I was browsing on the 'Bay and came across what I think is a very obvious mistake by NGC. Or am I missing something? I personally think that this should be, at best, an Spoiler: Grade AU-55 .
Agreed. How can a MS62 not have delineated sails or continents? WTH from others, as there was a GTG a few weeks ago (the 1922 cent) that blew me away. I wish there was a photo grading source for classic commemoratives (1892 and on) such as Photograde. Anyone out there know of anything? I know @HawkeEye is working on a grade set for the Stone Mountain half; I would love to see images of that when he is done. Steve
According to Kevin Flynn in his book, The Authoritative Reference on Commemorative Coins, 1892-1954, most of the dies were used to their full life. Those coins that were struck early on were well-struck and those coins that were struck near the end of the useful life of the dies were weakly struck. Chris
It's got the luster, but appears to have some surface wear. I would say AU58 for sure. MS seems a little ambitious
All of my images can be seen at http://www.stonemountainhalf.com and I update it will all new coins. I have about 15 that I am adding this weekend and I got PCGS to grade an AU58+ last week. So work on the set continues.
I'd assign it a high AU.......I detest '61, '62 grades. Most of those graded as such are really ugly coins. Give me a high 'AU' over a low grade MS coin........
It is nearly impossible to determine AU vs MS from a single set of pictures. There are aspects of these pictures that look AU, but there are also aspects that look MS. The fact that NGC had it in hand and examined it and called it MS is the best argument one can make on an online forum with a single set of okay pictures.
The bloody ribbing has been worn off the sails on the reverse of the coin. Die wear, poor strike, or circulation?
