Thanks, @CircCam! Mmm. Dark n' crusty in all the right ways, if you ask me. Common date, modest grade, but still... sweet. Guess the grade if you like. After you post your guess, you may peek at the cert page here for the answer.
Love the look of it. It's amusing you get one & I got one about the same time. My first new U.S. coin in over 10 years.
I really prefer to avoid the term "black beauty" because that's a marketing term that scammers have invented to convince people to buy their heavily corroded dark black ugly coins. Yours is not a "black beauty." Yours is a very attractive original CircCam. And I like it.
I’m at VF 30, but TPG grade guess VF 35. It seems my recent grades have been a tad low using PCGS Photograde as a reference. Nice coin worthy of TPG grading. Edit: Hit a home run on the TPG grade!
Granted, coins this dark are not for everyone. As long as the contrast is there, though, I'm all aboard. But without the contrast? Coal black or battleship gray? Mottled brown or anything mottled? Fuhgeddaboutit! I run away from those just as fast as anybody else, or grab my jar of dip. Thanks. Duly noted. "Graceful Grey"? Hmm. I'll have to work on it.
Quite a nice coin. The dark, clean fields just help the contrast with the devices and don't detract at all IMHO. I'd call it 40-45 depending on who's doing the grading.
You can get the contrast if the coin gets a little wear. As for dipping black silver coins, forget it. A little wear is better. You stand a strong chance of turing them into a real piece of junk.
True. They don't dip well at all once they develop a thick "skin". I learned that the hard way. I was speaking mostly metaphorically.
I do think is has pretensions at XF40, and is right on the cusp of that, at least. So you really weren't that far off.