The Problem with Perfection ... and the phantom PCGS MS70 Lincoln Cent

(I posted this on the PCGS Forum yesterday)

I stumbled on a PCGS "perfect 70" graded Lincoln Cent on ebay on Monday. Being listed at nearly $2000, it's out of my league ... plus I don't collect grade rarities, I am a color collector. Note that it was an SP70 (not MS70).



It made me curious how many PCGS "70" graded non-proof Lincoln Cents were floating around.

What I found was interesting to say the least.

First off, CURRENTLY there are NO "MS70" graded regular circulation strike Lincolns at all graded with PCGS. This covers over half a million graded Lincolns.

If you expand the search to Special Strikes, there are 41 "SP70" Lincoln Cents, but fascinatingly they are all dated between 2005 and 2006. The population of SP70 goes: 2005 = pop 19 ... 2005-D = pop 2 ... and 2006 = pop 20. There are no other perfect 70's in any other years. It's interesting that this was the first two years of the 2005-2010 Special Strike series. Maybe the mint was taking extra care early on in those special strikes.

This is what the TrueView photo for the above coin looks like:




I was telling this to my friend Robec -- and he alerted me to the old story about a 2003 regular Circulation Strike Lincoln that got the ultra rare "MS70" grade. This all happened way back in September 2006 (over a decade ago) and raised quite a bit of interest at the time. PCGS Price Guide slapped a $15,000 value on the beast.

It ended up getting auctioned for $13,500 about a month later ... in October 2006

Then, sadly, in the following year and a half, the "perfect Lincoln" developed a spot on the reverse. The owner sent it into PCGS for a spot review and PCGS ended up knocking the grade down to 69 and paid the owner the Guide Price ($15k) from their guarantee. Praise the PCGS Guarantee.

So the upshot is the singular MS70 Lincoln Cent is no more. Once again this mythical creature has moved into the realm of the unicorn.

Someone else wrote in one of the threads on the PCGS Forum that they doubted that PCGS will ever give out another MS70 grade on a Lincoln Cent. (I don't know myself, but can see with PCGS's financial risk and responsibility, they are probably not terribly motivated to assign such a lofty grade again).

As a final aside, someone wrote in one of the threads that if an MS70 Lincoln was going to fall out of the morass, it would have to be for the year 2003, which apparently was an especially great year for Circ Strikes.

I myself have a 2003 Lincoln which looks so "proof-like" it's breathtaking, but mine only scored a lowly MS68 grade -- nowhere near perfect. But still an amazing prooflike surface. Funny about how nice many 2003 Lincolns are. When I first saw this coin in hand, I thought it was a Proof that was missing the S mintmark!




Just some fun playing around with the idea of "perfection" -- a tough row to hoe.

 

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Is that a nice rim ding above A in America?

 

Yes, @WingedLiberty , I was one of those collectors who was anxiously awaiting the 2005 Satin Finish Mint Sets. I bumped my subscription order to 40 or so before they were released.

When they started arriving in June and July (because of production delays) I couldn't wait to start searching for high-grade specimens. Boy, was I disappointed after examining all of the denominations with my loupe and my stereomicroscope. There were so many that would grade 70, that the ones grading lower would hardly be enough to fill a couple 20-slot pages. For those of you who don't know, the coins destined for the Satin Finish Mint Sets were processed "with kid gloves" much like proof coins.

I figured that if I found that many, that there would likely be thousands of 70's for each denomination, and it would be a waste of money for me to submit them for grading. I still have them, raw(!), to this day.

While I continued buying bags and rolls of business strikes in the ensuing years, I stopped ordering the Satin Mint Sets after 2005.

Chris

 

Sure looks like one and 2 o'clock on obv rim also?

 

Not much financial risk. Under their current guarantee if it developed the spot after it was slabbed the guarantee doesn't apply.

 

I thought the obv. was due to the slight doubled rim at first glance,but the metal might be displaced.

 

Agreed limited financial risk, but if another one turned again it would be a kick in the pants.