Although these are certainly NOT the only strike diagnostics for Walking Liberty halves, they are two of the indicators of how well the coins are struck. Don't get this mixed up with grading, but strike is one element in grading MS coins. In order of presentation they are a 1941, 1941-D and 1941-S. All are graded by the same TPG (NGC) so there should be a reasonable degree of consistency for comparison. The three obverses: Now for a closer look at the lines in the robe where they cross the left leg: And finally a closer look at the left hand (I need to do a better job here; look at the whole images above also):
Kanga, Very nice post! One question.... Why have you shown the grades of the coin in the closeups? Is the inference that these areas of strike are the difference in grades? Just wondering...Mike
Although strike is just one smaller aspect of grading, everything else being equal the images give you a feeling of where a break point exists. In other words, how weak does a strike have to be to contribute to a lower grade.
Great post kanga ! I love the detail and the energy you put in your post. Great bit of knowledge on a beautiful coin. Thanks man
Thanks for posting this. I think there are alot of people who don't take strike into consideration when trying to grade.
In order to consider strike as part of the grading, I think you really need to know the coin in question. But this is only a concern in MS state right?
Not really. There are many cases where a circulated coin is assigned a higher grade that many would disagree with and the reason given is because of a weak strike. Now while this may be true in some cases, I have often felt that claiming a coin was weakly struck is used as an excuse to assign the higher grade than the coin really deserves.
I agree that its often used as an excuse, espacially when it comes to circulated coins. But it is a factor that needs to be taken into consideration on things like Walkers. I've seen hundreds of them in PCGS or NGC holders graded MS65+ that alot of people would grade as AU because they don't know about the strike.
I agree, the first oner is the nicest. Historically people focus on the right hand and with all three of these the right hand is masterful. But I agree that with the half dollar, as opposed to ASE, the hand, thigh and flowers are all mussy. That is where the design suffered badly and you show it very well. Initially, when I first looked at walkers, I thought it was wear. But its just bad workmanship. Ruben
