Anyone notice the radial die lines at the bottom of the reverse? In hand they start looking like radial die cracks. Tis the only reason I bought it in a slab. What's the Grade of Ole Washington? Happy Presidents Day.
Those are the heaviest of the lines. As struck they look raised like die cracks, when you start looking at the surfaces they are everywhere in a radial pattern that says a die wasn't surfaced correctly, if my theory is correct then this look is present on many die examples, compared to an error that may have only happened once.
I don't know diddly about grading Washingtons, but for funsies I'll say 65. Logic dictates you wouldn't have picked it up though unless it was that at a minimum, having followed your posts.
I'm going to be an outlier on this one. There's a number of anomalies I see. Most notably: In front of Washington's face there is a plethora of black spots. Very difficult to see due to the lighting. Zoom in and you can see them. On the reverse, above the 2nd 'S' in States and on the eagles right (facing) leg are similar spots that I just can't identify. AU58 Not withstanding the above, it's a beautiful Washie. I'd display it proudly.
Well after searching some auction archives I don't feel to bad about my photos. We had 1 here that got the grade correct. @Mainebill This coin has that very fine and brilliant luster that is hard to capture thru a slab. It also has less contact than recent MS 66 and 66+. If interested go look thru coin facts. The spots on the obverse are toning, orange and some blues. The spot on the leg is contact. The only other contact is the mark across the jaw and you have to look catch it in the right light. same for a small amount of contact on the Eagles beak. The coin is nearly contact free. I personally think this should be in a 67 or better slab.
I have been known to buy quite a few lower end coins. If I had my choice I would buy mostly AU58. But that grade has gone to the waste side in the past 10 years.
It's tough to judge how nice (or not) a coin is from photographs, even PCGS photograde doesn't really tell you the whole story. I'll buy slabbed coins online because it minimizes risk........but that is a double edged sword. Most of the time it will cost near retail for that very reason, unless something is up for bid during the middle of a weekday and slides under the radar. The fun part is "stealing" nice raw coins at the end of an auction. Again, that requires risk in accuracy of photos. I've been burnt a couple of times. But, no risk, no reward.
It looked like it had monster luster. And really clean. I know modern (to me)stuff graded different. I looked at it like a walker or a Merc with luster and contact
