Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;SuperDave, post: 2506740, member: 1892&quot;]The beauty of accurate, high-res imagery - for those who have had experience of their own shooting that way - is the small hints which appear which enable the observer to be even less sure about a slider than others with less experience. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>On this coin, the relevant hints are as follows: Obverse - highest point of the diamonds, lowest diamond and the high point of the hair to its&#039; immediate right, brow right above the eye, hair right above the ear, LIBERTY letters. Reverse: Center wrap of the ribbon on the wreath at bottom center, top wreath leaves left and right.</p><p><br /></p><p>Those are all places where one would expect wear to manifest very early in the coin&#039;s circulating life, which however do not show the &quot;dulling&quot; we can easily see on the top feathers and shield that are clearly indicative of &quot;circulation wear.&quot; It&#039;s difficult for me to imagine enough circulation to show obvious wear in those latter two places, while the &quot;hint&quot; places show the same sorta-reflective response to the lighting as the areas which clearly aren&#039;t worn.</p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s enough evidence to offer me clear doubt that the coin has circulated, especially when two of the highest points of the design (according to Halperin&#039;s &quot;How to Grade US Coins&quot;) appear on the &quot;hint&quot; list - the hair above the ear and center wrap of the ribbon. Further, this is one of those issues where strike weakness does not manifest at the highest points of the design, and the two places on an IHC which show strike weakness first happen to be the same two places where we see &quot;wear&quot; on this coin - feather tips and shield. Conversely, one would intuitively expect wear to show very quickly on the coin&#039;s physically-highest spots.</p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s problematic to attempt a sure grade based on only a pair of images, but when the camera is in the hands of an expert it becomes a better bet. Me, I&#039;m seeing an MS63/64 IHC here, although if the TPG wimped out - or saw something I don&#039;t in these images, which is a clear possibility - it might say AU55 on the slab. I would be thinking MS money if I were choosing to bid on this coin, based on these images.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in