Please vote in the attached poll for your opinion of the grade of this nickel. As always, comments welcome!
Ok. That piece is extremely overgraded. There is absolutely no way that many major marks should be a 66. I'd grade that piece as 64. At the most. There are numerous tickmarks in the fields, and the number of large, distracting, ugly, and prominent contact marks is absolutely horrifying. This piece is so overgraded that it makes me question their very reason for existence. My grade of 65 stands for your piece.
What my take is...just like 80 S Morgans being graded on a curve due to the superior strikes for the most part . I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest the same applies to your comparisn coin and your specimen. I'm not knocking your coin at all but will also stand at 65 . And will add that's again on a curve in my mind understanding the 68 strike . Having lived and also collected durring this time peroid, one must remember that the US mint / goverment durring 65-67 really sort of frowned on collecting. Minting coins was for commerce more so then anything else....so a press operator or the mint had no more pride in striking coin as a person running a press pumping out washers. Yes a nice 68 s and probably higher than average for the most part.
For whatever reason, both PCGS & NGC are more lenient with respect to surface marks on later date Jefferson Nickels than they are on coins from the 30's & 40's. I don't know why, only that they are. It is fine to say that the coin I referenced is overgraded, but if you look at more examples of the 68-S you will find that it doesn't look out of place in an MS66 holder. I would be very surprised if my coin comes back an MS65 given the exceptional strike, luster, and eye appeal. I think your point might give us insight as to why the TPGs seem to vary their standards year by year within a given series. This is exactly where I am at with respect to grade on this coin. That said, I think I'm going to submit it anyway and hope for an MS67 and keep it for my registry collection.
I see enough marks I’ll go with the 65 grade too. Though I’m not at all familiar with grading Jefferson nickels
Well Paul we know that the 68 s is a tough year on FS steps to begin with . I would venture to say a FS coin in any grade from MS-64 ,and up would be priced considablely. Like the 54 S show me a decent strike......they are few and far between.
If you're submitting to PCGS don't hold your breath. PCGS has been brutal lately. NGC has also tightened a bit.
