1870 5 Cent Shield - Value & Grade? 0

[Newie68]

Greetings - I’m new to coin collecting as I’ve been given several coins and I’m trying to determine values. Was hoping folks could help me start with this coin. 

[Sandon]

   Welcome to the NGC chat boards!  

   This forum is for questions pertaining to the NGC Registry.    In the future, please post inquiries of this sort under the forum entitled "Newbie Coin Collecting Questions", where they may receive better attention. (The administrator will likely move this one there.)

   Your coin is an 1870 Shield nickel. Shield nickels, which are dated from 1866 to 1883, are the first copper-nickel five cent coin (popularly called "nickels") and replaced silver half dimes, which were last minted in 1873. Shield nickels are the same weight (6.25 grams) and composition (75% copper, 25% nickel) as those still issued today but are slightly smaller in diameter and thicker than nickels issued since the Liberty head design began later in in 1883. Pieces dated 1866 and a minority of those dated 1867 have a different reverse with rays between the stars.

  The 1870 had a reported mintage of 4,806,000 pieces. It is a common though slightly better date. Your coin would likely grade somewhere between Choice About Uncirculated (AU 55-58) to the lower end of Uncirculated (MS 60-62).  It may have been lightly "cleaned", which would reduce its market value. I cannot give a better opinion from photos, as I would need to examine the actual coin from different angles and magnifications. (The coin appears to be genuine, but be advised that numerous counterfeits of most series have been coming from China in recent years.) If genuine and uncleaned, your coin has a current retail value in the NGC Price Guide of $185 in AU 55 and $325 in MS 62. (You can find this guide under the "Resources" tab on the NGC home page.)  Other current guides have similar pricing. Wholesale (dealer buy prices) would be 25-50% lower.

   I've given you a detailed explanation to give you some idea of the amount of knowledge you will need to succeed as a collector.  We have an expression, "Buy the book before the coin", which nowadays includes online resources. Please see my following topic for an overview of recommended resources for new collectors: