$2.50 gold coin from 1928 - Any info 0

[Red84]

Hi everyone. I am a member of the CGC boards and know nothing about coins. My parents found this 1928 two and a half dollar coin that belonged to my grandparents. Can you tell me any information about it. Is it rare? Any idea what it is worth or whether it is something worth grading? Thanks!

 

 

[Henri Charriere]

On 4/18/2023 at 9:07 PM, Red84 said:

Hi everyone. I am a member of the CGC boards and know nothing about coins. My parents found this 1928 two and a half dollar coin that belonged to my grandparents. Can you tell me any information about it. Is it rare? Any idea what it is worth or whether it is something worth grading? Thanks!

 

 

I am going to yield to member @Sandon on this.  (Incidentally, to the CCG members who renewed my membership and retained my chat board privileges, a hearty thank you. No less than the Guiness Book of Records has recognized my return from the dead five times.

[Coinbuf]

Welcome to the coin side!    The gold Indian quarter eagle was produced from 1908 to 1929, except for the 1911-D (which is the only year these were coined at a branch mint) and the 1914 all the other years were roughly equal in production.   Tough to tell exactly as your photos are at a slight angle and just ever so out of focus, but your coin looks to be in uncirculated condition, MS62 to MS64, I might have a different opinion (up or down) if seen in hand.   These coins are not super valuable but have had a nice bump in prices with the recent runup in gold, here is a snapshot of the NGC explorer page showing the guide prices for MS62 to MS64, these are for graded examples so your coin would be less than these numbers as a raw coin.   I have also found that the guide is sometimes a bit optimistic compared to what happens in an auction.

As to your question on grading, well that sort of depends on what you plan to do with the coin and your personal likes.   There is no absolute reason you have to have the coin graded, it can help with liquidity if you plan to sell.   If you think you are going to hold onto it I would get a nice Capital Plastic single coin holder and store it in that, those holders are very nice looking and will protect the coin almost as well as a slab.

[Sandon]

   Welcome to the NGC chat board.  (I just happened to be viewing this topic when @Henri Charriere posted.)

   Your coin is a 1928 Indian Head type $2.50 gold piece or "quarter eagle". Coins of this type were minted from 1908-1915 and 1925-1929. The 1928 is a relatively common date within the series with a reported mintage of 416,000.  These coins contain 0.12094 troy oz. of gold and like most other classic U.S. gold coins are composed of 90% gold and 10% copper.  

   There are many counterfeits of this type but based upon its appearance and your description of its provenance, yours is very likely genuine.  While it would be preferable if your photos were cropped, properly oriented and taken directly overhead instead of from the side, your coin appears to have About Uncirculated details and if not "cleaned" or otherwise impaired has a current retail value of approximately $500. 

   I don't recommend that anyone other than an experienced collector with a good knowledge of grading submit coins--and especially not just a single coin--to a third-party grading service like NGC.  You would need to purchase an NGC membership with submission privileges and learn the submission process, and it would then cost you $73 ($35 grading fee for the "Gold" tier, $10 processing fee, and $28 return shipping and insurance) plus the cost of shipping the coin to NGC.  I recommend that you obtain a plastic coin holder for it or other inert wrapping that will prevent it from coming in contact with other coins and objects. If you must handle it, hold it only by its edges. Do not attempt to remove the small amount of dirt inside some of the letters, as this would likely result in damage.

   My grandparents also left some U.S. gold coins that they had obtained from circulation in the 1920s, about which I initiated the following topic:

 

[Red84]

On 4/18/2023 at 9:04 PM, Coinbuf said:

Welcome to the coin side!    The gold Indian quarter eagle was produced from 1908 to 1929, except for the 1911-D (which is the only year these were coined at a branch mint) and the 1914 all the other years were roughly equal in production.   Tough to tell exactly as your photos are at a slight angle and just ever so out of focus, but your coin looks to be in uncirculated condition, MS62 to MS64, I might have a different opinion (up or down) if seen in hand.   These coins are not super valuable but have had a nice bump in prices with the recent runup in gold, here is a snapshot of the NGC explorer page showing the guide prices for MS62 to MS64, these are for graded examples so your coin would be less than these numbers as a raw coin.   I have also found that the guide is sometimes a bit optimistic compared to what happens in an auction.

As to your question on grading, well that sort of depends on what you plan to do with the coin and your personal likes.   There is no absolute reason you have to have the coin graded, it can help with liquidity if you plan to sell.   If you think you are going to hold onto it I would get a nice Capital Plastic single coin holder and store it in that, those holders are very nice looking and will protect the coin almost as well as a slab.

Thank you! My parents will enjoy learning this history.

[Red84]

On 4/18/2023 at 9:09 PM, Sandon said:

   Welcome to the NGC chat board.  (I just happened to be viewing this topic when @Henri Charriere posted.)

   Your coin is a 1928 Indian Head type $2.50 gold piece or "quarter eagle". Coins of this type were minted from 1908-1915 and 1925-1929. The 1928 is a relatively common date within the series with a reported mintage of 416,000.  These coins contain 0.12094 troy oz. of gold and like most other classic U.S. gold coins are composed of 90% gold and 10% copper.  

   There are many counterfeits of this type but based upon its appearance and your description of its provenance, yours is very likely genuine.  While it would be preferable if your photos were cropped, properly oriented and taken directly overhead instead of from the side, your coin appears to have About Uncirculated details and if not "cleaned" or otherwise impaired has a current retail value of approximately $500. 

   I don't recommend that anyone other than an experienced collector with a good knowledge of grading submit coins--and especially not just a single coin--to a third-party grading service like NGC.  You would need to purchase an NGC membership with submission privileges and learn the submission process, and it would then cost you $73 ($35 grading fee for the "Gold" tier, $10 processing fee, and $28 return shipping and insurance) plus the cost of shipping the coin to NGC.  I recommend that you obtain a plastic coin holder for it or other inert wrapping that will prevent it from coming in contact with other coins and objects. If you must handle it, hold it only by its edges. Do not attempt to remove the small amount of dirt inside some of the letters, as this would likely result in damage.

   My grandparents also left some U.S. gold coins that they had obtained from circulation in the 1920s, about which I initiated the following topic:

 

Thanks so much! My parents have been going through a lot of items that have been stored away in the basement for years and they were curious to learn about this coin!

[Red84]

On 4/18/2023 at 9:09 PM, Sandon said:

I recommend that you obtain a plastic coin holder for it or other inert wrapping that will prevent it from coming in contact with other coins and objects.

Is there a coin holder that you recommend for this coin?

[Red84]

On 4/18/2023 at 9:04 PM, Coinbuf said:

If you think you are going to hold onto it I would get a nice Capital Plastic single coin holder and store it in that, those holders are very nice looking and will protect the coin almost as well as a slab.

I will definitely look into getting one.

[Jason Abshier]

On 4/18/2023 at 10:09 PM, Sandon said:

You would need to purchase an NGC membership with submission privileges and learn the submission process

Let’s not forget a person still can go to a reputable coin dealer have them ship a coin in for grading they don’t really need to buy the membership just for a single coin…  

[DSessom]

All great info above, but if were me, I would contact a reputable dealer and have it submitted for grading, just to insure that it is indeed genuine. My dad had two of these, about a decade ago and I talked him into sending them to get graded. Both came back counterfeit. I personally have a hard time telling the difference between genuine and counterfeit when it comes to gold, and some of the $2.50 and $5 Indian gold counterfeits are VERY good copies.