I agree with that. I've got virtually thousands of Mercury Dimes and as noted the middle ones usually go first. Wonder if anyone knows why? So what is the date and mint mark? If not a valuable one, why spend the money on having it graded. However, contrary to my own statement, at coin shows I've seen coins worth $1 in a slab and for being sold for about $5. All makes no CENTS but people do it anyway.
Carl I believe that the center is the weak point (for strike) because it is the point where the obverse die is deepest, thereby putting the least pressure on the center point of the reverse die, so the metal flow is weakest, and won't fill as well.
Why was I thinking that PCGS only required the upper and lower bands? I must have read some incorrect information somewhere. As for the date, it's a MS '45 P, so you can understand my excitement when I thought it might be FB!
I believe, IMO, that PCGS will count the top and bottom lines while NGC counts the middle also. That would make NGC FB coins harder to come by and the PCGS one might not make the NGC FB grade. Bruce
It might, but it might not as well. To me the question is - is it worth trying ? To know that, we need to see the rest of the coin.
Jello, I think it definitely has full upper and lower bands, but definitely does not have full center bands. I'll post more pics later today. In the meantime maybe someone knows for sure whether or not PCGS does/does not factor in center bands. Maybe I'm confusing this with their policy on FBL'ing Franklins. I think in respect to that, that they only require full lower bell lines.
I was not aware of this difference between PCGS and NGC definitions of FB. Where could I find confirmation?
With Merc's it is the middle band that matters with all grading services. I do think you are mixing it up with Franklins as NGC uses both sets of lines while PCGS grades only the bottom set.
Seems I was wrong; they do require central FB. However, this article makes no mention of the upper and lower bands. Does that mean PCGS only requires the center band to be full? http://www.pcgs.com/articles/article_view.chtml?artid=5708