is it slabbed? if it is i would venture as far as to say id try to send it in under their gurantee. if its not slabbed id say it is not a pf-66 coin
Does ANYONE have info on the sheldon scale for proofs? Surely their has to be things that make a coin PF 68 and something that makes it a pf 67,66,65, etc.
Remembering that Proof is a method of manufacturing, not a grade, I would use the same ANA standards (wear, dings, etc.) as those used for Mint State coins. Obviously, you will need to take into account the fields (ideally mirror or matte). And obviously any imperfections in the fields will be far more noticeable. FYI, the 5th edition of the ANA grading standards do not address Proof grading as a separate item, they pretty much ignore the topic.
Since proof coins, back in the day, were issued either individually or, nowadays, in sets, TPGs don't take into account circulation wear being present unless the wear is extremely noticable. I suppose if a proof coin did make its way into circulation, and God knows they have, TPGs use the same grading standards they would for circulation strikes of the same series. And, say you have a unique pattern coin, the professional graders would used their acquired skills to examine the coin to see just how much wear the coin developed in circulation and what numerical grade would suit the coin best. -Brian
PR66 can have a few scattered hairlines or marks, no noticeable blemishes. What you have circled in the photos would fall under that description; however, it would be nice to see the entire coin to determine if they are distracting at all.
It's also important to remember that when grading any coin, too much magnification is usually a bad thing. Most large coins like halves and dollars are graded without using any magnification. When they use magnification, I think the standard is 5x. Like BUncirculated stated above. A picture of the whole obverse and reverse would be needed to see if the coin deserves the grade. From the size of the pics those look more like hairlines from a wipe or the coins moving around in the original packaging than a staple scratch.
And folks, Proofs are not graded the same way that business strikes are graded. Yes, you use the same criteria - quality of luster, quality of strike, contact marks, hairlines, eye appeal etc - to grade a Proof. But you do not use them in the same way as you do when grading a business strike. They are much more strict when it comes to Proofs. Example - say a business strike is graded MS66. Now if you had a Proof and it had the exact same marks in the same places, the same hairlines, the same everything, the Proof would not grade higher than 64. Each contact mark, each hairline, each everything has a much greater detrimental impact on the grade of a Proof than it does on a business strike.
Which is precisely why magnification of no higher than 5x should be used when grading. The pictures posted greatly exaggerate the flaws on the coin.
He basically said that the OP is over magnifying and any further magnification would show the molecular makeup of the coin