? About a 1909 S Indian head penny 0

[FTW]

Hi

I have a 1909 S Indian Head penny that looks to be in nice condition. Do you think it’s worth getting graded?

 

[FTW]

Sorry I meant 1908 S.

my 1909 S is not in the best condition. 

[Coinbuf]

The 1908-S grades F15 in my opinion and graded examples have been selling for $90-$125 at full retail so I would not bother sending that in as you are unlikely to recover the grading costs when selling; unless you have a very low purchase cost on the coin.  The only thing you gain by having it slabbed is that buyers have some peace of mind that its real and not a fake.

[Just Bob]

Your coins appear to be housed in an album. If they were mine, I would not remove any of them for grading. I would leave them as they are - a nice collection of Indian cents.

[Kirt]

10 hours ago, Just Bob said:

Your coins appear to be housed in an album. If they were mine, I would not remove any of them for grading. I would leave them as they are - a nice collection of Indian cents.

Let's talk a little more about circulated coins like OPs. Some collecting advice is really about MS coins - circulateds could already be seen as having PMD, and IMO some of the advice doesn't apply:

- Albums are bad as they cause/allow toning. Glad to see a more experienced member call out that for circulated Indian cents, an album is great. Having a complete set of an issue is an accomplishment in any grade and albums are a great way to do that with circulated coins.

- Handling coins by their surfaces is bad as skin oils react with the surface. If it's circulated (except for AU) there's already skin oil contact. Sure, minimize it but if you accidentally grab a toned circulated cent by the surface, life goes on.

- Don't clean coins. A lot of circulated coins have....well, various organic matter stuck to them. The devices in OP's coins are a great example. Acetone without rubbing is not going to hurt the metal; for circulated coins, the cost-benefit analysis tilts heavily toward acetone those suckers. Don't pop yours out of the album, but if you get raw coins running them through acetone before placing into an album is often a good idea.

- Grade/slab anything over $100 or 150 to preserve its value. If you have a complete or nearly complete collection of Indian cents in a great album like the one in your picture, the economics favor keeping the collection complete rather than cherry-picking the one or two amazing examples and having them slabbed. Then you'd have one or two low-value slabs and an already cherry-picked Indian cent collection.

All of this flies out the window if we are talking about a true rarity that holds significant value even in circulated condition.

[DWLange]

Your coins appear to be housed in an album.

The stars next to the date reveal that this is not an album but a Colonial Coin & Stamp Company coin board from the late 1930s. These stars indicated issues that were already worth a premium at that time. Colonial boards were unique in having clear plastic backings in place of the usual paper.

 

[FTW]

Thanks for the great information and advice.

To be honest I feel like there is to much to learn. Although very interesting history I have too many coins to possibly learn about them all. I feel like some of the coins are getting damaged in there albums and coin boards. 
some of the clear plastic is falling apart. 
Should I find a new way to house the collection? 

[kbbpll]

The collection in that 1930s board is just way cool, I would leave it. Perhaps there is a way you could protect the whole thing? Doesn't seem like the coins will change much now after ~80 years.

[Kirt]

Like I said on your other thread, please keep these intact if at all possible. You've got your hands on something special - maybe NGC can help if there are issues with the board itself.

[FTW]

Your right. This collection is special and we owe it to our great great uncle Reuben Erickson to take care of it. He worked hard to put this collection together. I’m just overwhelmed by it all. I would love to have some help but there is literally to many coins. I wouldn’t know where to start.  Half of his collection is still in a vault at a bank. We have only seen 20 pages of what was put in the safe. 
We have two boxes full of opened and unopened rolls, four bank bags full coins, and over 100 proof sets and uncirculated coin sets. Then we have the albums and the boards. We would love to keep it all together but we feel the need to share it with my brother-in-law and his family. So that is why we are considering selling most of the collection. Anything that can not be divided equally will be sold. This collection caused a bad family feud between my father-in-law and his brother. We don’t want that to happen again. 
I wanted to share some history behind the amazing coin collector.