Learning to grade Peace Dollars

It's pretty easy to tell. Examine the coin with your loupe and tilt it various directions so you can get a 3d impression of the area. It'll be really obvious if they're raised or incuse.

Yep, if they're not dings and they only show at certain angles, it's probably toning. Your photo just made the lowermost one in particular look like it was sunken into the coin.[/user]

 

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If you mean the 67 vs the 68, I like the 67 much better. It appears to be a deeper strike, but coin in hand is the only true way to judge. The grey scaled images on my laptop don't do the coins justice.

The reverse is much more detailed - at least in photo. The PEACE is a good tell of strike, the most important to me is the feathers and detail of the eagle's head.

As for your coin, assuming the streak across her crown is bag damage, I would agree on 61/62. There is a lot of chaff in the fields, a deep gouge on her nose, and several in other places.

The cut on the wing in the reverse and again more chaff throughout the coin.

The strike is very good, the feathers and head are strong on the reverse, the hair is almost fully formed on the obverse.

Again, these photos online don't do my laptop justice, but it's possible that there was some wiping done above TRUST behind her hair and through RTY which could render a "Details" grade. It could be the flash or lighting, but it's also possible it may go AU from the high wear areas on the obverse. Wild guesses at these without the coin in person.

Cheers and good luck on your hunt!

 

@Paul M. after further inspection, they appear to be raised (die polish), though I only have a 5x loupe and will take another look at this after I get a higher power loupe. It seems most people have 10x? (higher is overkill?)

@Brett_in_Sacto thanks for the helpful comments. I have learned a lot.

 

10x is perfect. And you'll use it 95% of the time however I also have a 20x triplet that comes in handy for rpm & rpd's and if you wanna get into vamming it will help for the finer things as well. 5x is ok but 10x & 20x are the two I can't live without

 

For grading, the most I'd probably ever use is 7x. For variety attribution, 10x is good, but 16x or 20x will come in handy. More importantly, though, get a good one. Having good optics is far, far more important than the magnification number. I like Bausch & Lomb, but there are other good manufacturers, too.