Expert: Cameron Kiefer - 2/13/2004

Question
I just purchased an 1877 indian head coin from a friend. I tried taking some pictures with my digital camera but it's a cheap camera and doesn't focus right. Anyway, I looked in my book and saw that this coin is the most expensive coin of "all" the indian head pennies. Since I'm realitively a new collector I'm having trouble grading this coin. Although I read something off the internet regarding grading indian heads. They state the condition is VERY GOOD/VG-8 if "Any 3 letters of liberty are visible but may be very weak and hard to see at the bottom of letters or digits." Well, when I look at my coin through the magnifying glass I bought I can definitaly see the tops of 4 letters (L,RTY) but they fade to nothing toward the middle and bottom of the coin. The date (i.e., 1877) and the words "United States of America" are clear. The back looks pretty good as well. I can clearly read "one cent" and the wreath looks almost full. Even the little banner above "one cent" is clear. In fact I can see both the horizontal and vertical lines clearly in this banner. Anyway, if you can get back to me and give me any feedback you can concerning this coin I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you!

Sincerely,
Rick Muller

Answer
Hi Rick,

It does sound like a VG-8 coin as long as you can read the three letters.  I would be more concerned about the authenticty of the coin rather than the grade unless you bought it from a reputable coin dealer or friend.  There are many altered dates or counterfeits out there and if you are new, you might not be able to tell right off.  I would send it to a reputable coin grading company like PCGS (www.pcgs.com) or NGC (www.ngccoin.com) and they grade/authenticate it.

The one and only ok grading site is www.coingrading.com in case you want a good overview of grading.