The problem I have is with early Lincoln cents. More specifically, I'm concerned with the ones with the weak strikes in the teens and twenties. I have the ANA grading book, read Bowers's grading book at the book store, and have searched endlessly online. However, there is no detailed grading guide for these weak struck cents. Preferably, I'm looking for more details than a few sentences and a list of weakly struck dates, which is all I can find. Even better would be a picture grading guide of these types of cents so I can compare my coins to them while grading. We all know grading is somewhat subjective, but these coins the problem seems worse from my experience talking with dealers. In other words, the grades they've given to some of my cents range all over the place
Weak strikes are difficult to grade and even harder from pictures. Problem is, outside of years of experience, you only have pictures to learn from. Some of that you might be able to pick up from my GTG series. The most voluminous set you can probably find is on Heritage. If you are not a member, join. It is free and very useful. Hint: Most of the grade (for the grades below about 64) is wear/luster/nicks.
Thanks. I have in mind the circulated grades, as there is no luster I'm aware of with my coins. So the hint you gave is helpful. By the way, can luster be seen on a darkly toned cent? If for example I have a dark cent that doesn't appear to have any wear on the high points, what would luster look like? And what is the GTG series you have done? Thanks
There are at least 608 of them. https://www.cointalk.com/search/1707901/?q=grade&o=date&c[title_only]=1&c[user][0]=7957. And absolutely a brown coin can have luster. Any MS brown coin has at least some luster. See https://www.cointalk.com/threads/guess-the-grade-42.122158/#post-962194. Here is luster. It is not shine. Shine will give you a reflection. Luster will walk around the coin.
Thanks, that helps a lot. That dead look a harshly cleaned coin has is because there is no luster, ie no lively quality to its surface. I like the walk around the coin definition of luster
We call it "cartwheel luster". If you look at RLM's picture above, you can see 4 spokes of the cartwheel quite clearly. As you tilt that coin those spokes will move around the coin like the hands of a clock. This happens with deep brown AU-MS coins too. Learn to read luster, it's very important to grading. Often the TPG's will ignore some nicks in favor of luster....that seems to throw-off the newbies to grading the most. As far as poorly struck Lincolns, it's just a matter of experience. Keep in mind, when grading circulated coins, it's all about WEAR....the quality of the strike has little to do with the absolute grade. For example, a good strike might bump a 40 to a 45 but it's still EF wear. Don't feel bad about not understanding which issues are known for poor strikes. Many dealers don't know either. I have one at a show I regularly attend and he can't grade Lincolns, he always under-grades the early branch mint coins. This works well for me.
Thanks so much. Very helpful comments. By the way, I think your verdicare product is awesome. I picked some up at a coin show and use it. I use it for my base metal coins. I think it's especially good for my old black colored zinc coins. I like how the product gives a lot of coins a more richer, vibrant look that looks natural once the product dries after a full day. Thanks!
Something that I think is important but hasn't been mentioned yet is that a weak strike can rarely have any impact on the grade of a circulated coin. There are exceptions of course, but those exceptions are pretty well known and few in number. The exceptions can also be easily identified by looking at MS examples. How ? Well, if the missing detail is not present on an MS example rather obviously it is also going to be missing on a circulated example. But those missing details on the MS example, that's all that can be attributed to the weak strike. Any additional missing detail on the circ example must be attributed to wear. Sadly that is not always the case when people, or the TPGs, grade these circ coins. The additional missing detail is the most important part when grading circ examples of known weakly struck coins for that is the part that truly tells the story of how much wear the coin has undergone. So if you want to grade circ examples, first study MS examples so that you are thoroughly familiar with exactly what details are missing and what ones are not. It is important to note that this applies to the exceptions and typical coins. I say that because on a typical coin the only part of the details that may be missing due to a weak strike are the very highest points of the coin. On the exceptions this is no the case at all, like on the no D or weak D cent, the mint mark is not a high point, but yet it is missing or weak. I guess the point I'm trying to get to is that it is not uncommon for circ coins to be over-graded because some doing the grading attribute missing detail to a weak strike instead of wear. So be careful when judging the grade of circ coins for yourself. Do a quick comparison, it will tell you a lot.
Very good point. I definitely will consider looking at mint state examples. That seems like the best strategy
Wait, isn't that coin date and mint mark one of the designated weak strike Lincolns? Did you mean to say this is an example of a weak strike? I believe die wear can happen on any date, right? These weak strikes could have also suffered from worn dies I guess
Yes, the 24/25 D/S Lincolns are well known for over-used dies. They had little choice with large production demands and few dies to use since all of them came from Philly.
