If you were to crack this or send to re-holder, under current grading I will bet you dollars to donuts that it would NOT qualify FB from either NGC or PCGS. Still a nice coin. Stay safe
4X in 2 hours and 20 minutes, doesn't come close to be annoying. My wife asks 7 times in 45 minutes what I am doing. That is annoying. Not everything we want answered by somebody gets answered. Life.
When I research a question asked by someone and spend considerable time gathering data, I expect them to be monitoring the thread and answer questions we may have. Is that too much to ask?
Apparently. It is the internet. It is not a thesis for Grad School due at the end of the hour. I expect stuff all the time. Never happens. When it gets to the point it is a blood pressure issue, it is time to forgedaboudit.
Give it some time. Others might want to play. Aside from that, there is no absolute answer. It is subjective. But I will give you the TPG grade.
I don't own the coin, so we are stuck with these images. These images are better than normal for internet purchased.
That is one of the reasons to really understand how collectors feel about this kind of common situation. The FB is a decent market bump, and to complicate things further, I am not entire convinces that full bands are even the best way to judge a good Merc Strike or issue of wear.
Here's my gripe. You should have stated it was not your coin, and it was one of the stolen coins, in the thread opening. Would I have gone to the lengths I did to evaluate and document Full Lines? The answer is yes. Unless the answer is straight forward, I like to research my coin opinions. I just feel like I was deceived.
There is no gripe. And those are two different coins. The first is a coin currently on sale which I was evaluating. The third coin was a coin that was stolen. It is an internet forum. What possible gripe could one have if you learn something and partake knowledge?
My story... I was born in 1945, so I have spent considerable time looking for good coins for a birth year cent. This is when I became aware of the 1945 P conditional mercury dime "rarity". I spent considerable time on e-bay scanning 1945 P dimes, so, when I saw one that looked like FSB, I jumped on it. It was a PCGS MS65 and a reeeeeeeeeeeeealy nice coin. I took it to the Long Beach show and had the guys at the NGC booth to take a look at it. Three of them looked at it and then conferred before one of them told me it had a 50% chance of making FSB. I thought it might be worth a shot. To submit to PCGS, I had to become a member, so I did and submitted it. Final verdict MS66 but no FSB...ah well. No photos, cause I ain't that good. Posted some a couple of years ago and no one here thought it was FSB.
Let's understand one thing. FB is what the TPGs say it is for their money in their price guides. It's nothing more or less than that. The definitions have nothing to do with it. The definitions have to do with us, not with them, in that they describe to us what FB looks like so we can know it when we see it. What's the big deal about it? Let's get to that. It's FB is a part of the engraving. It's a part of the design. Do we want to see the coin, as intended? Then we want it FB. To this coin. Do we see the bands? Then it's as engraved, as designed, as intended. I don't care what the TPGs say. Take your eyes off their labels and get them back on the coin. Let them decide what gets their business, their way. Don't blow another minute trying to second-guess them on that, as that's meaningless.
My issue was/is the inability to get an enlarged clear photo of the bands so a proper determination can be made whether they are full or not. Since this is not possible because the coin photo is from an online source, any attempt to confirm or deny the full band question is moot.
https://www.davidkahnrarecoins.com/1929-mercury-dime-10c-ngc-ms66fb-cac-75273096.html It is graded as an MS66 FB (NGC and CAC green)