I saw this on ebay and had to have it because it is an oddity. It's a 1953 nickel with no mintmark that was graded an F12 by ICG. According to ICG's website, it's the only 1953 F12 nickel that they have ever graded. My question is why? As far as I know it is a common date Jefferson nickel. I just wonder what possessed somebody to send it in for grading. It's obvious by looking at the nickel that it is a lower grade. Maybe it was sentimental and they wanted to slab it, but why would they sell it on ebay with a buy it now price under $4? It's a mystery for sure.
I also have a 1924 wheat penny that was graded by ICG as a VG10. It's a fairly common date. I have no idea why this was graded either, but I'm glad they did because it's an oddball and I like weird things.
We had an 1942 P Mercury Dime that was in an NGC F12 slab a couple months ago. I can only assume someone thought it might be an overdate and it wasn't...or maybe someone just had lots of money to burn. Or was trying to put together a grading set of Mercury Dimes. How funny would it be if you were required to put down "This is why I am submitting each coin" ?
Maybe ICG was running a special where you needed to submit X number of coins to get the deal and they were running short..... maybe?
ICG may have just did a bunch of these to hand out at a show without calling them a sample on the slab.
