Not a Thornhead, no die breaks or strong clashes. No die cracks, either. Or die wear. None. Nothing but silky fields and great detail edge to edge. It does have scribbles, for what it's worth (VAM 1BT), and they're quite sharp. For an issue where most coins looks like mush, there are no legitimate DMPLs, and you can count the PLs on a Fun Size bag of M&Ms, this is the kind of 21-S you want.
PCGS graded it 65. Some really light contact marks here. The super early die stage also takes a little flash out of the luster that you get when the die starts accumulating flow lines, and I think you need that for 66. If you look at the 66s on CoinFacts, you'll see many with lousy detail from die erosion, but they'll have bolder cartwheels because of this. Keep in mind that 66 is the end of the line for these as far as grade is concerned at PCGS, and NGC has graded one, count 'em, one in 67. SF didn't seem to harden the dies properly in 1921, which is why the dies eroded so fast, giving us high grade coins with crap detail despite being fully struck. Find an attractive 21-S with this kind of detail and you have a special coin for a date and mint that is typically shunworthy. Wayne Miller, in his Textbook, calls 1921-S "by far the worst of any Morgan dollar in terms of appearance."
Interesting stuff. Actually just bought a coin from Wayne's eBay store which led me to read a few of his interviews. Which textbook are you referring to? Not finding anything searching right now.
