Ugly Barber 25c - but it was free

[Brotherman]

There is a pizza parlor two doors down from our gallery. Today the owner gave

me an old coin that they got in their change. It’s a 1914 Barber quarter. It’s

pretty rough and BLACK. It is either covered in gunk or maybe even paint.

I had to lighten the scan just so it could be seen.

I was about to dunk it in paint thinner, but Bob (supertooth) told me to stop.

Sigh. He’s right, of course he is right. Well here it is:

 

Hays

[kryptonitecomics]

I would think and acetone bath might help.........but probably not much.

[supertooth]

Hays-----Doesn't look tooooo good does it? Hope it is better in hand---but I doubt it. Still would not do anything to it however. Although I doubt that it could look any worse. Like you said---it was free. Bob [supertooth]

[HaydenTubbs]

Perhaps pressure washing?

 

 

Nice find

[Brotherman]

Hays-----Doesn't look tooooo good does it? Hope it is better in hand---but I doubt it. Still would not do anything to it however. Although I doubt that it could look any worse. Like you said---it was free. Bob [supertooth]

 

No, it's REALLY ugly - I think the scan makes it look better. Ouch. Free silver is free silver though. I'll probably add it to a junk silver sale on Ebay sometime.

 

Hays

[Yarm]

Whew, had to check the vault to make sure I still had my coin! I have a small group of "clunkers"-25c and 50c silver coins that don't ring when dropped. This one has only a faint reeded edge and a goofy date.

 

[Brotherman]

Yup, that's an ugly one yarm.

 

It didn't occur to me to drop test my coin, when I did it sounded odd. I've got a Barber in my type set so I pulled it out for a side by side. Right off I noticed the black one is thinner - by about one third. It is the same diameter so it wasn't flattened. I don't have a scale but it feels lighter. I think I've got a counterfeit here. I'm thinking that the surfaces were painted in an attempt to thicken up the coin. Maybe I should clean it, I'd hate to sell a fake coin as junk silver.

 

Hays

[Yarm]

Here's another example of a well worn quarter that doesn't "ring true". It sounds more like one of those ceramic casino tokens. Perhaps it was worth someones time back in the 30's to produce a fake quarter.