Please guess the grade of the 1938-S Jefferson Nickel shown below by voting in the attached poll. I have added the option of choosing a "+ grade" at the end of the poll. If you think the coin deserves a +, choose both the numerical grade and the "+ grade" option. Please make your grade determination and cast your vote before scrolling down to read the responses to the thread. As always, comments welcome!
66+...this one is almost on par with the other untoned 1938 (although that one looked a tad cleaner and more lustrous to me, hence the 67 guess there)...here the plus is deserved as the surfaces appear to be above a typical 66
I went 66. Echoed what @ddddd said. I had the other 38 at 66+ and believe it is higher than this one.
I said 67, no +, for pretty much the same reasons as @ddddd. Unless you've gotta have FS, this coin would be a welcome addition to any collection, IMO.
Booming luster, very clean (when viewed on a phone). It is better than a 66. I guessed 67. 66+ would not surprise me
I was expecting at least MS66+ on this one. Disappointment was par for the course in my latest submission.
@Lehigh96 based on the results, would you say the grading standards for Nickels are just as consistent as you’ve mentioned in the past? Is this sub a one-off? What stood out most to me was that the AU 58 1938 and the MS 62 Buffalo seem unusually low. Meanwhile the conserved war nickel appears a point too high.
Nice to get one correct for a change. And I was only 1 point off the MS-62. (Which is a difficult grade.)
Based on this submission, I would say they were harsh in their grading. The problem is that I submitted less than 50 coins and that is nowhere near a big enough sample size to decide that they have either changed their standards or are making more mistakes. That said, many of the grades had me literally scratching my head. Notably, the 1930 Buffalo 5C MS62, both 1938 Jeffersons (AU58 & MS64), and the fact that not one single crossover coin upgraded and 3 of the 20 didn't cross. And we won't even discuss the application of the star designation. In fact, the only area where I did well was getting 5FS designations on Jeffersons in old fatty holders that I sent in for designation review. I had a 1943-S, 1945-D, and 1950-D all in MS67 holders come back in MS67 5FS. And I would have to agree, the only coin of the 47 where I thought the grade was high (or fortunate) was the conserved 1943-D NGC MS67 5FS. But the luster on that coin is tremendous and I can understand why they graded it the way they did.
I had it at 66 + looks like it had small shimmer almost like a 67 but just not enough.very nice coin would still love
At least this one isn't as bad as the MS-62 you posted. I probably would have been happy with a 66 grade here. I only see a few tiny tick marks, and very little of the planchet roughness you see on the jaw a lot of the time. Other than that, I see one small, slightly dark spot. I'm betting they thought the luster wasn't good enough for 67, because the surface quality and strike are there.