1909 S INDIAN HEAD CENT VF NEAR PROBLEM FREE ORIGINAL SURFACES 1C PENNY #253 Where's that animated "rolling on the floor laughing" icon when you need it?
Call it ignorance, but what are you laughing at? First, I think that coin looks cast or at least very well worn - which wouldn't make sense looking at the denticles. There's definite cleaning showing on the obverse in the field. Someone please 'splain?
So if a coin has a hole in it that covers 3 percent of the surface but has no other problems, do we then call it "97% problem free"? Or what about cleaning? If a coin has 99% of its metal remaining after being scrubbed with an SOS pad, is it 99% problem free?
That pretty much covers it from my point of view. Bingo! I should've billed that holed trade dollar I sold as "95% problem free" -- after all, the hole couldn't have accounted for more than a few percent of the total surface area or weight, and the words "Buffington Thanksgiving" scratched into the obverse used really thin strokes, each of which covered hardly any area at all...
Got it now... Kinda like the $20,000 gold and 2 carat diamond necklace that I have which is 98% complete by weight (except for the diamond).
And, whenever I see the term "original surfaces", I remind myself that "original" can also mean "newly created" or "fresh, different".
When we had our kids, at first my wife was nearly pregnancy free. Then she was a mix of pregnant and non pregnant. Then, is was nearly fully pregnant. Finally, she was not pregnant with evidence of an older pregnancy. *mumbles under breath* You're either pregnant, or not pregnant...
