Asked in another thread but not answered - Why does everyone go gaga over full steps on Jeffersons, but only the middle steps? There are steps on the right and left ends of Monticello that get ignored.
Why do people focus on FH with SLQs when a fully struck example, with full shield, well detailed head, and full escutcheon can be a much harder find? As with your question, I don't know the exact answer, or even if there is one beyond that designations can pay (although there is the obvious scarcity factor involved). That said, with your posted examples, one is of an older higher relief design and the other a modern low relief, which may have something to do with it.
To be honest, on newer issues I consider all steps to be a factor for this. I will not keep a otherwise full middle step coin as a full stepper. But that's just me.
Well it should be as it's a modern new dies where all the nickels are full steps.....unless hit in a bag by the rim of another nickel. Huge difference as the modern dies the steps are sharp ,and even lower then older nickels where the steps were a high point on the coin.
A quick perusal at CoinFacts indicates you have to be lucky to get both sets of side steps full even on a Proof.
If you count every line as a "step" then a full step nickel is 21 steps. I never saw one though a few are close. Of course more modern nickels can be found with this level of detail.
Most of the modern have strong FS because of the technology so to me there is a different in how hard to find FS for older coins.
The why is simple. When they were coming up with the special designations for coins, meaning not just Jeffs but all of them, they intentionally utilized an aspect that would actually work, could be found. In other words, what good would a special designation be if you could never find a coin that actually met the requirements ? The same reasoning is applied to why they switched the requirements to only having 5 steps required instead of 6, or only one set of bell lines on a Frankie instead of both, or only the center bands on a Merc instead of all 3. People "WANT" their coins to get the special designations. Sooooo - if not enough coins are getting the designation, there's an easy fix - just make the requirements less stringent and folks will be happy. And that reasoning is also partially responsible, but only partially, for the loosening of TPG grading standards over the years. Simply put if ya wanna stay in business you gotta give people what they want.
Ehhhh, no not really, but in a way yes. Market grading is one of those terms that morphed so far that it has completely lost its original meaning and definition. Most people don't know or understand what market grading really is, or I should say was. So the word, term, has kind of been adopted to express what has been happening.
There are older examples that have all steps present so I don't see that the designation was created just for the center steps. Maybe we need an AS designation for All Steps. This 1943 MS63 for example
That's not a FS nickel to begin with.....unless those marks are on the slab . There can't be any breaks in the steps.
But rather obviously it was because there is no mention of the side steps even mentioned in the criteria. And the side steps are obviously ignored in every case. Never gonna happen. And what good would that do ? I mean they changed the designation to only require 5 steps instead of 6 as it is. So they want less, not more. And besides that, even if all steps were required, the designation would still be basically meaningless because even with all steps the coin is still not fully struck. Not even close ! And while I readily acknowledge that not even one of the special designations for any coin is meant to represent a fully struck coin, they are specifically intended to represent a well struck coin. But sadly, not a one of them does even that much ! And it is that point that clearly indicates the intended desire for the designation to be able to be applied to as many coins as possible. Thus the required criteria are written so as to allow that to happen. All of that said, if your point is that there should be more stringent requirements for any special designation - you and I are in complete agreement on that. All of the special designations, as they are written, are essentially meaningless.
