Attached below is another new purchase from FUN. Again, this coin is raw, so I only post it in hopes of fostering discussion on the grading of the series. Please guess the grade and, as you see fit, provide your rationale for the grade you assigned. As usual, your comments on the coin are always welcomed. Have fun...Mike p.s. bonus points to anybody that can identify the variety!!!
xf-40. Most of the stars are very worn but starting with the seventh star (counting from left to right) they start to contain more and more detail, plus the first star still has some detail left in it. The curls are flat but retain some detail and there is modest wear on the nose and ear. Denticles mostly sharp but worn on the 12 o'clock to 2:30 postion. Great doubling on the LIBERTY though. On the reverse, the leaves maintain great detail as well as the folds of the ribbon at the bottom. Rim denticles are sharp except for the area of weak? strike at the 11 o'clock position. Again apparent doubling on ONE CENT, particularly the N in ONE. A beautiful coin with nice even choclate fields, I can only suppose you got a great buy.
I'm going to call it an au-53. It could be a little bit higher, or a little bit lower. The coin has well formed details, nice even wear. The hair is blending in such a way thought that I feel the coin is around a 53, but it's hard to pinpoint the exact amount of wear from the picture, so it may be slightly higher or lower. The coin has some neat doubling all over. I feel the coin may have been lightly cleaned, and retoned over time, but without seeing it in hand, it's hard to tell. I think I can see faint hairlines in front of and running through the neck, as well as above one on the reverse. If it has been cleaned, I don't feel that it would affect the grade. Overall, I think it is a wonderful coin. I love the brown color.
AU53---I think the stars were weak when they were struck so that is why they don't have the detail. Speedy
Mike, Another great looking coin and a great picture love what you do with a camera very nice doubling on liberty I give it a grade of AU-55.
It is actually repunching, not doubling per-se. Remember, the lettering in Liberty's coronet (LIBERTY) was punched by hand using separate letter punches. What happened is this lettering got weak over time, and was repunched by hand into the die slightly out of line causing the doubling you see. Yes, it is quite common on Matron Head large cents, and this repunching is a diagnostic of the variety, in this case Newcomb-3. If you'd like to see a ridiculously large shot clearly showing this feature, take a look here: http://www.pbase.com/miker/image/72882602 Have fun & keep the grades & comments coming!!!...Mike
AU-50 - A bit of wear and a few tiny nicks are present, all-in-all another great coin and great photos :thumb:
Mike, I forgot to ask, you always use a black backround on your coin shots for copper and silver would black also be best for gold shots ? And maybe sometime could you show us a picture of your set up with lighting and where you take your pictures you and Drusus just do great photography of coins I am so jealous of you both.:thumb:
Thanks for the kind words... Not to go too far off on a tangent, I like black background for all my photos -- just personal perference: My setup consists of a fairly expensive tripod and cheap clip-on lights w/Reveal bulbs I got at Home Depot. I use a Nikon D100 and a Nikon 200mm macro lens. Please keep the comments & grade guesses coming...Mike
