Hard to tell from a static photo, but it looks like wear, not strike weakness, on the eagle wings and talons. I see halos around the obverse stars and reverse devices. That always makes me think "cleaned", but it looks like that's the way some of these actually wear. I was a bit worried about the denticles, especially on the right obverse and 1-2 o'clock on the reverse, but I see the same sort of effect in PCGS Photograde images, so I guess I need to adjust my mental filter.
It looks harshly cleaned. As for the grade, I’d say... AU details (cleaned)? I’m a novice when it comes to grading.
The color might make me lean towards lightly cleaned but could just be the lighting. I think it could come back XF45, maybe AU50 but I'm guessing 45
I say XF at best if it gets a straight grade. If I were to guess, I'd say details; improperly cleaned.
I agree with AU slider. There's a lot of chatter. Gold is expected to have some marks, but there is that gouge under her eye. I can't tell if this has been cleaned or not. I see the scratches but IDK if they are cleaning scratches. If the other posters believe it is cleaned it's AU-details. I don't see it as XF or MS. It's still a great coin. Ed Wood sends his regards from the beach at Turks and Caicos.
Cool! Does that mean we can expect him to weigh in with his authoritative opinion here? As soon as the OP posts the result from PCGS?
I don’t see obvious cleaning. It’s bsggy as can be though. I see a mid au grade because of that. 53-55. Not enough luster and to many marks plus high point rub keep it out of any ms grade. I had a $20 like this. No true wear but really baggy. Came in at 55
Isn’t the whole point of GTG threads to already have the coin TPG graded so that there’s a reveal and we all learn something from it???
At least one top tier service would grade your coin XF40 (maybe XF45). My first thought on the coin was low AU. But, after studying the entire coin (wear, eye appeal, luster, distracting marks, obverse vs. reverse, etc). I think the conspicuous obverse contact marks drop it into the XF category. I noticed the halos too. But, I do not see obvious "hairlines" or other definite evidence of cleaning. One service might call this one cleaned while another might not. But, I grade her XF40 straight grade - no details. And, I will wait patiently for the results. Thank you for sharing this beauty!
Also at XF 45, without seeing the coin in hand though it's tough to say whether it's been cleaned or not. Circulated gold can look absolutely horrible in photographs and appear cleaned when its just circulation wear.
I kinda like these ones (where the coin is being sent in, if it wasn't being sent in then it's a waste) because there's no bias involved. A lot of times no matter how hard you try you factor in things like "can't be 65 too big of a price jump" or "this person normally buys in the $150 range from past threads must be a 63" or "he is clearly disappointed with the grade must be a 62 even though it looks 63+" etc. etc. etc. Threads like this it's "here is the coin what should it get?". You just have the delayed gratification aspect is the tradeoff.
This. Gold is a different animal and photos horribly a lot of times. Maybe it was cleaned, but it's really hard to say with photos and people rush to judgement on gold