My newest bust dime, what do you think?...Grading guru head scratcher?

Here is my newest bust dime. It's an interesting coin...How would you grade it?
Opinions and commentary encouraged

 

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I love the bust design especially on the smaller silver coins like your new one Hunter. It's got some wear, but still very nice. I'd say a VF-20. One question though...Where's the counterstamp?

Bruce

 

I'll guess XF-45. With a bit of luster it might go AU. Nice coin.

 

I have yet to find another bust dime with a counterstamp since the one I missed around Christmas time...It's a good thing I'm semi-patient

 

I agree with Bruce on this one. VF 20 sounds about right!

 

Guess I'll wait till the morning to disclose my opinions on this one, hopefully more people will give a guess by then

 

Put me in for VF20 or so.

 

Based on PCGS Photograde; I'd say right between VF20 - VF25, with your coin being closer to 20...so VF22.

-LTB

 

20-25 is about right. Its a tough one cause the rims are great, most of the other details warrant a better grade, but the wear on the shield is what keeps it from a 25 in my opinion. She is a wonderful coin though!

 

Alright! now we are getting somewhere Glad to see some more thoughts and input on this one keep em coming!

 

I'm gonna hop on the VF20 bandwagon.

This is die variety JR-11, a fairly common die marriage of r.2.

This is the only use of both obverse and reverse dies. One easy diagnostic is the reverse scroll's starting and ending points; the scroll starts in the middle of "D" and ends in the middle of "M". This is a bit farther clockwise than any other reverse die of 1827; most of them have the scroll starting closer to the D's upright.

 

You hit the marriage right on the head. One thing to point out about this marriage is the central obverse and reverse are usually found weakly struck. Here are some things on this coin that caught my eye in regards to wear/strike:

 

Vf20

 

Weakly struck coin in roughly low XF, high VF condition (TPG grade). I'd probably give it a 40, higher or lower depending on how much luster is left.

People who try and details grade this coin will undergrade it compared to the TPGs, I'll wager Moneylover has given us some hints to this effect in his second set of pics.

 

Leave it to 900fine to discern the die marriage. well done. Not easy given the many die varieties of the 1927 10C.

Grade wise, I place this coin at VF20-VF25, and a nice original coin.

 

I'll say VF-20 as well. She's a beauty!

 

Well said. I'll still give it a 45.

 

This is a good assessment of the coin here until you confuse the weak strike with wear. This is a very tricky coin in regards to grade, especially if you aren't familiar with this particular varieties tendency to be weakly struck in the central obverse and reverse. On the open collar coins (1809-1828) you will typically find flat stars, flat knuckles on the eagle and weak rims (more so on the obverse). When I assessed this one for a grade here's what I looked at...

Obverse: I looked at the wear on the cap, the wear on the drapery at the bosom (which can also be weakly struck) the details shown in the lower hair curl, the rim and the star centers.

Reverse: The biggest factor here for me was around the edge of the wings. If you have the ANA grading book, take a look at the xf pictures wear pattern on the wings... you will see they're pretty similar to this coin. I also took into account the rims, and also the fairly strong details on the arrows heads and fletching (leaves?).

My thoughts after all this was the coin was a minimum vf35 but likely an xf40 and possibly as high as an xf45. Most importantly, and as some others pointed out, a nice original coin.

Let me finish by saying that as you know grading is subjective, and this is just my opinion. I don't claim to be an expert or anything like that, just trying to shed a little light on federal coins and the problems that plagued the minting processes of the time.

 

The 1820's is a terrible decade for coin collectors who like fully struck coins, that's for sure. Every single series has strike issues.

 

Do any of you know why so many coins issued during the 1820's had strike or other quality issues? Also, thanks for the grading tips on your bust dime Hunter. Interesting thread.

Bruce