I didn't think that they would either. It really didn't matter whether it was mine or not. The hit to the mouth does trouble me some because my eyes gravitate to it.
Yes, and that's exactly how one has to look at these. Eye movement is everything, and yet most collectors just don't get that. I'll even go as far as to say the way our eyes move around a coin is the major determinant in how we come away feeling about the coin. The engraver is consciously controlling our eye movement through the coin through his use of detail and other elements of art to give us the feeling we get when we look upon the coin, and when that eye movement is disrupted, we get a different feeling, and most of us aren't even conscious of why. That's why. It's all in the eye movement. I hope I'm not getting too profound or enigmatic, here, by taking advantage of your reply to point that out, but I rarely get the chance like this for it.
You, or anyone else for that matter, are more than welcome to post what they feel. I for one do see a great need on these threads for more reasoning of opinions even if it's objective. I can't help but to ask questions when it comes to, for lack of a better term, drivebys.
I guess everyone has a different point of view on most coins and whether they are cleaned or not, just my take on this.
I was going to say AU cleaned from the first images. They made it look as if all the luster was gone. These last images seem to show some luster. I think it would straight grade at AU something.
The first pictures show an AU details scratched (on the obverse). The second pictures show an AU details cleaned. Either way you slice it, the coin is an AU-ish coin with problems.
