http://home.comcast.net/~bowery9505/42nic1.jpg I recently went through my collection of 3 cent pieces and realized I had not made any new additions for a long time so I decided to get one. Problem is that the only ones I'm missing are the really expensive ones. I got this one for under $60 with shipping included. Good deal? I would grade this as VF, anyone else have an opinion. Not only is it my new most expensive coin, it is also my lowest mintage US coin, 41,083.
If you're the "coinmaster", why do you go by RedBook values? They're extremely inflated. About the coin, it looks like it might have an old cleaning but has since retoned.
I don't know how you grade it. The photograde looks the same to me from VG to XF. I can't find any points of wear to use as a guide. The hair is weak until you get to the AU and complete rims are there at VG. Above that looks like luster is the primary difference.
My criterium for 3-cent nickels is on the back. I look for ones which have ALL the vertical lines in the Roman numeral. I saw an MS-66 once that had all the lines but not fully struck up, i.e., flat on the tops. The one I finally settled on for my type set has all the lines and with the eye looks fully struck. But under magnification you can see that there's slight flattening on the tops of the lines.
Based off the pictures I am stuck between F and VF. So I split the difference and called it F15 based off the reverse. Nice pick-up.
You are to be commended for tackling the 3-cent nickels, it's something I was tempted to so years ago, but I shied away from it after getting the 1882 and 1888 and concentrated on other series. The good news is that the 3-cent nickel series is not a "hot" one for collectors, so you can still get a lot of scarce onces like your 1888 for a fraction of what they'd cost with the same mintages in another series. The bad news is that the lower prices doesn't make them any easier to find.
