hone your grading skills -- shield nickel

OK, you know the drill:





Please guess the grade NGC assigned to the coin (add your own grade if it differs), and append any comments on the coin you may have (both good and bad).

Have fun...Mike

 

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Nice coin!

Not my normal series, but I'm thinking AU-58. It is quite possible this goes higher, but I think I see just a hint of wear in some of the leaves and the vertical shield lines.

Also, this is some kind of DDO, right?

 

I LOVE this coin. I like Shield Nickels and this is a great looking example.

I think what sf is seeing is weakness of strike instead of wear. I could be wrong. So I am Mint State on this one.

This is an extremely good looking Shield Nickel. I'm gonna go MS-64. The strike on the leaf to the left of the shield will certainly keep it from a 65 (and may also limit it to a 63).

This coin has great luster. I really like the die polish - especially that visible between the vertical bars in the shield.

It is also somewhat of an oddity for a Shield Nickel - it does not have any die cracks nor does it have any broken letters. Weird.

 

i am going au 58

 

I'm going to stick with my first instinct and say it was struck weakly in some areas, not a bit stretch for that particular series, and with that assign it a fabulous MS-63. It is truly a very fine specimen

 

Like Hobo.....I LOVE this coin! The color is GREAT!!

My gut says MS63 but I have a feeling that it might be an 64.
The REV strike is great but something about the strike on the Ovb just turns me off.
I think it is the words IN GOD WE TRUST, and the leaves. They just look kindof odd, and weak.

Speedy

 

I have very little experience grading these, but I will say that NGC gave it an MS64 and I give it an MS65. I love it. The details are slightly mushy on the obverse, but the toning is absolutely perfect!

 

On this coin I will agree with the others - when I first looked at the coin I thought 64 because of the weak strike some of these coins it has. I would personally say it is a 63 based off the pictures. That reverse is sweet.

 

I'm thinking a bit of weakness in the strike, not wear.
(I'm using my MS-62 to do a comparison.)
Slight softness on the horizontal shield lines at the right.
Slight softness on the leaf tips.
Very slight softness on the stars, particularly the one at 2 o'clock.
But no dents or dings obvious.
I'm going to say at least a MS-63, and a -64 would be reasonable.

I am curious about what's going on with the letters in "IN GOD WE TRUST".
Slight die fill? Die bounce?
Need someone better than I to diagnose what's happening there.

 

At first look I would guess MS-63, maybe 64 but I don't think so. I was also curious about the motto. My first thought was filled die, but could be DD.

 

When I first posted this thread, I thought you might be fooled by this one. Here are a few tidbits that I could/should have included, but didn't want to sway you:

1) The coin is fully prooflike and die polish lines are visible on both sides.
2) There is no wear whatsoever (what you may be interpreting on the reverse as wear is toning).
3) The obverse suffers from a weak strike from a worn and heavily polished die.

Now that a few of you have guessed, and my ego/coin is at risk, I couldn't keep my mouth shut any longer.

If you would like to study the surfaces in more detail, you can find ridiculously large photos of both sides here:

http://www.pbase.com/miker/image/100078290/original.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/miker/image/100078293/original.jpg

Here's another shot (kind of) showing the mirrors:

 

Where's Scrooge? He should have already anointed it VF 20 by now.

 

great looking nickel! no idea how to grade it.

btw... do you have a larger picture of the one in your avatar?

 

Beautiful coin , excellent color , MS-63:smile:hatch::hammer: A coin I would love in my type set .:mouth::whistle:
rzage

 

66 Imo.

 

After looking at 2nd set of prints I'll raise it 1 pt. to MS-64 .
rzage

 

Okay - now with the really big pictures I can see what I thought was toning is the die polish lines. I have seen several (not a lot maybe 3 or 4) with the same type toning I saw in the original pictures as MS64. Now with the new pictures I will say PR64. The funny thing is on my fathers new proof sets from the 50's in a couple of cases you can see the die polish lines like this - it made sure to point that out to me this past saturday.

 

Not that I have a clue what I am doing on these, but I am going to say 65*.