Here's a random 1921 Mercury dime that I pulled. I'm trying to hone my grading skills and was hoping the good folks on here would give their opinions. Yes, it's in a flip and I know it shouldn't be for grading purposes. I just want to see if my opinion/grade is on target. After much consideration I give this coin a F15. If I'm off either lower or higher, please point out where I misjudged. Thank you...
You're right in the ballpark, Sherlock. It's cleaned because the surface isn't lively, it's a corpse. Go to http://coins.ha.com/ and look over those and you'll begin to get the idea.
I have the PCGS photo app and that's helped me a bit. I figured I was close on the grade but I'm lost when it comes to determining cleaned from not cleaned. Sure, I could tell if someone took a wire brush to a coin but you know what I'm saying. Does the fact that a coin has been cleaned completely kill the value? What would be a good resource for learning?
The best resource is of course looking at as many coins as you can in hand , pretty soon you'll start to notice coins that don't look right . Heritage is a great tool as you can look at graded coins all day for free . Go to ha.com and sign up as it's free and it also has auction results for pricing coins .
I don't necessarily see evidence of cleaning on this coin. I wouldn't have a problem buying this coin, from the pictures. And I also highly recommend you read a couple of books on grading, if you are interested in learning. I wrote one which I think will help you understand a lot of the basics, which is linked in my signature below.
The best way to learn grading is to look at a lot of coins. First, buy yourself an ANA grading book. Then, go to every show you can, pick some coins and check them against what you expect it to look like from the book. (This works best with circulated grades -- with MS grades, you probably have to look at a lot of slabbed coins.) Then, buy and read more books and continue going to shows. Make sure to make at least a few small buys from some of the dealers whose coins you're using as learning material, just as a way to support them supporting you in the hobby. Until you have some confidence in grading, stay away from expensive and/or uncertified coins. Don't even think about buying an expensive key date raw, unless you can both grade and authenticate the coin.
Good grade call.I would grade it f-15 also. In terms of grading I find you have to know the denomination particulars and what I mean by that is certain coins are known to have a weak strike and this has to be taken into consideration .Also you have to have a reference point. Is it being compared to a Canada or U S Grading company standard and their particular area of expertise. From purchasing graded coins over the years of the same coin there is a difference is the grade they assign.
