Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;WingedLiberty, post: 2638593, member: 26030&quot;](I posted this on the PCGS Forum yesterday)</p><p><br /></p><p>I stumbled on a PCGS &quot;perfect 70&quot; graded Lincoln Cent on ebay on Monday.&nbsp; Being listed at nearly $2000, it&#039;s out of my league ... plus I don&#039;t collect grade rarities, I am a color collector.&nbsp; Note that it was an SP70 (not MS70).</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://mindstar.com/coin/2005_SlabO_SP70RD.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>It made me curious how many PCGS &quot;70&quot; graded non-proof Lincoln Cents were floating around.</p><p><br /></p><p>What I found was interesting to say the least.</p><p><br /></p><p>First off, CURRENTLY there are NO &quot;MS70&quot; graded regular circulation strike Lincolns at all graded with PCGS. This covers over half a million graded Lincolns.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you expand the search to Special Strikes, there are 41 &quot;SP70&quot; Lincoln Cents, but fascinatingly they are all dated between 2005 and 2006.&nbsp; The population of SP70 goes:&nbsp; 2005 = pop 19 ... 2005-D = pop 2 ... and 2006 = pop 20.&nbsp; There are no other perfect 70&#039;s in any other years.&nbsp; It&#039;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.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is what the TrueView photo for the above coin looks like:</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://(https://mindstar.com/coin/2005_TrueView_SP70RD.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><img src="https://mindstar.com/coin/2005_TrueView_SP70RD.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>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 &quot;MS70&quot; grade.&nbsp; This all happened way back in September 2006 (over a decade ago) and raised quite a bit of interest at the time.&nbsp; PCGS Price Guide slapped a $15,000 value on the beast.</p><p><br /></p><p>It ended up getting auctioned for $13,500 about a month later ... in October 2006</p><p><br /></p><p>Then, sadly, in the following year and a half, the &quot;perfect Lincoln&quot; 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.&nbsp; Praise the PCGS Guarantee.</p><p><br /></p><p>So the upshot is the singular MS70 Lincoln Cent is no more.&nbsp; Once again this mythical creature has moved into the realm of the unicorn.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.&nbsp; (I don&#039;t know myself, but can see with PCGS&#039;s financial risk and responsibility, they are probably not terribly motivated to assign such a lofty grade again).</p><p><br /></p><p>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,&nbsp; which apparently was an especially great year for Circ Strikes.</p><p><br /></p><p>I myself have a 2003 Lincoln which looks so &quot;proof-like&quot; it&#039;s breathtaking, but mine only scored a lowly MS68 grade -- nowhere near perfect.&nbsp; But still an amazing prooflike surface.&nbsp; Funny about how nice many 2003 Lincolns are.&nbsp; When I first saw this coin in hand, I thought it was a Proof that was missing the S mintmark!</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://mindstar.com/coin/2003_SlabO.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><img src="http://(https://mindstar.com/coin/2003_SlabO.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Just some fun playing around with the idea of &quot;perfection&quot; -- a tough row to hoe.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in