purchased this beauty of a key in a PCGS bodybag recently. I can't say as though I agree with their designation. It's really a nice coin. Here are the auction photos. What do you think? What would you grade it as well? Thanks so much in advance.
I suspect it is the scratch fom the hump to the beard that they object. At least in the photo it looks like a "fresher" scratch and is long. I would suspect it would be a VG designation and then a deduction for the scratch, so maybe details G. The scratch isn't badly disfiguring and you got it for much less than a "G" price I hope, as these are a difficult date and many just have a restored date in their collection. I would rather have a scratched one. Jim
the dates wear off very quickly on buffalo nickels. I've seen countless GOOD-4 coins that have almost no date.
That's why I said generally. I've seen 26 S MS buffalos w/o a full horn, though that's a strike issue. Generally speaking, to be graded a full good there must be a full readable date. Virtually all partial dates are graded no better than AG, even if they show part of the horn. The horn shows VG details, but obverse/reverse rim details are G.
So when is a scratch objectionable, and when is it not? Don't most older circulated coins have a scratch or two? How come they don't just knock the grade down a point or two instead of deeming it nongradable?
There's a bit of a difference between a scratch and a nick. If a coin has bagmarks, or small hits from circulation it's one thing, but an actual scratch is quite another. I also suspect that the darkness has something to do with the bodybag. I'm not quite sure why this coin was even sent in. It's not that high of a dollar value, compared with the cost and trouble of sending to PCGS. Oh, well...to each his/her own.
It depends on the severity of the scratch. This coin has several scratches though and either of the 2 worst would be grounds for a body-bag. A scratch is considered to be damage and damaged coins are not gradeable. To me the worst scratch by far is the one on the obverse, across the lip. But there are 3 rather heavy scratches that run from the back to the beard. Another across the hip and yet another through the mound. Those last two I mentioned would not prevent the coin from being graded though.
