I’m currently working on Roosevelt clad dimes. I noticed a prevalence of deterioration on even the best of them, none are uncirculated, all pocket change AU53-58+ over the last 60 years or so, having varying degrees of deterioration: 1. striations in the fields radiating toward the rims (not polish lines), both sides. 2. eroded letters and numbers, mostly adjacent to the rim, both sides. 3. An “orange peel” effect to surfaces, including the bust in some instances. My question is: Is there any degree of deterioration deemed acceptable? For an example, an AU58+ has very slight wear, good luster and well struck devices, both sides. BUT…it has eroded letters and date with striations at the bottom of the letters and a halo of striations inside and outside of the numbers of the date. Sometimes the obverse has less deterioration than the reverse, US of A seems especially susceptible. With a 12x loupe you almost can’t see the deterioration, but magnified with a scope it shows right up. What I have resorted to is culling out the worst of them. From 1965 through 1990 I have removed 38 dimes out of 84 (so far). I kept wear and weak strike separate from my observations as much as possible. I can supply pictures, but they are on my Lab computer, I’ll have to switch to post them.
Then there are coins like this 1985, even uncirculated, may not be worthy of a higher grade due to weak details.
Have you run across any of the 1985-D coins like that? I'm always interested to see those for the progression that led to the loss of detail. Here is another one I found.
Actually, I have found many of this type, including '85s', but I don't have them anymore. In my measured ignorance, I recycled all with this type wear or weakness about 2 years ago. Follows is pictures of the earlier discussion: Here is what my loupe sees... And here is what my scope sees... \ And ICA/AMERICA on the reverse... So, as you can see, a bunch of coins worse than this have already been sent back to the wild. If I find traces of this on others, I will just have to make a judgement call. The MS67 you posted really helped me get past my impasse. Thank you again, Spark
