hone your grading skills -- 1855 large cents

Perhaps you are right.

However, I will say this. I think it is a 65, PCGS thinks it is a 65, Mark Feld (former grader for NGC) thinks it is a 65, and John Albenese of the CAC thinks it is a solid 65. All of the above have seen the coin in-hand, and you have not. It has full luster and not a significant mark on either side other than the small rim hit on the reverse.

That said, what leads to you say 62?

Respectfully...Mike

p.s. will try and take some more photos to show the coin a bit better -- these were not my best photography efforts.

 

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Lots of practice -- and a good camera and lens doesn't hurt.

 

Crap - For some reason I thought you said Doug got 1 of 2 rights. Wow beautiful coins. I can see I need to practise more on these high grade coins. Have you attributed them yet?

 

I did, but in the 1826 thread.

I haven't attributed the first coin, but the RB one is an N-4.

Gotta run now, going to see Steely Dan tonight.

 

62? Because it was the only other logical grade left that someone else had not guessed. Maybe it is just your missing bulb, but that coin just does not look like a 65 to me. There is a lot going one with those rims for me to say 65. It would take a lot of luster to make up for that. But then these are pix, not in hand.

 

I was thinking N-13, cause I think I see the tiny points up from the inner curl. Plus I also think I see the tiny lump on lip and temple - but that could be from staring at it so long and drooling.

 

I agree 100% with that, and I think you hit the nail on the head. The coin's luster is apparent from across the room. You really can't say that with many BN large cents. It's really striking. If that coin doesn't have that rim disturbance, it has a claim to a 66BN (a very rare grade indeed for PCGS). Hopefully you'll get to see it one day and we can discuss it in-person.

 

I have got to get through the next couple months before I worry about that, but thanks for the invite. If I remember correctly, you are back East, so it will be a while.

 

Now that we've beaten the 1855 BN coin to death, let's spend a moment and discuss the 1855 RB.

The thing that immediately caught my eye on this coin was the large amount of red apparent on the coin. I'd say 85%+ of the coin is still mint red,and the obverse maybe even more than that. High end on the RB scale, if you will. I like coins like this.

But when I look at the coin, I see a 63 coin. It has a toning spot on the obverse near star #6, and a strike-through on the reverse. I don't subtract any points at this level for strike, because although some of the stars on the obverse are not struck up, this is the case for probably 90% of this issue. On a 67, maybe, on a 63, no way does a strike like this come into the equation for TPGs.

Well, this coin didn't get any breaks from PCGS. They not only gave it a 63, they gave it a 63 RB. Take a look at the 63RBs you see on the market, and I think it will stack up VERY well. Needless to say, I was happy to buy it at the severely discounted price (for instance, it was less than half the price of the BN coin), and am happy to have it in my collection.

Now the difficult question is -- which one do I keep?

All of the above IMO....Mike

 

I spite of the grade, I think I would go with the 63. It has more detail than the brown. The strikes are similar, but those rims. I know I am back onto the rims, but the 64 is missing or nearly so, a lot of denticles

 

You keep the brown coin. I like brown better than the RB on large cents. Of course that is just my opinion based off the colors I like - nothing to do with the grading on the coins.

 

OK, I'll guess MS64br on the first, MS63rb on the second.

 

It's a good thing that grading is subjective. Based on your photos, and I'm not saying they are bad I'm just saying they may not reveal the true nature of the whole coin, the coin I see in that first picture is no better than a 61 or 62 BN. Now it may be a 65 in hand , but just not here in this thread. The other coin does indeed look like a very nice 63 RB.