1934 Peace Dollar With Strike Error On Mintage letter...Grade? Value?

[HoardStein-migration]

I pulled this 1934 Peace Silver Dollar out of my deceased Father's air tight plastic coin case in his bank safety deposit box. It appears to have superior shine/luster, but, some wear as the letters and images appear not as high and detailed as some of the other Peace dollars in his hoard. Could be a bad mint strike since the Mintage letter is not correctly formed--appears as just a raised period or similar shape.

 

[HoardStein-migration]

I also believe the Mintage letter was supposed to be an "S"...opinions?

[physics-fan3.14]

Yes, it is an S mintmark. There does not appear to be an error there, at least not one worth any premium. What you are seeing is known as a die chip - a little piece of the die breaks off and the result is an irregular blob such as you see. It is very common.

 

Unfortunately, your coin has been polished extremely severely. This eliminates almost all value from the coin. Its a shame because the 34S is one of the key dates in the Peace dollar series, but this is almost certainly why it was done: by polishing it, the unscrupulous dealer can fool unsuspecting and novice collectors into thinking it is a much higher grade, and charge significantly more for it. To those who are aware of such things, it is a damaged coin.

 

I would give this a net grade of VF, maybe.

[k-dog-migration]

Pictures can be deceiving sometimes....but that coin looks like it has been polished....a lot. Which, if that is the case, numismatically it is considered a problem coin. I can't help with the error, but I would be interested to see if the S is authentic also.

[HoardStein-migration]

Thanks physics-fan3.14 and Newcomp103, for your invaluable input on my Father's coin. I kind of felt suspicious of it's shininess as I have never seen a somewhat worn coin with such a shiny surface--it didn't make logical sense. My Father got these coins from his Father back in the day--my Father probably shined them not knowing any better. I knew enough not to touch them. Oh well--I guess now my Wife will now have her way of making a necklace out of my Father's Peace and Morgan dollars!

[HoardStein-migration]

I just spoke with my Mother and she verified that my Father never touch these coins in all the 40-50 years he had them since my Grandfather gave them to him. He just put them in his safety deposit box and left them there. So, it appears that my Grandfather or his coin dealer polished them eons ago, or, the large amount of shine is the remains of the original mint shine/brilliance....therefore, the value remains.

[bsshog40]

This and your Morgan I'm afraid are victims of some severe buffing. It's a shame, because these could have been very nice coins. I would have also thought that if these coins had not been touched for 50 yrs, that some sort of originality would have returned by now. These look recently polished to me, like in the last couple years.

[prudden]

This and your Morgan I'm afraid are victims of some severe buffing. It's a shame, because these could have been very nice coins. I would have also thought that if these coins had not been touched for 50 yrs, that some sort of originality would have returned by now. These look recently polished to me, like in the last couple years.

 

Yes. It seems to me that there is polish residue still in the low spots.

[HoardStein-migration]

I guess my Dad snuck around behind my Mom's back and polished these coins a few years ago before he passed. Just like he used to sneak a snort of whiskey or two behind her back...those cats from the 50's and 60's sure were tricky...I sure hope he didn't keep that stock he had in AIG and Lehman Bros.

[James_OldeTowne]

Your 1934-S has been polished, and while that destroys much of the value, it is still useful to some collectors as a space filler.

 

If it's of any comfort, in my experience, 1934-S is by far the most frequently cleaned date in the entire Peace dollar series, and it doesn't matter the grade. People have cleaned and polished VGs all the way up through uncirculated examples.

[Gary Drumm-migration]

Pictures can be deceiving sometimes....but that coin looks like it has been polished....a lot. Which, if that is the case, numismatically it is considered a problem coin. I can't help with the error, but I would be interested to see if the S is authentic also.

 

Admittedly I'm still kind of new to this, but polished was the first thing I thought when I saw this coin as well. There just seems to be too many scratches in the field and on the face to be original.