I don't usually collect moderns but this one screamed for me to buy it. I will post the answer sometime tomorrow. Good luck.
Not quarter expert so I'll certainly concede to the experts but I would say MS66PL it's a real nice one.
Wild guess; MS-67 but no PL. Most of these have little scratches but this one seems to hae only the planchet marking. Many of them are very lustrous.
I'd call it 66PL. The marks on his bust are probably due to striking issues. There is some debate about how severely they discount the grade (or if they should at all). I consider them grade limiting at 66 (either they are marks, and shouldn't be on a 67, or they are due to an incomplete strike, which shouldn't be a 67). However, the TPGs (and other notable members here) sometimes disagree with me. So, all that being said, I wouldn't be surprised if its in a 67 slab - but I call it 66. As for the surfaces, your pics are strongly leading me to the PL designation. 98D is by far the most common Washington in PL, with 52 graded. Still cool, though, of course.
The planchet marks are due to a weak strike. The high points of a coin are the last to come in contact with the die (and if it is a really weak strike, they never do). Thus, the planchet marks we are referring to would be seen primarily on the cheek, jaw, and the bottom of the bust of Washington since they are the highest points of the coin (as seen on this coin). This is in contrast to the fine tickmarks that a coin would pick up through handling (such as the scattering of marks seen in Washington's hair on this coin).
I get that this is a possibility, but is there a way to tell the difference between a planchet mark and a post minting scratch/ding/gouge? I've seen this discussed several times and it always seems to be a way to explain away fairly obvious grade limiting marks on a clad coin. FYI I'm at 66, only because it's not really worth buying anything *less* than a straight graded 66 clad Washington. Being in a holder and the coin looking like it does in the pics, it's my guesstimate based on deductive reasoning. To be honest the OPs coin looks like 90% of the late 80s and 90s examples that I have still in mint cello. I don't want that to come across as putting the OP or his coin down in any way, obviously the coin spoke to them and that's what it's all about. I'm just trying to learn the attributes and nuances of the clad Washingtons.
This thread has been very informative. So I bought the coin for two reasons. One for the designation of PL. And two, because it looks like a piece of chrome in hand. I'm curious to see what others thought of the grade cause it would be interesting to see what pcgs would have graded this, not that I'm going to try to cross it cause that would be dumb lol. I'm going to the desert with no service so I shall post the answer now. Thanks for playing
Several comments: 1. 65 is a fair grade. I'm guessing there are a few more fine tickmarks that show in hand that didn't show up in your pictures. 2. DON'T CROSS THIS TO PCGS. They do not designate Prooflike on any coins except Morgans (with a couple of minor exceptions). NGC designates all deserving coins as PL - if you cross, you will loose the PL and be left with a generic 65. Besides, the value doesn't really justify the risk. 3. The reason it looks like a piece of chrome is because it is... sorta. Modern PL's (after the mid-1980's) are almost exclusively from brand new dies. In the late 1980's, the mint started treating their dies differently: brand new dies were chrome plated to prolong their life. Obviously, this chrome plating imparted a bright, shiny, PL finish to the coins as you see.
The planchet marks will usually appear as a patch of fine marks on the high points. Contact marks are usually singular and isolated.
There are a few ticks to it but they kinda blend in with the surface. And no I wouldn't think of crossing it. I don't want to lose the prooflike designation. But I was wondering if pcgs would keep it at 65 or bump it up to 66? If this coin was sent to pcgs rather than ngc what would pcgs have given it?
