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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Burton Strauss III, post: 2163079, member: 59677&quot;]There is a touch of what look like wear on the leading edge of a couple of the star points, most noticeably at 4 and 6 o&#039;clock. However, the wear doesn&#039;t extent into the shield which is the actual high point.</p><p><br /></p><p>On the reverse there is a little bit of wear on the diamond and the high point of the ribbon, which I&#039;d classify as cabinet friction.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ If you don&#039;t recognize the items in the C the center is the diamond (9 o&#039;clock), then the 3 orbs top and bottom and then finally the top and bottom bars) - these are very reliable indicators of wear on a DECENT strike (weak strikes, esp. the 51Os can have no orbs and no bars). It&#039;s harder to tell on a weak strike like this (missing orbs and just a hint of the bars) ]</p><p><br /></p><p>With that, it should grade AU55, but 3CS are not one of the strong suits of any TPG and I have no surprise at the MS60.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Now I&#039;m going to go out on a limb here - guesses, no way to prove this...</p><p><br /></p><p>Type 1 3CS are also known for horribly overused dies. The 18.66M 1852s were struck from only 109 obverse and 94 reverse dies. Almost 200K/die. In 1857 (Type 2) it was 1M from 18 reverse dies and in 1861 (Type 3) 497K from 16 dies (Flynn&amp;Zack give #s for years where known). So 30K-50K is more normal for later years.</p><p><br /></p><p>Weak strikes on 59s are NOT the norm. This was however the first year of production of the type 3s. Note that there is also a tiny bit of the sharp lines from the facets of the diamonds showing top to bottom and left to right. The sharp lines usually show up only in the early strikes from a reverse die. Usually only visible on really nice, high mint state 3CS (I&#039;ve see one set on an MS67 that you could shave with).</p><p><br /></p><p>It could be that what we are looking at is an early die state of the early part of the 1859 run.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>And now I&#039;ll step back and let people who really know what they are talking about correct me.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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