Red book guide 2 lincoln cents says 23-s are usually weak to sometimes very weak. BTW How do tpgs determine color on wood grains?
MS 65+? Thats one beautiful coin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOL. MS-60. I don't think they go for that wood look too much. Don't ask me why...I happen to love it!
I know this was a bad pic for determining color. It emphasizes the woodgrain and hides the base color of the coin. PCGS gave it a 63 RED/BROWN. I thought that it had been cleaned as did Skrabalak and Spanmkle although no one was sure whether or not it would grade. Anyway, I now have 1 of ~325 R/B 23-S's slabbed by PCGS and NGC combined and there are only 120 red ones. A quick check says that is the rarest R/B slabbed Lincoln cent of them all - rarer than the 26-S. BTW, the best part is I got it from an eBay dealer who also thought that it had been cleaned for $36. PCGS lists it at $1100. I think that is high, but the last one to sell on Heritage went for $430 and that was an NGC in 2005.
You want to know what the REAL crazy part of all this is? We submitted these at LB just 2 weeks ago. Someone lit a fire under the PCGS grading teams feet I think. I have never had grades come back so quickly !!!! Submission on 9/19, grades on 10/1, now thats a record !! Congrats RLM !!!
So they were in a rush and they misgraded a $36 body bag MS-63 RB, you're saying. Just kidding! To RLM: Congrats! And I wouldn't take that coin out of that holder now for anything less than MS-63 RB cash on the barrel head! :thumb:
That is one I don't really plan on removing from its holder at all. If Heritage has not sold one for 3+ years, I doubt that I will ever be able to find a replacement I can afford.
Very beautiful coin, and very nice strike! 1923-S is a key IMO (with the weakly struck dates, not mintage wise) when it comes to getting it with a real nice strike. And that's a nice coin, congrats rlm! :thumb: Phoenix