This is my only really nice liberty head. It's not a bad coin when you find it in this condition!!! What grade would you experts put on this?
I'm no expert... Far from it, but I'll take a stab at it and see what the real experts think. IMHO, the obverse appears to be in better condition than the reverse. (my eye is drawn to the worn high points on the flowers and leaves on the right side). And, since I can't determine luster very well in this photo, I give it an AU 58/55. Very nice though. Thanks for the opportunity to practice. I wonder what the others will think.....
Well you know when you know the way I did it is, Well you know when you know the way I did it is, study, study, study, make mistakes, make mistakes, make mistakes, read, read, read, look at coins, look at coins, look at coins, and so on. For a quick tutorial try this. Swirl the coin under light at arms length look for cartwheel luster to appear as you turn it or an hourglass to show up. Examine the fields of the coin for hairline type marks, compare the coin with others to see if the color is similar, or if it looks "a little to good to be true" - if I were to tell you all I know about coins that are cleaned or not I would be typing for 2-weeks. Hope this helps,
It is a matter of experience, but first things first. Primary first is that you must know what a coin looks like when it comes from the mint - the cartwheel luster that has been mentioned. Problem is, many collectors don't even know how to recognize mint luster when they see it. Thus luster is easily, and often, confused with shine that comes from polishing & false luster that comes from whizzing. Then of course there is learning the distinction between full mint luster and partial mint luster. Make sure you learn this first, and then learning to recognize a harshly/improperly cleaned, re-colored, or altered coin is much easier.
I sure have a hard time telling any cleaning while the coin is in an album that I assume has a plastic slider on both sides. The plastic rub certainly confuses the surfaces and luster. You might find it will look better if photographed out of the album. The "sliders" on my similar albums are lightly "rubbed" from normal use. Jim
Thanks, and yes it helps. I'll look at this coin out of the album and see if I see some of that. I'll see if I can photograph it as well. This sight has been terrific in educating me on my new addiction, I mean, hobby. Thanks.
The apparent hairlines on the coin lead me to assign a "MS details, cleaned, net XF" grade to the coin.
