Lol! I do not see any wear. I just see striking weakness. And I do not know if that is common on these or not, but it will always appear first on the high points, just like wear, except it will be uniformly distributed along those high points, because that is where the die lifted off before it could make the deeper impression. In contrast, wear will be haphazard and random on those high points.
WOW!!! That is either a mechanical error or I have no idea as to how that could have been graded that way. Of course I don't have it in hand, but WTH!! I'm thinking the data entry person accidentally typed 55 instead of 66 on the 10 key pad back in the day.
That was one of my thoughts as well where they accidentally put in 55 instead of 65. Well, I certainly did overpay for the coin based on the current grade.
You guys are getting out of hand. It's not a mechanical error. We are grading based off photos, and the coin does show some very small hairlines. That said, if the coin is AU, it has to be AU58.
In hand it truly looks like an UNC coin, and hairlines don't automatically make a coin go down to AU correct? Even by rattler standards, I would predict 9 out of 10 coins like this would go at least MS 63. Here is a coin that I found on ebay that looks like an AU 55:
I'm not debating that, what I'm saying is that the coin has hairlines, which is the reason I could not give it premium gem status.
I agree. There's something that is not showing in the photos or it would have been cracked out a long time ago.
I'm not so sure anyone would really have the incentive to crack it. I think it maxes out at MS 66. That grade goes for $20-$30. At MS 66 FSB, one might get $45-$60 and at MS 67 it might be $60-$80. Given that the grading cost would be around $20, there would really be no point in cracking unless it hit 67 FSB or 68.
People, including me, would keep it in an under graded older for the uniqueness (how many people have something that might be 10-11 points under graded?). Plus, like I mentioned earlier, it's financially not worth it to regrade. Why spend an additional $20-$25 on something only to at best break even on it? In fact, it is likely worth more in this holder than a modern MS 66.
Well it's worth $6 in the current holder and in a brand spanking new holder in MS66 it would be worth $60 so...........
The guide is quite a bit off. I can buy-it-now an MS 66 on ebay right now for $33 (and that wouldn't even be the cheapest that one went for in the last 3 months...one went for a little under $24). http://www.ebay.com/itm/1941-S-Merc...409059&hash=item58fb4f2f53:g:MHEAAOSwY4pZalLX I would say that the AU 55 could sell right now for the same amount as the above listing, if not more.
Get a gold bean on it. A gold bean on it and a rattler should command about the highest price ever paid for an AU-55.