I picked this up about a month ago. At a good price I thought. What would you grade this example at? Thanks for looking. The die crack (rev) is what made me pull the trigger
You can see all the luster left on the coin clearly, at the edges and close to letters - it's circulated and the luster has been worn away. The wheat stalks are already wearing together. 1909 is the first year and using brand-new Master Dies; I don't expect any real strike weakness and it shows no worn-die artifacts. I have it at AU50-53BN.
I wouldn't doubt it has been touched bye a finger or two. Under magnification it dose have metal flow on the devises. although There is a few dust bunnies that have settled on the surfaces. Au wouldn't hurt my feelings.
It's conceivable, but I expect the very_first_coins produced of a brand-new design from fresh masters (the VDB's were the very first struck) to be pretty good strikes. It's tough to find a poorly-struck VDB. And Lincoln dies tend to show wear characteristically with rim sink before details are that worn. The small letters at the top of both obverse and reverse are sharp and straight, your images are very good and show luster in the last areas luster wears away from, and the most likely explanation - by a very wide margin over any of the others - is circulation wear.
Don't think so, but it definitely could be a pixelated photo and/or a slightly out of focus picture. I see no wear on that coin when I interpolate the picture.
Thanks for the responses everybody. When i was looking the coin over the W jumped out . The IGWT has some doubling. Thats the best my phone can do with a close up. mostly on ( god w)