Bought this today at the coin show for $3. It was labeled as Fine, but it's obviously nicer than that. Is it unc? It has awesome luster, not visible in the scans, but does it have wear? I can't grade mercs to save my life so any help would be appreciated.
Mark, I was thinking that it could go either way XF or AU. Just a bit more on the AU side for me. Lou
Really the image is not something most could grade from. I would just guess AU-58 and would not be shocked if in a 63 holder. I'm saying that thinking the coin has luster not shown in the scan. Just a wild guess.
It is true the coin has a lot of mint luster. I myself see no wear, but again I am not any experienced grader of Mercury dimes. When I first saw it, I thought it was BU because of the almost full bands.
Just about all of it. I have circled areas where you can luster breaks and light wear. The lighter areas inside the circles still have luster, the darker areas do not.
You might be right, but my pictures are scans and the luster is not evident whatsoever. I would think it would be difficult to judge by luster, but the circled areas do look worn slightly.
Of course the luster is evident, as I said the light colored areas have luster and the darker colored areas do not. With scans this is even easier to see than with digital pics. It's only hard to see luster on a scanned coin when there are no luster breaks. When there are breaks in the luster, the color difference makes it easy.
Is anybody interested in seeing the grading scale in picture and print from Coin World? I can cut out a copy. Or maybe you can dial up Coin World on the internet and cross check with the magazine themselves. The article I'm referring to is in the November 2007 issue. There was also an interesting article identifying the wear points on the Merc dime but I lost track of that one. Hope this helps.
