I'll post the grade (and this coin did grade) later today. My question: What's going on with the reverse? I saw this coin on E-bay. guy
i have no idea about the reverse. greased filled die, maybe? nice coin! is it a halfcrown? shilling? crown?
I'd lean more toward a weak strike. Note that the nose isn't all there either. I tend to rule out a grease-filled die because they didn't have the mechanization in those days that you would find beginning in the 19th century. Chris
Thanks for looking. And here is the final grade: I would have thought that strike would have counted for more in a coin's grade. guy
I'd be inclined to agree if the obverse were as weakly struck as the reverse is, and yes the obv does show a little bit of a weak strike. But as well struck as the hair is, weak strike alone cannot account for almost total lack of design on the rev. There almost had to be something filling the recesses of the rev die to get that result.
I read an article in CW(?) a few months back that was about or mentioned a situation that could account for the look of your coin. In the "olden" days when hardening a working die to get it ready for use, sometimes it wasn't done correctly or thoroughly. The center of the die wouldn't get hardened, or at least not as much as the edges. Through use the center would give way while the edges would remain. No, I'm not talking about the die cracking, just "relaxing". This could certainly explain your coin. Unfortunately I can't even remember the correct term for this, never mind the source of the article.
It does, but only in the higher MS grades. Personally I think the coin is an AU58, but that's a different subject than what you are talking about. A coin can still be graded as MS, and accurately so, as long as the coin shows no signs of wear - no matter how weakly struck that coin may be.
Yeah, but that wouldn't explain what we have here. If it were what you describe there would a lot more of the design in the central portion of the reverse, and there is not.
Is that true for world coins? I am asking, not being sarcastic. I know US grading follows those assumptions, but didn't know if world grading does. I know for a fact ancient grading doesn't. I was just wondering if this was another case of US TPG imposing their own grades on a market.
If you look closer to the REV, it has a die clash on the right side. So, this coin can be, from more than the eye can see. Could this be, also, from the die being repaired, and causing the strike to be less and still be a 63? The OBV, at the nose is missing , from the die clash repair. Just my idea.
Yes, it is. Europeans follow many of the same basic rules for grading that we do here in the US. Some people think Europeans are more strict with their grading that we are in the US, but they aren't. In some ways they are even more lenient with grading, in particular regarding harsh cleaning. I have seen literally thousands of coins sold by dealers in Europe, big name dealers, and sold as being in MS condition. But when the coin was sent to a TPG it was designated as harshly cleaned and slabbed as such.
