The lack of luster could be the pictures, also usually tpg's tend to be lenient on gold in my opinion, especially early gold.
I thought you did. There’s a show and sale about an hour from my house this weekend and I’ll be going. Rocks, fossils and minerals along with jewelry will be on display. It’s a fairly large show and it’s a lot of walking on my bad knee but I’ll get to every table once before I leave.
I would say 55 and based on the halos around the letters I would expect PCGS would call it cleaned if it was an 1897 eagle.
My thoughts exactly as well, the luster break in the right field tipped it for me and the minor touches of wear. I sure hope it is genuine cause it looks like a great coin to find raw.
Old gold always gets a free pass. It seems that when a new piece comes to market It always grades at least 10 points above what it should be.