what would you grade my 1857 flying eagle?

i think it is anywhere between a 58 and 62. i recently moved to south carolina and the two dealers here dont ship out coins to get graded and dont feel like paying the hundred plus dollars to join pcgs or ngc. ive showed this coin to a few dealers and have always recieved a different response, so any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

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i know it has a weak tail strike, ive seen one graded 63 by pcgs that had almost no strike and was a slick

 

You won't like my grade, I think it's damaged. The rim damage below the left ribbon on the reverse.

 

ive never noticed that before im gonna take a better look

 

after looking at it it looks like it might have been out of the collar a little bit. if you look at the right of the ribbon you see the denticals arent on the edge of the coin and the lower you co the closer they get to the edge of the coin. could it be .0001 off center? looking at it it does look it is stamped a little low.

 

I grade it 61/2 , much better than the one I purchased which had a huge scratch on it, It was one of my first coin purchases and I thought I was getting a deal, an xf coin for g money, except for the scratch

 

MS-64 I don't know what you guys are seeing to keep the grade lower. There are very few light contact marks on either side. The weak strike is the only thing that I can see that stops the grade from being higher.

 

this is what i was talking about, everybody has different grades on it. i guess the next time i go home ill get it shipped out to ngc or pcgs. im really curious to it. i got it from a guy who had it for 30 plus years and he said he bought it as uncirculated, but grading has changed a lot since then

 

Grading is very subjective and even NGC and PCGS will differ if you send in the same coin in more than once. But coins are much easier to grade in hand and I think you would have a smaller range of grades given. It is nearly impossible to see the difference between wear and a weak strike from an image sometimes.

 

Luster on the coin will make the difference and in this case I like a low MS grade. Looks like a nice coin no matter what it comes out in the grading.

 

My rule of thumb on grading is "what would I pay for that coin?" I would pay MS62 money for that 1857 if I needed it for my collection. The weak strike (tail and right leaves on reverse) and the very slight rim defect would keep it out of the higher mint state grades IMO, but that is a lovely Flyer.

 

Besides what appears to be a damaged rim, I'd say it's MS quality too, but when a coin is damaged, it's damaged and ungradeable at that point in my opinion. Like I've said before, I'm hard on coins when it comes to grading.

 

ms62

 

I would guess 63.

 

is it considered damage when something happens to a coin when it is made? error? just a irregularity? after you first pointed it out. i thought it was damage as well, but it looks like the reverse was struck hair low which caused that mark. i am not disagreeing and appreciate being strict when it comes to grading, im just curious to if it is technically damage or just an ugly mark. i dont want to waste the money sending it in if it will come back with details on the slab

 

these are close ups of the rim

 

Details, Questionable color, altered surfaces. JMHO.

 

I was going to say AU58, possibly cleaned..

 

AU 55, cleaned, altered surface ( questionable color, although this is hard to judge, as different photos show different color, although I see too much pink in the reverse photo for normal, IMO.)

 

when in doubt--
it is an AU