Methinks you're right about that strike. The detail on the shield looks to be all there, but there's a lot of detail missing from some of the other areas. I'll go with VF30, but it might go as high as XF.
There seems to be excessive hairlines on the obverse. I'd say VF-35 Cleaned. If you sent it to get graded, it would most likely come back as a "Details" or "Genuine" piece.
Thanks for the feedback. The wide range of responses confirms what I was thinking, that this coin is hard to grade. If you look at liberty's ear it looks VF30, if you look at the shield it looks nearly AU. So, if you consider wear only it's probably a higher grade, if you factor in the poor strike, which makes it look VF, then you'd go with a lower grade. I guess I'd pick a point between the two extremes and I doubt there are any hard fast rules to that. Does this pretty much summarize the situation? Thanks in advance.
This is, indeed, a difficult coin for most to grade for this basic reason: Most people have seen seated dimes and quarters and although the design is similar, there are slight differences in how the coins are graded. Luster was generally a problem with this coin with Mint State coins and also being a lighter coin than the half or quarter, the contact marks are fewer. Strike is also an issue in this series. The top of the left wing and the eagle's head are often weakly struck and can be mistaken for wear. Your coin appears to have AU details, but badly impaired luster. Given the dark state of the edges and the almost total lack of luster, I would imagine that this was a high-end AU coin that was toned almost black and was over-dipped in an attempt to make the coin appear more original. Hence where I got my XF-45 grade
So true. One major difference: on the 20c piece, the word LIBERTY is raised relief on the ribbon; on other Seated coinage it is in incuse. For that reason, LIBERTY wears away much faster on a 20c piece. Since the amount of detail in LIBERTY is a vital parameter in lower grades, some folks give a 20c piece lacking some LIBERTY a lower grade than perhaps it deserves. I also agree with Mike that the piece has dead luster and appears to be overly dipped or cleaned.
EF-45 maybe better.as for being cleaned or dipped in hand you could tell for sure. :kewlhoto tend to not show 100% of a coin luster due to to many reason to list
I revisited the posted specimen using a larger monitor. I revise my estimate to somewhere between VF-35 thru EF-40. LIBERTY is indeed sharper.
Add me to the XF 40 ish crowd. Looking at what tarnish I do see, it definately looks like an over enthusiastic dip, but still nice coin.
What a coincidence! This month's Coin World has a multipage, full color photo grading expose on the 1875-s twenty cent piece.
Still a coin J need for a type set , XF-40 because of the lack of any luster probably due to being overdipped . Rusty
I haven't seen it yet. But thanks, I'll check it out. Rusty... pursuant to LIBERTY I agree, but elsewhere I believe wear on the specimen doesn't quite justify it.
