Guys - somebody needs to explain to me how you can think this coin is worthy of a 66 with that large scrape mark on it just inside the rim - see below. Yeah, I know. You're supposed to be guessing what the TPG said. But it just boggles my mind !
I surprise myself and saw what you mentioned before I picked a grade. And Yes I picked 66 because this is not in a prime focal area and it was missed. At the same time I don't know what caused it or if it just might be the picture. With holders it makes seeing rims tough and sometimes I think tpg's let things slide around rims. I know on large cents you can sometimes see rim bumps. In all honesty - sometimes I am not sure what I would see on these coins with them in hand. The pictures make the hits look so bad on cents.
Come on Doug, you know the TPG's grade on luster and ignore hits like that at the gem levels. If the coin is blazing with cartwheel luster, they simply do not care if there's hits. There's no time to actually grade a coin at the TPG's, what is it, like 7 seconds each grader spends on each coin? They check the luster and assign a grade.
I am not sure just which mark you are calling "that large scrape". With my uncertified grading eye in hand without a loupe, I see absolutely nothing there - any light any angle. Not saying that my eyes are great, but my eye doctor tells me I can see better than he can. Using a loupe, on my drawing, #1 is from the die (crack or scratch), #2 I suspect is a planchet flaw, but could be a nick, and #3 is a planchet flaw I believe.
Here it is using your original picture, no enlarging. What I am talking about is in between the 2 red lines. Now I don't what else to call that but a scrape. edit - well that 1st attachment didn't work worth a hoot, try this one
A scrape to me means that something has rubbed / abraded the coin. Nothing has "scraped" the coin there - for sure positive. That did not happen post minting. My best guess is that was some grease remaining on the die.
Well the only thing I know of that makes bright copper out of toned copper is a scrape or post strike contact. You can even see the scratch lines between the letters and the rim and contact marks on the letters around that area. I don't know what you see but that's what I see.
That is just it - it is not brighter. That is just the angle the light is hitting and only that. The "the scratch lines" you are seeing are either metal flow lines or what the surface of the grease looked like. Usually, in our discussions like this, there are possibilities of this or that. In this case, I rate that as ZERO possibility of that being a scratch. Not even almost zero.
I suspect that's die crumbling. There's no way something got "lower" than the rim and scraped the fields (which are protected by the rims and lettering).
I'm not suggesting its a scratch Dick, it looks like a scrape to me, or as you called it, an abrasion. Like something with a rough surface rubbed that surface of the coin right there.
Never heard of counting machine damage, or rolling machine damage huh ? And I suppose that it is just pure coincidence that the contact marks on the O in ONE, those on the PLURI and B, as well as those in the field between the two sets of letters, just happen to be right in the same area ?? Gimme a break Mike. You're reaching again. You are making excuses for the TPG screwing up. Now they may well have made the excuses as you. But I believe both of you are wrong.