Recently I bought a 1864 F-12 2-cent piece for 18.00. Did I pay a good price, even though it has the highest mintage among 2-cent pieces?
You did ok, about broke even at retail price assuming that it is a large motto. It appears to be a large motto but Pictures are kind of fuzzy.
It's from my cell phone, I gotta invest in a good camera. And it is a large motto, got it at an antique mall close by. Yes, I checked and the grade is right.
I used the pcgs photograde then cross-referenced it with two other sources. Even with no "correct" grades, this comes pretty darn close to F-12.
While grading often involves subjectivity and standards which are not clearly defined, in the case of circulated coins, there often is a single "correct" grade. That aside, from the little bit that I can see of the coin in this thread, my suspicion is that is does not merit a Fine grade.
The coin does not appear to be cleaned, dipped, scratched or corroded. To me that is more important than worrying over VG or F for this common date. Not really that much difference between the grades. Two cent pieces are a fun series to collect. Lots of varieties with in the dates to spice things up.
