Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Burton Strauss III, post: 4299430, member: 59677&quot;]As said elsewhere, the strike on these is all over the block. Because of the thinness, this is a coin the mint never really got dialed in.</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ve seen an MS67 where you could cut yourself on the edges of the reverse diamond.&nbsp; And I&#039;ve seen a lot like this one where the first thought is &quot;gee, couldn&#039;t you hit it a little harder&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have key pickup points on the obverse, but the reverse is often a better indicator</p><p><br /></p><p>An indicator of high AU or MS is the fins on the C:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1094298[/ATTACH]</p><p>They are the first thing to wear away on a coin below AU55. (People who haven&#039;t seen a well struck MS coin don&#039;t ever realize they should be there)</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The next thing I look for in strike/wear are the six orbs and the two bars on the reverse - in the letter Cs:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1094293[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>First off they have to be present - you will see a lot of weakly struck coins where there&#039;s no detail in those areas at all.</p><p><br /></p><p>On an average strike, they are present, but not full.</p><p><br /></p><p>On a great strike, they are fully formed and become one of the high points that show wear.</p><p><br /></p><p>So this is actually a pretty good strike.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Note that my usual rule is the obverse controls the grade and the reverse can only lower it. So what are the pickups on the obverse? Glad you asked...</p><p><br /></p><p>The six points where the bevel of the star meets the shield...</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1094312[/ATTACH]</p><p>These are the highest/most susceptible to wear.</p><p><br /></p><p>If I&#039;m being finiky, I start from AU-50 and count down one grade for each wear point (1 = XF-45, 2= XF-40, etc.)</p><p>.</p><p><br /></p><p>So... all in - XF-40 for the obverse. Reverse is low AU, but doesn&#039;t help and the rim dings it a grade.</p><p><br /></p><p>35 is about right.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>PS: I like it ... I wouldn&#039;t kick it out of the collection in the morning.</p><p><br /></p><p>As somebody will point out, I&#039;m working on a collection of XF 3CS. </p><p><br /></p><p>I need an 1865. </p><p><br /></p><p>Then I would like to replace the two impaired proofs (PF-50 and PF-58) with XF business strikes, replace the damaged XF with a clean coin and downgrade the AU coin to XF. Someday when I hit the lottery.[/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