I know I read somewhere the breakdown for full step Jeffersons and the years involved but I can't seem to find the information. I know it was 5 full steps up until around 1980 and then 6 steps afterward. Can anyone provide the correct steps and associated years ? Thanks
I'm not sure if this article about understanding full steps will help but if you search through thier site I am sure you will find your answers. http://varietynickels.com/pages/jefferson-nickel/grading/understanding-full-steps.php
Here is another article from NGC where they state they will designate 5 or 6 steps depending on what is visible. To me this means that one date can have 5 or 6 steps designated not necessarily a transition from one design to another. http://www.ngccoin.com/news/viewarticle.aspx?NewsletterNewsArticleID=250
I think you are confused on that part. Up until 2004 NGC always required the coin to have 6 full steps in order for the coin to receive the designation. PCGS and ANACS had always permitted coins having only 5 full steps to receive it. So the only change ever made was the one made by NGC in 2004.
Crusty , thanks for the reply. What I'm trying to get an answer to is this. There seems to me that to have an FS designation there needed to be 5 full steps from years 1938 up until around 1980 and then from that point on there needed to be 6 full steps to be considered full steps. I know each TPG handled this differently when grading and will put various designations on the slab i.e 5FS , 5.5FS , 6FS or just FS. But , when you look at the PCGS price guide for FS there must be a guideline as to what that means. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. I haven't seen many responses so 1. either no one really knows. 2. maybe no one has an interest in this or 3. I'm just not making sense with the question. Thanks again for any answers.
I have not seen any designation by year for Jefferson nickel full steps. It's 5 steps for full steps. They don't specify a year cut-off for that designation. The marketplace will determine by value whether post 1980 5 steps are full steps or not. So far, I've seen acceptance of 5 steps as the standard for the entire series. Of course, full steps may be common the most modern coins, but it's still full steps.
No, this is not correct. The date of the coin had nothing to do with it. This is only partially correct. As I said before, ANACS and PCGS always used the same standard for assigning the FS designation. As long as the coin had 5, 5.5 or 6 full steps, then ANACS and PCGS would assign the FS designation to the coin. On th ewritten insert of the slab however, PCGS would only list FS. ANACS would list 5 FS, 5.5 FS or 6 FS. But again, the date of the coin had nothing to do with it. There is isn't any guideline that I am aware of because PCGS does not specify any difference. PCGS doesn't care whether the coin has 5 steps, 5 1/2 steps or 6 steps. To them they are all the same and all are marked as FS. I certainly didn't realize that you were think that the date of the coin had some bearing on whether or not the coin could get the FS designation. But as I said before, the date has nothing to do with it. However, what the date does have to do with is this. There are some dates where there is not even 1 coin that has been given the FS designation. There are other dates where only a few coins have ever received that designation. But that is because so far, nobody has found one that actually had at least 5 full steps, or only very few have ever bene found. The TPG's would gladly, with joy in their hearts and song on their lips, assign the FS designation to these coins - if only somebody would send them one that actually had the full steps. None, or very few do, as the case may be.
Doug and others , thanks for the responses. I guess I must have been dreaming about the " Dates " associated with full steps. I swear I saw this published somewhere but I guess years of drinking Black Russians have taken their toll.
