Last one for a few days, I swear! Sorry to bombard the board. I have been waiting a while for an opinion on these
This type of coin is one of those that is tough to grade. Takes a LOT of experience with incised coins to get them right. Hence, no opinion. P.S. I had to look up "incised" to make sure I spelled it right. The wife is a former English teacher so I have to pay attention to my spelling and grammar.
Love 'em ! Impossible to tell from this photo if that's a lustre break on the cheek, but I think it is. I would grade it AU58. Since there's decent detail on the eagle's shoulder, I think it would pull a TPG grade of MS61. These tend to bounce back and forth across the AU58 / MS61 divide. Not much difference in price or eye appeal. I don't think it should be better than MS61 with the ticks and taps (typical for these).
Looks low mint state to me 62 or 63. Could also be AU if the luster isn't as good as I think it is from the photos. These are really tough to grade, as you probably know.
AU55 details, light wear on both sides; but the scratches on the rev would keep it out of a regular slab IMO.
Thanks for the informative replies all! Where can I find the Numismatic Resources section? GDJMSP mentioned I could find lots of good educational materials there.
I agree with Doug on this one... The pic makes it hard to determine how much luster is there. For this particular design the luster is very important in grading because the area with luster was the highest point... so no luster usually = rub. You can have a coin with very little original mint luster and still have very nice details on the design... very tricky series to grade correctly.
If the coin were incised, there'd be post-mint carvings in it. The word you're looking for is incuse. I agree that these are tough to grade.
About half way down the Index page - what you would probably call the main page for Coin Talk. It says Numismatic Resources - just click on it.
Maybe the scratches should keep it out of a regular slab, but I think those are light enough that they wouldn't bodybag it IMPO. I've seen a lot of these slabbed with more funk than this one. Some folks feel the late dates (1925-D through 1929) are the best of the Indian $2.5s... better strike, better luster.
Hard to tell without seeing it in hand. I'd go either AU-58 or MS-62 depending on luster breaks and what that cheekbone really looks like.
