Hi! I recently bought a beautiful Seated Liberty half dollar. I know a bit about general grading (I can tell the difference between "fine" and "uncirculated" ) I'm trying to learn a bit more about he fine points of grading and the distinctions on coins that could float in either direction. The seller listed a grade but I'm not going to post it here so as not to influence your opinions. This is the half I bought: So I'm tossed between EF/XF and AU on this one. I'm leaning towards AU, but there's some wear on the top of Liberty's head that gets me - it's not very pronounced but it's definitely there. There's also some wear on the reverse (on the tops of the eagle's wings and on its head), but it's less noticeable than the wear on Liberty's head. There are some minute dings on Liberty's right arm and there's a small scratch on the reverse slightly below 3 o' clock. These are the only spots of wear that I can really see on my end. The coin still exhibits a bit of cartwheeling, especially on the reverse, but I'm unsure if this affects the grade at all. It looks like someone might have rubbed it a long time ago on the obverse, because there are breaks in the luster in front of and behind Liberty (probably why I got a decent price on it; the details are worth it IMO, though). There aren't any problems with the rim - no dings or dents. So what would this be? Would I be right calling it AU details (because of the rubbing), or would it be XF details? Thanks for any help! :3
Not sure if you've looked here yet or not, but its a great guide on grading http://www.pcgs.com/Photograde/
I actually hadn't known that existed. Thank you, it's helped here and it'll certainly help in the future! *Bookmarks* Based on that, I'd put this coin around AU-50 details. Thank you again!
