The thread in the "What's It Worth" forum had me looking into grading Walkers. I went to Heritage and looked at the slabbed coins and it confused me more than anything. The grades for Walkers seem to be all over the place. The only thing I could figure was that the grade is heavily carried by the condition of the reverse. Liberty's left hand seems to rarely ever be defined. I'n my observations, the gown lines on Liberty's left leg and the crease in the gown to the left of that seem to be the best indicators of wear. Once in a while I find wear on the head and Liberty's right arm, but only on coins below XF & below. I'm just trying to find the key indicators in the AU and MS ranges. I'm grading some coins for someone here that needs some and I do not want to misrepresent anything. A lot of these were given to me, so no dogging me for not knowing how to grade them properly before purchasing. Anyway, any Walker experts out there ? Thank you, in advance.
I agree with all of your observations. It is very hard to tell AU from MS on walkers sometimes, because many are weakly struck. I rarely see any with the left hand well defined. Look for wear on the head, breast, and right arm. And on the reverse, below the eagle's neck and on the left leg... That was straight out of the official ANA grading standards.
Yep, I was looking at my ANA book when trying to figure this all out. I have some low XF coins that do not appear to have ANY wear on Libertiy's right arm. I'm thinking that indicator is only something that can define categories below XF. The gown lines and breast/left leg on the rev are what I am finding to be the key spots on AU to MS. I just wish the ANA book went into a little more detail when describing AU and up.
I pay alot of attention to the gown lines too. However, I see ALOT of lower grade coins with well defined gown lines. Like clembo, walkers give me fits sometimes too. I'm collecting them at the moment though, lol. Recently I've been avoiding the xf and au coins. I've been going for 63+ on the most common dates, and VF or less on the tougher ones.
One of my favorite coins. One place nobody mentioned is the sandal. Look for detail in the sandal she is wearing. Also because it is a rather heavy and large coin pay attention to the rims. The rims can take some nasty hits that do detract from eye appeal.
on walkers biggest points to look at are gown lines amount of feathers on reverse eagle eagle's breast sandals any rim damage visible date if the eye is visible on eagle on reverse and a big one to watch for is if the right breast of liberty is detailed enough to be clear
If you are unsure of the grade then, send it to me and I will send you back one that will be easer to grade!
you really have to look at hundreds of these to start to get a good feel for this series - the odd years are weak strikes with some being very weak in some detail areas that can be mistaken for wear. going to a larger coin show and walking the floor for a few hours looking at slabbed coins will give you a good education on this series. Coin World has been discussing these recently in later years and what to look for... -Steve
