I see two small dings in the field under S of TRUST, a nick on the ear, two small ones at the temple, and if that's a scratch on the cheekbone? I think it might be just a stray hair on it, also assuming those are slab scratches (not on the coin) between T of CENT and S of STATES on the reverse. Overall blazing red, lustrous, and overall eye appeal lead me to believe it is a 65.
Now this coin has the booming luster and then some. A dead solid strike and one tiny nick. Yes, the nick is just visible in hand. Even MS68 coins may have "with only minuscule imperfections visible to the naked eye". Note that "imperfections" is plural. Guessing that whatever that is between the wheat stems kept it from a 68. NGC gave it a 67. This is a nice coin and easily deserving of a 67 or better.
Only jallengomez and BadThad flip flopped this week. Columns are rank, name, average, and number of guesses. 1. rzage 0.370 48 2. ldhair 0.385 41 3. jallengomez 0.393 29 4. BadThad 0.415 43 5. mark_h0.417 50 6. non_cents 0.463 43 7. petro89 0.571 44 8. bahabully 0.676 36 9. ReaperRuler 0.750 50 10. aubade21 0.783 24
I'd say 67+ easy. It's just those nicks in the right field that hold it back IMO. The fairly deep hit above the eye stands out but I think it was fields that killed it from 68. What do you see there in hand Dick? It looked like there was one minor field hit and the mark just above it was from the slab....at least that's what the pics told me.
Is that one yours? That's one of the finest red coins I've ever seen! It has the orange peel luster going on = blazing.
To tell you the truth, I did not even notice that one above the eye. Looking at it closely, it is not deep, but just barely there. It does not have the appearance of a nick, so I am going to guess it is a strike through.
