Seems difficult to be able to tell the difference between remnant planchet roughness, and ordinary nicks and scratches. I've seen tons of MS coins without any remnant planchet roughness, so I am not completely sold. Even if it is already on the planchet, it's not attractive and doesn't deserve a super high grade for that reason.
There are very few MS Jeffersons that have "zero" planchet roughness, even the war nickels made from a silver alloy usually have some on the jawline. As for planchet roughness affecting the grade, there are many that agree with you, but not the TPGs. I think it should be relegated to strike. If the coin is well struck but still has some planchet roughness, it would seem punitive to cause it to prevent a top grade, IMO.
I grew up being told the tiny marks on the face are called chatter marks that the strike did not remove. Sounds like planchet roughness is the proper term.
For anyone who is not familiar with “planchet roughness”, here’s a planchet showing all the harsh treatment it receives during the manufacturing process. A good strike will wipe out most of these as the metal is forced up into the recesses of the die. But getting them all removed is a challenge. (I’m not hijacking the thread, honest!)
This is a really tough coin to grade. It is one of those Jefferson Nickels that is in between grades, and right on the edge of being full steps or not. Based on the current poll, full steps is dead even, 9 to 9. As for grade, 7 people think the coin is MS66 to 4 for MS65, but then there are another 6 that think it isn't even gem grade. So the low end of the range for this coin is MS65 and the high end is MS66 5FS. Personally, I would have graded the coin MS66 5FS, but it should be to nobody's surprise that NGC graded it MS65. At least I wasn't the submitter this time. Does anyone who had the coin graded below gem think the coin looks better based on off the slab photos?
Nope. No photo shoot for my nickels. No way. Only bought and won already graded, sorry. I always wondered why common dated nickels were graded by some people. Any idea?
Believe it or not, it is easier to find MS67 Jeffersons from the 30's & 40's than it is from the 70's & 80's. The 1978 is worth a boatload in MS67FS, over $2K.
That is why it is better to "make" them than to buy them. I have become addicted to "making" my registry coins through submissions. It also ensures that I get them cheap. People complain about the submission fees, but they are nothing compared to the price of a registry quality coin. And sometimes, persistence is the key to success. Those original grades were crap so I cracked them and resubmitted them. People (many on this forum) have told me that gradeflation is caused by the changing standards of the TPGs. In reality, it is caused mostly by the inherent subjectivity in grading and the persistence of people like me making resubmissions until the higher grade is achieved.