I picked up this 1938-S Washington a while back. I find Washington's really hard to grade and I'm trying to get better with them. I was curious what you guys thought the grade might be.
I don't see any wear. Technical MS64 out-of-hand. That means, technical grading in MS being contacts and luster, while I see the contacts out-of-hand, it's plausible the luster is better than I'm seeing in-hand. If that should make any sense...
I can agree with that. Nice MS coin with not especially appealing toning. I certainly don't love the toning, but I don't totally despise it, either. Nice coin with "meh" toning. The eye appeal is probably good in hand, with the luster flashing, but held back a little by the toning. Overall, the net eye appeal would be "neutral" in my book. Not bad, not great.
Looks good enough to make MS 65. As others have said the toning is neutral at best, but the luster has the potential to be nice.
Here are a few more photos to give you an idea of the surfaces and the toning. Sorry but the focal length of my lens is pretty short so it's a little fuzzy on the very edges. But, I think this gives you an idea of the luster and the surfaces.
This is a good example of how hard it is to grade a coin from pictures. In the last set it looks like I can see a scratch in the field near the chin and possibly more marks in the field behind the head. I definitely wouldn't go with a 65. I still lean towards a 63 but wouldn't argue with a 64.
Looks like a solid MS64. Even though the fields appear to be exceptionally clean the many contact marks on Washington would hold it back from a 65 imo.
If that is just a 63 than my set of Washingtons is full of true crap. No, I'm guessing more like 65, and 66 would not surprise me. Fantastic luster.
