What are the general grade of these 3 gold coins? 0

[Shadow Rose]

I found 3 gold coins my grandfather had hidden away but no matter how i try i cant tell generally what grade they are or if they are polished.

1915-S Panama-Pacific $1 Gold Commemorative Coin

1916 McKinley Birthplace Memorial $1 Gold Coin

1926 AMERICAN SESQUICENTENNIAL $2.5

 

Thanks!

 

Edit > Put 2400 dpi scanned images in a later post.

 

Edited August 28, 2020 by Shadow Rose

[Just Bob]

Welcome to the forum.

There is no way to even give a decent guess as to the grade of your coins without closer, clearer pictures. And, even then, it will only be a guess, as pictures often make a coin, especially a gold coin, look different than it would in hand.

[Shadow Rose]

47 minutes ago, Just Bob said:

Welcome to the forum.

There is no way to even give a decent guess as to the grade of your coins without closer, clearer pictures. And, even then, it will only be a guess, as pictures often make a coin, especially a gold coin, look different than it would in hand.

Ah thanks. I suppose i will just have to get them graded by a professional then.

[Coinbuf]

If you can take the coins out of the holders; carefully and handle the coins by the edges only; and then take some new photos (please crop) it would be easier as the holder is giving off a lot of glare.  And of course you can always send those in to NGC for authentication and grading, from your photos they all look to be AU or better just cannot tell if they have been wiped or cleaned in the past.

[VKurtB]

17 hours ago, Coinbuf said:

If you can take the coins out of the holders; carefully and handle the coins by the edges only; and then take some new photos (please crop) it would be easier as the holder is giving off a lot of glare.  And of course you can always send those in to NGC for authentication and grading, from your photos they all look to be AU or better just cannot tell if they have been wiped or cleaned in the past.

If the camera is on a phone, this may be all that can be gotten. By the way, those are VERY nice coins to have, regardless of the formal grade. Commem gold. Doesn't get a whole lot better.

Edited August 27, 2020 by VKurtB

[James_OldeTowne]

The photos are inadequate to give a good, accurate answer, but how about an educated guess?  They don't look blatantly fake, and that is augmented by the fact that they appear lightly circulated (AU-ish).

[Shadow Rose]

5 hours ago, VKurtB said:

If the camera is on a phone, this may be all that can be gotten. By the way, those are VERY nice coins to have, regardless of the formal grade. Commem gold. Doesn't get a whole lot better.

Grandpa loved collecting coins so i have quite a few now. Been debating on selling them. I even bought a scanner that can go up to 4800 dpi for them just to learn i cant use it due to the cases and i don't want to open them incase some kind of moisture gets into them and messes up the coin. I found one silver dollar with spots on it from pcgs that had that issue. My problem is i dont have the slightest clue on how to grade them. I cant tell the difference between ms grades at all unless its 4 or 5 between.

 

3 hours ago, James_OldeTowne said:

The photos are inadequate to give a good, accurate answer, but how about an educated guess?  They don't look blatantly fake, and that is augmented by the fact that they appear lightly circulated (AU-ish).

 

Are gold coins normally circulated and if so how. Who would want to use a gold coin that could be melted for like 250 bucks? Maybe im just stupid for not getting it.

Edited August 27, 2020 by Shadow Rose

[VKurtB]

None of these LOOK like they’ve been abused, but some sort of closer view is needed. 

[Shadow Rose]

1 minute ago, VKurtB said:

None of these LOOK like they’ve been abused, but some sort of closer view is needed. 

I wanna scan them but er >.> im not sure if its a good or bad idea even with gloves on to take them out of the cases x.x

[VKurtB]

Just now, Shadow Rose said:

I wanna scan them but er >.> im not sure if its a good or bad idea even with gloves on to take them out of the cases x.x

I appreciate your hesitation. It bodes well for the ultimate outcome. Don’t be rushed. Take your time. A first test might be to use the flatbed scanner with the coins still in the holders. Now please understand - some scanners won’t handle a focal plane off the glass’ surface, but some will. Try it.

[Shadow Rose]

Just now, VKurtB said:

I appreciate your hesitation. It bodes well for the ultimate outcome. Don’t be rushed. Take your time. A first test might be to use the flatbed scanner with the coins still in the holders. Now please understand - some scanners won’t handle a focal plane off the glass’ surface, but some will. Try it.

Yeah i've been trying that and it ended up impossible. The image of the coins are blurry. I had thought it was due to the light interfering but it seems like that wasn't the case when i wrapped a few things around the scanner. I wonder if i cover the scanner glass with some paper and mold the coin holder in it if that would work...

[kbbpll]

What kind of phone is it? You can take decent pictures of coin with a phone, even in plastic. It takes practice. Try natural light. Put the coin on a window sill but not in direct sun. Find your camera's focus sweet spot. On mine, if I zoom in about 30% and hold the phone farther away, I get much better focus. Take images directly over the coin, but adjust the angle a little in various directions so reflections etc are not inside the coin's circle. Take a bunch of pictures. Go thru them and zoom way in, looking for sharp focus. I bet you can get some good images for us. The problem with these is too much reflection from a harsh light source.

I then pull up my images in Paint on my desktop and crop them. I personally don't care if people on here do that or not - I can save off the image myself and zoom in or rotate it.

[Shadow Rose]

1 hour ago, kbbpll said:

What kind of phone is it? You can take decent pictures of coin with a phone, even in plastic. It takes practice. Try natural light. Put the coin on a window sill but not in direct sun. Find your camera's focus sweet spot. On mine, if I zoom in about 30% and hold the phone farther away, I get much better focus. Take images directly over the coin, but adjust the angle a little in various directions so reflections etc are not inside the coin's circle. Take a bunch of pictures. Go thru them and zoom way in, looking for sharp focus. I bet you can get some good images for us. The problem with these is too much reflection from a harsh light source.

I then pull up my images in Paint on my desktop and crop them. I personally don't care if people on here do that or not - I can save off the image myself and zoom in or rotate it.

Its only a $100 motorola. It has 8 mp but thats not enough. I scanned them on 2400 dpi with gloves so ill upload them in a bit.

[Shadow Rose]

[jgrinz]

ALL XF-AU in my book but all very desirable 

Nice set

 

[Shadow Rose]

1 hour ago, jgrinz said:

ALL XF-AU in my book but all very desirable 

Nice set

 

Thanks. 

Do you happen to know if they could be polished? I'm not sure how people tell that.

 

As far as i know grandpa didn't buy polished coins but i might be wrong so i like knowing.

[VKurtB]

It seems unlikely to me. The marks that are there don’t indicate a harsh cleaning or polishing.

[Shadow Rose]

47 minutes ago, VKurtB said:

It seems unlikely to me. The marks that are there don’t indicate a harsh cleaning or polishing.

That's great. Now i'm debating on putting my other non proofs on here and seeing if their polished or not to since grandpa never kept records of that.

 

Thanks again.

[Modwriter]

Eye appeal-good, some luster, coloration-good, good strikes, minor surface damage. AU50 to58.

 

[Conder101]

Do NOT try to clean or polish them!

[James_OldeTowne]

15 hours ago, Shadow Rose said:

Are gold coins normally circulated and if so how. Who would want to use a gold coin that could be melted for like 250 bucks? Maybe im just stupid for not getting it.

Gold coins intended for circulation do, indeed, frequently show traces of wear.  When a commem shows wear, however, one usually attributes that to casual handling, which has the same effect of imparting friction, abrasions, and other characteristics of circulation.

[Shadow Rose]

11 hours ago, Modwriter said:

Eye appeal-good, some luster, coloration-good, good strikes, minor surface damage. AU50 to58.

 

How do you find AU on ngcs ms ratings? There a lot of lettered ratings before the ms ones but none of them are au so im a bit confused about it.

 

3 hours ago, Conder101 said:

Do NOT try to clean or polish them!

Yeah. I never intended to. I mainly just wondered if grandpa had bought polished ones.

 

2 hours ago, James_OldeTowne said:

Gold coins intended for circulation do, indeed, frequently show traces of wear.  When a commem shows wear, however, one usually attributes that to casual handling, which has the same effect of imparting friction, abrasions, and other characteristics of circulation.

 

Ah okay. Thanks!

[kbbpll]

1 hour ago, Shadow Rose said:

How do you find AU on ngcs ms ratings?

The AU range is 50-58, for example on this page. https://www.ngccoin.com/coin-explorer/gold-commemoratives-1903-1926-pscid-72/1915-s-g1-panama-pacific-ms-coinid-17449

There's probably a better reference but the Sheldon scale is described in more detail here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheldon_coin_grading_scale

Great photos! Edit: oops I see that they are scans. In my experience, scans make coins look circulated when they might not be.

Edited August 28, 2020 by kbbpll

[Shadow Rose]

2 hours ago, kbbpll said:

The AU range is 50-58, for example on this page. https://www.ngccoin.com/coin-explorer/gold-commemoratives-1903-1926-pscid-72/1915-s-g1-panama-pacific-ms-coinid-17449

There's probably a better reference but the Sheldon scale is described in more detail here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheldon_coin_grading_scale

Great photos! Edit: oops I see that they are scans. In my experience, scans make coins look circulated when they might not be.

Thanks again!