What would you grade this 1909 Lincoln Cent?

65 Red. I am, assuming that there is an alloy mix problem as is common for that year.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

MS66 RD

 

66RB

 

66RB

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

 

Holy cow that's a lot of responses!! I'll have to shoot an animated gif of it and post it in here. But I won't be able to do that until tomorrow. In the mean time, thank you all for your opinions. I'm going to have to submit it to PCGS pretty soon, I just hope the turnaround times have improved significantly.

 

I really wish you had some angled photos of the coin... for me, there's too much "noise" on the coin based on the photos (particularly Lincoln's portrait and the right side field) for me to make a judgment on a number grade. Personally, I would call the coin RD, but I've seen coins redder than yours get the RB designation from PCGS.

 

I'd appreciate the .gif in this case. It's not so much the hue variances in your stills - you learn to factor that when you look at enough of them - as the speckling, especially on the reverse. If you've the equipment, try a set of stills with heavier diffusion. It'll reduce the apparent luster, but even out the hues.

I'm quite ready to believe it's Red.

 

XF some funny stuff going with it, I think.

 

65 RD.

 

Ok.. I think I am getting this thing down. The Obverse and Reverse only took me 1.5 hours to assemble this time. LOL

Even these just don't do this coin justice compared to in hand.


The Obverse

 

The Reverse

 

Not sure why the forum software is showing two different sizes when they are both 675x675 pixels.

 

Thanks for that... I can now definitely tell that there are lot of field scratches and marks on this coin... MS 63 RB

 

If this kind of image were available for every online sale, it would upend the marketplace. Every potential buyer could see the coin in-hand.

Sure, this coin may have some die scratches in front of the chin, and a bit of chatter above LIBERTY. But this would not bother me if I had the coin in hand, and it doesn't bother me here.

Your opinion may differ about how much you like it, but we can all base our opinions on the same clear representation of this coin.

Edit:
To support my premise, try comparing this 1909. @jtlee321 's images are so much better. I posted the grade as a thumbnail after these photos.

 

Wow, looks like a completely different coin in the slab! Coin photography can be a real challenge sometimes... Based off of the obv and rev pics I never would've guessed it would grade 66

 

I'm still at 66, it would be a minimum of 65 with any TPG IMO.

 

That is not the OP's coin shown above.

 

To be clear, the coin I posted is just for comparison and is not meant to supplant Justin's gorgeous, and ungraded, coin.

My point is how much a static photo can fail to represent a coin and how the in-hand impression can differ from even a pretty good photo. The animation takes this to a whole new level and should be required for online sales.

 

It's a different coin...

 

Amazing how the grading services always up the grading on toned coins... That's a very nice coin no doubt, but I think it got a 66 (instead of a 65) because of the toning.