It's Half Dollar Weekend! I'll be posting 4 different series of halves today, for your grading pleasure. Grades will be revealed Monday evening. How good is CoinTalk compared to the TPGs? Let's find out! Over the next several months, I'll be posting a continuous stream of Guess the Grade threads. I will be using photos from the Heritage auction archives (please do not cheat!). All you have to do is guess the grade! I will be attaching a poll to each thread. Please select the grade that you think best represents the coin (to avoid bias, please select your grade before viewing the rest of the thread). Also please post your opinions about the coin, and it would be most educational if you could explain why you chose the grade you did. Around Christmas, I will tally up the results and see how we did. This thread is an offshoot of a recent thread where I compared CT grading to the TPG, seen here: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/how-good-is-cointalk-at-grading.343417/ We're going to cover a wide range of material, and some of it may be out of your wheelhouse. However, if you are a confident grader, you should be able to accurately grade almost any coin.
Enough chatter on the obverse to keep it just shy of gem. Luster good reverse beautiful no major marks. 64 cac
Looks too dipped out for my taste. Luster on obverse reads sort of flat for me. Strike seems soft on the leaves and back of the cap. Few scuffs on the neck and eye brow. I think the obverse is 64 and the reverse is certainly 65 but didn’t move the grade up from 64 overall.
64. Booming luster, great strike, very attractive. The reverse is a 66, but the obverse has some light scuffs in the fields and behind the eye that are holding it back.
At first glance, my instinct was MS66, but the closeup of the obverse is too baggy for premium gem. I still think it is a solid gem.
64 ....when taking a closer look at the area around and above the eye (as well as the neck), there appears to be too much chatter to go with a Gem grade
With 30 guesses, the CoinTalk average was 64.6. This is against a PCGS CAC 64 - so we pretty much nailed it! As many of you mentioned, the reverse is stunning. A bold strike and nearly mark free surfaces make this a 65+ reverse. However, the grade is limited by the obverse on this coin. There are a number of marks, scattered throughout the fields and in prime focal areas. The luster on this coin appears to be strong, but it would characterized as "creamy" or "frosty." This type of appearance doesn't have the "flashy" quality that PCGS requires for a high grade. The luster is quite attractive, but this creamy look can sometimes give the impression of having been overdipped (I don't think that's the problem on this coin). The coin appears to be a solid 64, in my opinion.
