Hi, I opened a set of 1964 PR coins today. At first the Lincoln cent jumped out at me. It was Deep Cameo and amazing strike. As a matter of fact though none of the other four coins were cameo, they are superb. All look at least PR 69 to me, amazing strikes and luster and no marks of any kind. I just cut them out of their plastic package today. That's pretty rare for all the coins in a PR set in plastic packaging to be in that condition. Anyway the question I have is as I looked at the cent under magnification, I notice only one flaw. I thought it was a scratch at first and my heart sunk. What it really is is roughly a 1/8 inch crack in the coin just to the right of the initials on the obverse on Lincoln's lower collar. Will this effect the grade in a negative way? I've never owned such a perfect PR DC '64 Lincoln DC cent other than that flaw. Thanks...
It depends on who you ask. Personally, I look at it the way you do - a die crack is a flaw, plain and simple. And any flaw must affect the grade of the coin. But it is also a matter of severity. It has long been my opinion that any major die crack, or series of die cracks, should limit the grade of a coin to no higher than 64. Then the question comes up of how do you define a major die crack. Well to me, that definition depends on the size of the coin, the smaller the coin then the smaller the crack has to be to be considered major. I kind of use my own rule of thumb, 25% of the diameter of the coin is major. And the smaller the crack then the less affect it will have on the grade of the coin. That said, not everybody subscribes to my way of thinking, including the TPG's. While I don't agree with it, it is not unusual to find coins with major die cracks graded in the upper grades - 65 to 67. But I can't recall ever seeing one graded by NGC or PCGS as 68 or higher. This has been discussed several times in the past. And in those discussions it has been pointed out that my way of thinking is outdated, that today's grading standards no longer employ the very basics, the foundation of grading standards. That things like planchet quality and die cracks no longer matter when determing the grade of a coin. Well, I will never agree with that. The standards as written, and they are standards that are only 4 or 5 years old, say they do matter. As do I.
I must agree with GD. However, I would like to point out to the OP, that you may want to conduct a little more in depth research regarding the die crack. There may be a "limited" number of unc specimens such as yours, which may add an unforseen Collector value to it down the road.
