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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Jaelus, post: 4209437, member: 46237&quot;]<b>No, no, no!</b> You&#039;re getting this dead wrong.</p><p><br /></p><p>There is an absolute <i>world</i> of difference between a coin where the details are missing because they were worn away, and a coin where the details were never there due to a weak strike.</p><p><br /></p><p>A weak strike tells us a lot about the state of the dies and the striking of the coin. This gives us insight into the minting process. It&#039;s quite a presumption to assert that the detail should have been there, when in many cases the coins are <i>intentionally</i> weakly struck to prolong the life of the dies. How can you possibly say the detail was supposed to be there, when it was struck without that detail intentionally?</p><p><br /></p><p>In other cases, a weak strike may be indicative of dies used past their prime, which also gives insights into the state of the mint and the economic, political, and/or logistic reasons why they might employ dies in such bad shape.</p><p><br /></p><p>Take for example the 1836 B-1 25C:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1079050[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1079049[/ATTACH] </p><p>The detail on the reverse on these coins was absent on a significant portion of the eagle, due to the shattered state of the obverse die. Detail is also lost on the brow on the obverse.</p><p><br /></p><p>These features are not missing due to wear on the coin, and other features and luster will be intact commensurate with the actual level of wear on the coin. Grading the coin based on the absent details on the reverse will only leave you unable to discern quality between the vast majority of surviving examples of the coin. What value is there in that? None!</p><p><br /></p><p>A coin with weakness is <i>as struck</i>. It is not, and should not be confused with a worn coin by any numismatist worth his salt. Being able to differentiate between the two and understand why it is so important to differentiate them is fundamental to coin grading.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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