Hi! I am collecting Walking Liberty Half's using a Dansco-album. All coins have been bought raw. I am making a spreadsheet to follow my progress and putting in roughly estimated grades including catalog values using Redbook 2021. Quite a few of them are Mint State, but I am trying to be a bit on the conservative side. Redbook uses only MS-60 and MS-63 and PF-65. I am having a hard time differentiating between 60 and 63 and have probably put most in 60 just in case. Can someone give me some advice how to be more precise? Here is a overall photo of some of them - I guess just looking at photos alone, even good ones, it can still be hard to differentiate between 60 and 63..? Thanks!
The Photograde app from PCGS is the best way to judge grade. They have samples of every grade. Many times the hardest part is telling if the coin was cleaned. An MS60 coin would have a lot of bag marks. Chances are you have MS62 and up if they show luster.
Redbook prices are closer to correct for slabbed examples. Raw coins should go less, at least that's how I buy.
From what I hear the redbook is only for insurance purposes. Realistically the majority of coins in the RB can be bought for a fraction of what is stated. As WLH22 mentioned, it would be a good idea to use PCGS photograde (https://www.pcgs.com/photograde#/Walker/Grades) for help.
The values in it self aren't that interesting to me, I was more after how would you differentiate more precisely between a MS60 and 63 - since those are the only value categories in RB. I have used U.S. Coin Digest before and also values from PCGS/NGC, but looking at the coins its hard as an amateur to pick the precise grade - but I would like to get some advice how to at least differentiate between 60 and 63. I also use PCGS photograde and the ANA Grading Guidelines, but a more verbal description could help. I think I have probably undergraded quite a few of my halfs not understanding how beaten up a 60 actually can be
Both MS60 and MS63 should have no circulation wear. The basic difference will be the 63 will have less nicks and marks on the surfaces of the coin. The grading guides are not the best for differentiating between MS grades like they are for G thru AU.
Thank you! I guess I am having a hard time figuring out how much of nicks and bagmarks you can allow on a 63. Compared to a 65 - a 63 could have quite a few. Looking at PCGS Photograde the 60 looks almost beaten up compared to the 63, but how much markings is it really on that 63. Hard to just look at the photo and not coin in hand from different light angles. I guess I just have to do the job - picking out all I have tagged 60 - going over in detail and finding the best ones and tag them 63. Problem using Redbook or any other catalog is that the price difference is quite high between these grades - and I don’t want to fool myself thinking I’m sitting on a gold mine.. I have some MS Morgan’s bought in slabs that I guess i could use as a reference too. I’ll keep you posted on the progress and will appreciate any guidance or comments!
Ok, so here is the update. I had 16 coins in the collection tagged as MS-60 with associated catalog values. Here they are: Next, I took a closer look at all of them and did comparisons, looking at wear, nicks and bag marks trying to be objective. Out of the 16 MS-60 tagged coins I relabeled 7 of them to MS-63 with updated catalog values. Those were: 36-d, 37, 38, 38-d, 39, 39-d and 46-s and here they are: I hope that gives a better overall grading of the coins, and hope I didn’t overgrade any. Especially the 38-d with a high value (RB21 with $475 and $600 in MS-60 and -63 respectively) making an upgrade significant. Anyways, if you have any comments of feedback I would love to hear it. Thanks!
I've found Photograde to be very useful. I have the book as well as the Android app. The app comes in handy when you need to do a quick comparison when out looking or when preparing and during an auction.
Nice set of coins! Seems to me the differences in grade 60 to 63 are best seen on the obverse in details on Liberty's dress and on the reverse the Eagles breast and wing feathers.
I’m not sure why you are choosing between MS60 and MS63. MS60 is an extremely rare grade. It indicates a coin that while shows no evidence of wear has had terrible preservation and has severe marks, muted luster, and/or a terrible strike. It’s hard to grade your coins from the photos but it looks like they will mostly grade AU55/58 or MS62-64. That said, if you want to learn how to grade, you should try to grade each coin individually rather than just calling them MS60 or MS63. Maybe try to take good individual photos of each coin so that we can get a good look at them.
That is a beautiful set you have they all look 63 or better in my opinion. Thank you for posting them.
I have a book, "The Official American Numismatic Association Granding Standards fo United States Coins" and it has good examples and descriptions for all the grades.
Another important thing you need to learn is the difference between AU58 and MS63. In the picture of the 16 coins, the 1935 and the leftmost 1939 (center coin, 2nd row) look like they might be AU. Stand one of these on edge on a white piece of paper and look down at the obverse. If you see a gray line from Liberty's head to toe while the rest of the coin reflects the paper as white, that's the luster break that will get the coin graded AU.
I also agree - its a great quick app for both the computer and on the phone when on the go I keep on learning so thanks for the advice!
I agree with you when it comes to MS60 - I am sure a lot of the 16 coins I originally picked out as "MS 60" would fall into the high AU or bit higher MS than 60. I am a bit more familiar with grading Morgans, and would much rather have a great looking high AU coin than a beaten up MS60. The reason I did it this way was just for simplicity without needing to pick an exact grade and then looking up values for that specific grade online. It was easier to just use the handbooks and they don't catalog all MS-grades - for this one just 60, 63 and PF65. So its bit of a dilemma when I am a bit unsure if its actually a high AU, or a lower MS - or even higher MS that could be 64. Thus 16 of these was labeled 60. But after the latest walkthrough 7 of these were now labeled 63. I will post some more photos of individual coins and also use the advice given here to do an even more thorough look. Thanks again for the feedback!
