I'm getting ready to list a 1909 VDB Lincoln on eBay. I didn't care for my original images so I'm redoing them with a better camera. Here's a raw, unedited of the obverse (it's LARGE so that you can see what I'm concerned about): Obvious hairlines across the coin in the 2-8 direction. And the lines go right across the devices. Here's my problem. My records indicate that the coin was cracked out of an NGC MS-65 slab!!! The confusion is that the lines in the fields go right up to the devices. General rule-of-thumb is that when the lines are like that the cause was die filing/wiping at the Mint. Cleaning by a collector generally leaves a gap in the lines between the fields and the devices (sort of a halo around the devices). BUT More confusion is caused by the lines going right across the devices. That generally indicates cleaning by a collector. So was this most likely done outside the Mint and NGC botched the grading? OR Did this happen at the Mint? Support for this happening at the Mint: the lines in the fields go right up to the devices. Support for this happening outside the Mint and NGC botched the grading: I cannot see the lines with the naked eye nor at 3x; only at 6x IF you are really looking for them. I had to go to 9x to really see them.
die abrasion lines and scratches on the die will be raised on the coin, coin cleaning scratches and hairlines will not be raised..
True. Great diagnostic. Now I have to go back to the coin and see IF I can tell the difference. I've got a 10x loupe that I hope will be enough. If not I've got a smallish (30x?) hand microscope that I'll have to dig out and see if I can get a good look with it.
I have a 09 vdb with similar surfaces. The coin has unnatural bright gold toning around the date and devices, and the rest of the surfaces have the same toning as yours. Im guessing a dip and heat toned.
That is the explanation commonly given. Unfortunately, it is only partially true. Any scratch, regardless of cause, on a die or a coin, will result in a both a raised line and an incuse line. This is simple physics, not an opinion. The metal that is displaced by the scratch has to go someplace, it doesn't just disappear. And the place that it goes is a raised line right along side of the incuse line, and sometimes even 2 raised lines are formed on either side of the incuse line. That said, die scratches and coin scratches can be distinguished from one another but it requires a certain knowledge and experience level to do so. However, it is common practice for the TPGs and many collectors to consider any coin that has any raised lines at all, as being a gradeable coin. And to thus classify all of the lines on the coin as being raised, and from a single source/cause, even when they are not.
