Grading help please; 1868 shield five cent

All opinions appreciated, thanks!

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

XF details, corroded and possibly cleaned, net F. Weakly struck, as is typical, on the outermost obverse leaves..Mike

 

Not quite XF,but close. B12

 

Not bad for a 138 year old nickel, and I'll bet it has been around the block a couple of times. Where do you suppose it has been?

 

Man, I'd say XF-45.

B

 

Looks EF with corrosion. Nice coin

 

How can you tell if there's corrosion?

 

You see how the surface of the coin has a "grainy" or "pitted" texture? This is corrosion.

Here's a XF shield nickel without corrosion:




See the difference?

 

Shield nickels, in my experience are frequently corroded. In fact, of the 20 or so I have laying around in a box, I would bet that if I looked at them all, they would all be corroded.

 

Thank you Leadfoot.