This is my oldest coin and I'm just starting out with grading, so I'm very interested in other opinions to see if I'm even close. To me this coin seems like a VF35 on the reverse but the obverse seems slightly better, like an XF40. If I'm right about that, the lower grade prevails?
Nice looking coin but you really need to get that green crud off of the coin before real and unreversable damage occurs.
I read on other threads that acetone isn't recommended for a circulated coin such as this. Would hot water without any scrubbing help?
I think you are pretty accurate with your grading assessment. Usually folks will overgrade at first. It’s normal to feel especially partial toward your coins. I like that the date is up into the ball of the shield. I have seen that before. It’s a cool anomaly. As far as the green scuz…. I too would be proactive with that. Toning is expected. Green tends to be bad. Usually left over residue from early flips and if left will do permanent damage to a nice coin. Acetone won’t hurt that coin a bit, but it may help get rid of that green residue.
Generally-speaking, the drier you can keep the surface, the less reactive will it be to contaminants. That's where I'd think acetone would figure in. Then just keep it dry as you can. That green is there to stay, though. Best you can do is choke it off from spreading. My opinion, anyway. These days, there might be gene therapy that will work, lol.
It has Ch VF to EF sharpness, but the surfaces are pitted with corrosion with some of the corrosion still on the reverse. The net grade would be somewhere in the low VF to Ch Fine range.
It's a crusty one, but there' a lot of die wear thrown in. I give it low to middle AU. The top-of-shield strike I believe is from the die, as well. At any rate, it's on some of these '68s. It's a bumpy surface, I agree. The striations, however, aren't corrosion, and there's quite a bit of those, all over. They're from a "past-it" die, in a manner of speaking. Again, I'd just take good care of it. Its biggest issues of course are on the reverse. Just think arresting the development of those. Kill off whatever is there with acetone and seal it in the best you can, is how I'd be approaching it.
