The number of hits on the coin make me also doubt it's chance at MS. Since I can't view the luster in hand to look for slight rub, I am assuming based on the number of hits that the coin is AU and by the number of hits I arrive at AU-53. If I could see a lot of wear, I would have graded the coin as XF, and if I could view it in hand and NOT see ANY wear, I would say MS-60 due to an extreme number of hits.
Hits on Ikes are common. The later dates are a better quality overall and in general the Ds are better than the Ps but also remember that close up of the coin is the size of a soup bowl on the monitor. A lot of those hits like a good amount of the neck and jaw chatter will be tiny specs in hand. They are a big coin though that can and did mark each other up without having to have had to spend time in circulation.
If I wait until I get home, I will show you the hits I am looking at. They are not tiny and they are quite numerous. I can count at least 9 (large) hits on Ike's head alone.
I'm seeing 3 small rim dings between 11:30 and 2 and a lot of chatter on the obv rim. Also, a mark on the tail feathers and dark shadows under the left wing...sorry, I don't see the eye appeal that others are seeing. AU-58
FWIW, I think most of those "hits" are not from coins, but rather planchet marks not cleared by a weak strike. That does not eliminate their affects, but it does lessen them.
Well since my photography is sub-par here is the seller's pic of the obverse. Not much better than mine but maybe a different perspective. The seller's reverse pic isnt very good. I will post the answer later today. And someone has already guessed correctly. But let's have everyone stew a little longer
I know. They gave it a market grade, though, and getting inside their heads, so to speak, they're probably allowing a lot for the soft strike. That's why I'm figuring them for a market grade in MS, too. Then they have the color tugging at the market grade. This could be anything, really.
actually, as it was described as a super weak strike, maybe a adjustment strike or something where the planchet imperfections survived striking... I could see it getting MS
Maybe I'm wrong - as I mentioned, Ikes are out of my competence - but I'm seeing a bunch of evidence of a very old die in these images. Old enough to limit the ultimate quality of the strike on its' own.
I see what looks like die fatigue as well, but if the strike didn't eliminate planchet flaws, well, since one comes at the set-up of the dies, and the other comes at the end of die life... both can't be there, can they?
I don't see them as mutually incompatible. Extreme die wear manifests itself sometimes as visible artifacting on the die which is then struck onto the coin, exemplified (I believe) on this occasion by the weakness and striations around the globe and elsewhere on the reverse. Another thing I'm seeing in some areas is "filleting" at the edges of letters, where the transition between field and letter simply isn't as abrupt as it used to be due to wear. In either case, characterized by artifacts showing up at field level. A poor strike will most likely present at the "higher" parts of the coin ("deeper" on the die), and I see no reason why they can't both exist together. In fact, the former is a pretty good reason to deliberately engage in the latter.
To put their overall quality in perspective a little bit, PCGS population reports show 0 yes 0 MS 68s for the business strikes in the entire series and only 170 67s with 4 67+ out of 60k plus graded. Several don't even have a single 67
I said 64 earlier, but this one will make a 65 or btr. The toning is a big boost, and they mostly have chatter and a few hits anyway for this date. Most aren,t graded if below 65.
Alright let's do this. This picture is a bad lighting job and poorly represents this coin. I was messing around with lighting trying to get different results. The seller picture I posted does a much better job showing what the coin actually looks like. This coin is a late die strike, weakly struck and shows areas where the die surfaces were just deteriorating away. My pics did a poor job showing that.
Wow. Uh, what's going on with the tail feather? Do they use a special room with bad lighting to grade Ikes? And I thought they were generous with Morgan dollar grading, but, this takes the proverbial cake with the good icing. How cheap are those '70s mint sets? Did I say wow already?
