Colonial/pre Federal coins are tough to put a number on. Strike, planchet quality, die condition etc. are just all over the place. Worn dies, weak strike, thin planchets are all sometimes difficult to discern from wear on the coin. I will say you have a nice Massachusetts cent there though.
I would say VG details, environmental damage. But these are not my specialty. You'll need to wait for the colonial experts to get here.
F Details, ED. Although it might get net graded down to a straight grade. It has nice detail with no major planchet flaws. It might come down to whether the roughness is due to the planchet or came about later through corrosion.
Agreed, colonial coins are very tough to grade. In my opinion it’s very subjective. Even the surface is tough to determine if it has environmental damage. Once I have this graded, I will update everyone with the results. My guess is that it will be graded F15 with no environmental damage, but I think it could pass as a VF20. Thanks for your inputs!
I would say f details. I have some questions about this one too. I was fooled by an electrotype copy of a 1788 Massachusetts Cent years ago and ive seen a couple old copies since then that had a very similar look. I can’t with certainty call this one genuine and personally I’m skeptical
My biggest concern is the pits and bumps on the Indian side. I can’t tell from the pics if it’s planchet flaws and corrosion or pits and marks from being cast not struck
I can definitely see how that could be a concern. Some of the other photos I have seen professionally graded on eBay have some rough looking planchets too and aren’t even getting listed as Environmental Damage. Maybe they were just made with some rough planchets... hope mine is real though. See the attached example of one graded by PCGS. It was graded F15. Thanks!
I understand that. I just had some concerns as I’ve seen some really convincing old fakes and copies that would be very difficult to tell in a pic. As to the graded one I’d give that a details grade all the way
The difficulty in grading Colonials definitely extends to the grading services, they are very inconsistent with them. Most colonial collectors actually prefer their coins raw. I feel confident yours is genuine, but who knows what a grading service will say about it otherwise. I think this is a Ryder 6-N variety.
Coin update: I received this coin back from NGC. They graded it Fine details with environmental damage.
