This is all about what you would grade the coin. I'll be posting 10 different Matte Proofs over the next week or two. They are all in early holders from the following services. NGC, PCGS, ANACS and PCI. I took these to the last Fun Show with two things in mind. I had Todd image them and was going to crack them all and hand them to PCGS for grading. After talking with a few friends at the show, I decided to wait on messing with a change in holder. Please let me know what you think about the image sizes. I had a hard time deciding what size was best for most. All opinions are welcome. Have fun.
The image size is excellent, showing all the detail without any need to enlarge it. As far as color I'm going with brown because that's what it looks like on my monitor as it appears to even for to be RB, although the luster on the obverse photo could be in part of red coloring. While it looks like there is a hit in front of the forehead and maybe a little rim chatter at 12 and possibly 3, along with two tiny black spots (probably not even visible without magnification) on the cheek and side burn, the reverse seems almost perfect. I would have no problem calling this PR66BN or even PR66RB if I could see it live. I figure if you were wanting to cross it over to PCGS it must be at 65. Really nice coin I love the color and look of this beauty.
The 1916 is my favorite, there was a nice one on GC last week. This looks cleaned to me, but they seem to turn a blind eye to that with MPL's. I'll say 64 RB.
65+ BN. 66 on a good day. The color seems like you've caught it in that "awkward phase," between RB and a nice, chocolate BN.
The old PCI slabs were not kind to copper. I have several that turned brown. This one gets cracked. A 65 grade is possible but I'll be happy at 64BN.
PCI was a different company with different owners back in those days. They were not all that bad and were really tough on some series. I have had great results cracking the early 10 digit slabs. They have a long history. The brand was killed in later years. You can't put 70 on everything and hold respect.