whats wrong here? is this just a weak stamp, or has this been cracked at some point? and do i need to crack it to see whats up with it getting kind of clouded?
I'm not sure what you are asking. What do you mean by "clouded" ? And no, you do not need, or want, to crack the slab open.
you can kind of make it out in the pictures, but at certain viewing angles the coin has cloudy, copperish veins running across the obverse and reverse. it does not look like natural toning. and the high points on the back seem to have wear. it just does not look good. the slab is intact and the index number checks out, but i just have some suspicions.
Awh man that sucks. That is some real ugly residue or w/e that is on your franky I can tell its quite a beauty under the gunk too.
To me it looks legit. Its just a BU coin that has a ton of ugly residue on it. Whether or not to crack it is something I will leave up to you.
Those cloudy copperish veins are nothing but toning. As for the coin possibly being over-graded - an AU coin in an MS slab - that is certainly a possibility.
I am not sure what you guys are looking at but that looks like typical 1954 mint set toning to me. Dark mottled charcoal grey toning is the hall mark of the 1954 mint set Franklin. I just plucked this one out of a mint set.
