1921 Canadian 50 cent needs verification

[bushman74]

A friend and I own what we believe is a 1921 Canadian .50 cent coin. Unfortunately it is so worn that it is hard to verify this.

We have checked it out under a very powerful microscope and can just make out parts of the second 1.

I tried to take pictures of it with a 90mm macro lens but it is extremely hard to make out.

I believe the police have equipment that can identify it unfortunately my contacts left the department many years ago.

I sent an email to Louis at CCCS in Montreal to see if they have any equipment that can verify that this is a 1921 - 50 cent coin. Unfortunately Louis said he could not do anything with out seeing the full date.

Are any of you aware of any source that can verify that this is a genuine 1921 - 50 cent coin.

Attached are 2 cropped photos with a small part of the second one circled. I tried to get a shot of the bottom part of the one but can't get the angle for that photo.

Thanks

[SousNoir]

Hello bushman74,

I understand Louis or any other TPG not being able to authenticate this coin as of year 1921. The date must be visible in a way or another.

It would help if you could post again the 1st photograph above without the black circle. The 1st photograph is in focus while the 2nd is a bit blurry. Image processing could reveal the "1" that is not easyly seen in your photograph because of the hand drawn circle. I did a simple image processing of the 1st photograph and the last digit looks like a "1".



The good news is the last digit "ghost" doesn't look like a "0" or a "9" as the 50 cents was issued for 3 years only in the 20s: 1920, 1921, and 1929.

Dan

[pocoDan]

Good find! If it turns out to be a '1', good luck to you!

[bushman74]

Hi Dan,

Thank you for trying to verify the details for me.

Attached are 5 new photos.

All of these are of a very high resolution.

Hopefully one is good. If not I can go back to the original before I added the circle.

Sorry for the delay.

Thanks again.

[SousNoir]

Hi bushman74,

No problem with the delay. The subject is interesting and intriguing. It fits well in a collector's backlog of fun things to do.

I'll see what I can get from your pictures. Some are pretty good and sharp and I'll try to get more details from these using image processing. I have found great photographs on PCGS web site for 1920, 1921, and 1929 coins. These images will be useful for the location of the last digit on your coin.

Dan

[Silverman]

That would be awesome if that was a 1921 50 cent, a friend of mine just sold a 1921 50 cent in VG condition for $48,000.00.I have heard of acid dateing not sure if thats the way to go,I have seen it done on buffalo nickles.

cheers