hone your grading skills -- proof washington quarter

Here's another coin from my collection I thought would be good to test your grading skills on. It is graded by NGC:






Have fun...Mike

p.s. if anybody guesses this correct, you are cheating!

 

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My guess is Pf-67. Nice lookin coin.

 

PR-68 * DCAM? High grade moderns are too hard to grade

Awesome coin though :thumb:

 

PF-67 U- CAM
VERY NICE LOOKING COIN

 

IMHO I think NGC graded PF67 Cameo , but I think it's better.

 

Looks proof to me. Probably PF-67. Beautiful coin.

B

 

Proof 68, and oh so close to cameo, that I think it might squeak by.

 

Proof 68 cameo
Hard to tell by the BLACK and WHITE photo
Nice coin and picture

 

Question if I may? I have been watching several of the posts on grade questions as this and have read a bit about grading but still have some difficulty being so new at this. Before looking at the responses here I considered PF-68 due to what I see as a light bit of rub on the hair near the ear on the Obv. and a bit of rub on the eagles leg, Rev. I guess my question is, am I correct in what I'm seeing or is there something else that I should be looking at. By the way nice coin.

 

I have one just like this one---same date and everything---so I'm betting that the grade is PF67CAM.

Speedy

 

Thanks, another bit of information learned.

 

If you don't mind me asking, how did you take these pictures? The look quite awesome I must say. I can't see any marks, and I think I might have even said 69 if there wasn't what appears to be a spot on the obverse at 2:45, and then at roughly 7. Nice coin :bow:

 

Thanks for all the guesses, comments, and the few great questions...

NGC graded the coin PF 68* CAM. It was a tough one to guess, given the pics.... I think this was a good coin to show in that it illustrates two points...

First, NGC will often give a * to a coin with a heavier obverse cameo. In fact, this coin on the obverse is nearly DCAM. The reverse is frosted more lightly, with a noticably lighter leftmost wing and near the edge around 7 o'clock. Because of this frosting break, the coin could not go UCAM, but the gorgeous obverse gave the coin a *. DCAMs are exceedingly rare in early to late 1950's proof quarters, and the 1956 is no exception. A little over 30% of the quarters graded by NGC are CAM, but less than 0.5% are UCAM. The NGC population for this coin is 7 in PF 68* with 47 higher -- 46 in PF 69 and 1 in PF 69*. There are only 3 PF 68 UCAMs graded with none higher.

Second, the way I took this photo uses a technique makes the mirrors dark and fields light. It involves using a circular tube consisting of two pieces of white paper taped long end to long end. Place the tube over the coin and the camera at the top of the tube. Use 4 lights along the outside. This "light box" will provide very diffuse light and make the pictures look as they did. It is a very pleasing effect for proof coins and if you've not tried it before, you shoud have a try at it with a modern proof. The images are rather unique and really bring out the cameo in a coin. Here's another one using this same effect:



My thoughts on the coin... This is a gorgeous coin. There are virtually no contact marks on the coin. There are a few luster breaks on both sides as noted earlier and a few toning spots in the mirrors which someone pointed out, but they don't diminish the eye appeal of the coin to me in the least. I honestly have a great deal of difficulty telling the difference in ultra high grade moderns, but this coin certainly looks every bit of a 68 to me, and when I first saw it, it said "buy me", so I did.

Take care....Mike

 

NGC nailed that one!

 

Got it Right.
And I didn't cheat

 

Just out of curiosity, how could anyone cheat? Unless of course they were an NGC grader who graded the coin?

 

Speedy