I have been sticking these coins back for years, and the other day I read about the wide rim variety. I looked through my stash and found this wide rim 1979-P. The 2014 red book says $60 in MS63 condition. Mine is obviously not that nice, but what condition would you say it is in? How much is it worth? Sorry for the blurry photos.
i had 6 in similar condition from roll searching. kept one for myself, sold a lot of 3 to a friend for $100, took the other 2 to a coin store and got $20 each. i'm horrible about grading clad so i'm not sure, but i'd say it's AU58 or MS60
It's very difficult to grade with these photos because they are pretty blurry. That said, the visual difference between an AU58 and MS60 is quite extreme. An AU58 should have very clean fields, no bag marks or dings and just a hint of wear while an MS60 should have lots of dings and bag marks with no wear. I'd be very hard to say a coin could be "either AU58 or MS60" because of this. Typically...a coin could be either AU58 or MS65+ because of this.
In some ways yes...but that's the case on all coins, not just clad. Look at these 2 Morgans, both are graded by PCGS. One is AU58 and the other is MS60: The first coin is graded AU58 while the second is graded MS60. Look at all the bag marks and dings on the MS60 coin. While this coin has no wear...it does have a lot of bag marks. The AU58 is a much cleaner looking coin but does have just a hint of wear on the highest points. When coins are graded...the difference between AU and MS is wear alone. If a coin has no wear, the lowest it can grade is MS60. This is why MS60 coins are usually ugly. If a coin has wear, the highest it can grade is AU58 (well, technically AU59 but nobody uses that grade). Therefore, often an AU58 coin is mistaken for an MS65 by someone not supremely familiar with the design. This is also why AU58 coins are a great bang for the buck when it comes to eye appeal.
