I have become interested in collecting liberty nickels. I’ve done a little online research as to grading these coins and have some questions maybe you can help me with. One of the sites I visited showed where the high points of the coin are, these are the point that I’m assuming will get the most wear. On the reverse of the coin, toward the top, there are stalks on each side. These are two of the high points. Another point of wear is the bow of the ribbon holding the wreaths at the bottom. I have seen several coins that were advertised as BU that have considerable wear on the lower left side ear of corn but the right side corn absolutely clean and crisp. There is slight wear on the bow, but no wear on the high points of the stalks. The obverse shows no sign of wear at all and appears pristine. Is it possible for these coins to be BU. Am I mistaking wear for some sort of weak strike problem?
I suppose it would be quite possible... If the nickels were kept UNC in a roll for so long, depending on what type of roll it was in IE paper roll, plastic, or some other form, the coins will get jumbled around, especially the ones that are on top if contained in a plastic tube, because if they are in their tight, completely to the top, whenever someone goes to twist that cap, one side of the coin is being rubbed onto another coin causing wear, this may be the case for even a whole roll of them, depending on how many times the person who originally had them, has taken them out, and put them back in, placing a differant coin each time on the very top, and again twisting the cap, and rubbing it against another coin, everytime this happens, not just the one coin is getting that wear from the twisting of the cap, the other one as well is, it would not take long depending on how many times they were takin out and put back in, for a complete roll to show wear on at least one side of the coin, while the other is far better, that's why some people use split grades IE MS-64/63 or something along that nature, while this is not widely accepted, I do on some cases place split grades onto coins, and if the coins you are talking about show this wear, they are not BU coins, and shouldn't be bid on as BU coins, if you can see the wear on it, bid accordingly and with caution.
Trying to judge wear versus weak strike is hard to begin with, let alone in a photo. Now if you add to that, Nickel coins (early) are notorious for being struck weakly do to the hard metal composition. If you always assume that a photo exhibits wear, you will be better off. It is far better to pass on a deal than to be burned by one.
Here is one example of what I am talking about. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=3933473181&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT I'll try ro get a good scan of a coin that I have that that is more detailed.
Man, too bad you are wanting that , no I wont bid, but seriously, as far as that certain nickel goes, only bid up to maybe 15 bucks on it, if you like it, and that's what it looks like, then by all means, do it, but, I would only pay AU money for that if I was you. And if you get it for under 10 bucks, more power to you, you can't really loose either way, unless it has been cleaned, which it doesnt look like it, I have ONE e-bay policy when it comes to buying something... WHEN IN DOUBT, DON'T. I'm sure I've passed up very nice pieces by having this policy, but, I'm sure overall, the potentiol loss that could have happened, outweighs the what ifs.
Hi, thanks for the input. I had no intention of bidding on that particular coin but, I had noticed that on a coin I did buy, however, that there was a similar problem and then I noticed on several other auctions that there were some coins listed as BU and Unc that also had the same problem area. As soon as I get a scan of the coin I did buy I'll post it.
Here are the scans of a coin I bought as BU. The scans are a little bit fuzzy in that the hair on the obverse looks a little shallow in places. Under a 10x loupe the hair is as perfect. the obverse looks well struck and I am guessing that the lack of detail in some of the stars is due to die wear. On the reverse you can see taht the high points of wear (the tops of the stalks on the wreath are in good shape as is the entire rest of the coin, except for the flat spot. As I said before I have seen several coins like this recently. Under 20x magnification the flat spot shows no sign of scratches or abrasion, as a matter of fact the surface is identical to the texture of te fields surrounding it (see pic 83detail). My question is how could that one spot have so little deatil is the rest of the coin is so sharp. remember that this is not considered a "high point" where you would expect wear.
One possible reason could be die preparation or die polishing. As dies are used, they are routinely taken out of service to be polished again. With each polishing, some details are lost.
The reason that the left ear of corn is usually weak, is because it is directly opposite of the high spot on the obverse (Liberty's hair above the brow). It is competing for metal flow during the strike, and usually there just isn't enough pressure to fill up all the small details.
So, if it is a die defect, does that mean it's still an uncirculated coin? Is coin significantly devalued by a weak strike?
A die defect? Not a die defect at all. A weakly struck left ear of corn is normal with this series. It is not an indicataion of circulation. Strong details are usually more desirable, and are sought out by collectors.
