked and will be here for some time.

Have a great Christmas everyone!  The best to each and yours.

Jeff

Edited December 24, 2019 by Jeff_H

[Jeff_H]

and the reverse of that 1842 Sov is absolutely a work of art.  Gorgeous.