Several months back I began the Liberty nickel series, in raw form, targeting AU50 as a base line across the entirety. To assign a grade, I use the obverse star and hair detail. For the reverse it's the left corn ear and wheat end detail (both lower and upper locations). The image shown, lighting adjusted darker to show detail, I grade AU20. Looking at graded specimens by both NGC and PCGS, I find numerous mint states with stars lacking any detail and the corn ear showing no seperation. I've even seen some with soft hair line detail near the forehead and above the ear, likewise grading mint state. While I'm fully aware of the weak strike issues that often plague nickel, the shear numbers somehow don't reflect this. So the question is, am I being extremely conservative in my grading? Or is this considered mint state by their standards?
AU20 must be a typo. I am close to low AU (50). But depending on what they see and how they feel that day they could say XF 45 or AU 50. You never know. It's a great coin for the year and series either way.
Looks like an AU-50 and I’m sure that’s what you meant as no AU-20 grade exists. A 20 is a fine grade and this is well above that. Also, Liberty Nickels are full of die cracks and lamps errors and they have a week strike in many areas.
V Nickels with weak strikes are very common. The left corn ear and the stars are often lacking in detail. Grading companies do not have strike designations like FS, FBL, of FH for V Nickels. From what I've heard, fully struck V Nickels can bring significant premiums over their weakly struck counterparts. That being said, you may want to change your grading focal points. It would be like grading Jefferson Nickels by how much detail the steps have.
As for the TPG's grades and consideration of detail given a grade, be mindful luster and breaks therein will also play a role in their grade determination and not just detail alone, especially if the series is plagued with weak strikes.
You need to consider luster in addition to design details. As others have said, many Liberty Nickels lack details because of poor strikes. I would suggest that you buy one of books on the subject to learn about dates that often have strike issues. The piece you pictured, the 1883 No Cents Nickel, is very common in AU and even low end Mint State. The lack of the word “cents” was noted early, and many of them were saved. Ironically that high survival rate resulted in low prices despite the limited mintage of about 5 million, if memory serves.
So much to concider from the replies. Thank you. I hadn't thought much on the point, comparing the Liberty to the Jefferson step designation. Each of the stars are composed of six diamonds and I try finding the one's with complete detail, which as you could imagine is tough. Espescially the semi/key dates. What I do find appealing is as Collecting mentioned, the die cracks, which I have five of twelve thus far. Either way, this series has climbed rapidly on my list of favorite U.S. designs.
I disagree with the assigned grade for NGC Ancients, 90% percent of the time; they're usually a grade or two above what it really is. Ancients and U.S. are apples and oranges, however. While browsing Morgans, I saw a raw MS 63 or 64 that looked like it had been run over by a truck. I'm no expert, but looking horrific isn't 63/64.
Although you grade the coin AU20, if you want to part with the coin, I'll pay you AU/UNC money for it: https://www.ebay.com/itm/276662102443?_skw=1883+LIBERTY+nickel+au&itmmeta=01J8ZXJTPTJ5MCD3PB18490WF2&hash=item406a58a9ab:g:czUAAOSwNG9mLFvY&itmprp=enc:AQAJAAAA0HoV3kP08IDx+KZ9MfhVJKkEla5InFKyy/ZfNfvjXirfXdJKUeCUGIcnFRTmxeltMrzmt4iamYscAHZ8NaKiiWUVNTRTDan0KnDRwL1sBxSWOIHc6toSxtIv4Vq8k70dDMqoTsy/ht4dW0hdYr91HiF+Uh13hCgLyGfd+vVMO2iJn5Ds+Q8otUs4Fjn6WXhb7NiSsO7Bvi07dihLacK3ztnFV3bl92WezWMA5Gzu9Vphyt6vkMFYpiBFY22rmMqSuiJ3LiUtW/smYbsbMpwOxng=|tkp:Bk9SR8yry_3HZA I believe you should do a "Top Tier" TPG comparison before using your grading system! JMHO
