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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 1093994, member: 112&quot;]I think Reynolds pretty well nailed the grade, for a couple of reasons. For one Mike&#039;s coin was well struck. And if you look at other examples of this coin in MS grades you can see how well struck this one actually was. The denticles for one, on Mike&#039;s coin are full and well formed. On many others in MS grades with weak strikes the denticles are barely there. The details of the hair, the lettering, and the stars in particular, show what a good strike should show. On many other MS examples of this coin you can hardly see any centers at all on the coin because they were weakly struck. But yet on Mike&#039;s coin you can see traces of the centers on nearly every star. Now the only reason you can see all this on Mike&#039;s coin is because the coin was well struck. And the reason you see some details missing and some flat spots on the high points is because those details have been worn off by wear.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now to see what I&#039;m saying take a look at this coin, a 63 - <a href="http://coins.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=1139&amp;Lot_No=7126" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://coins.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=1139&amp;Lot_No=7126" rel="nofollow">http://coins.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=1139&amp;Lot_No=7126</a> - notice how full the details are at the high points on each side. Look at the star centers, the hair, the leaves, the lettering - it&#039;s all there. This coin was also well struck. But yet the denticles are barely even there. Now compare that to Mike&#039;s coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now look at this coin, a 66 - <a href="http://coins.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=1140&amp;Lot_No=56" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://coins.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=1140&amp;Lot_No=56" rel="nofollow">http://coins.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=1140&amp;Lot_No=56</a> - the coin is not all that well struck, but yet it has the luster, something that Mike&#039;s coin is missing to a large degree. Look at the flat, high spots on this coin, see the difference between them and the lusterous areas. That&#039;s what the metal looks like as the result of a weak strike. No they don&#039;t have the luster that the fully struck areas do, but they have an entirely different look than the flat spots on Mike&#039;s coin. On Mike&#039;s coin those flat spots are duller and a slightly different color than the flat spots caused by weak strike. And be sure to look at the blow ups of Mike&#039;s and the Heritage pics.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you want to look at more examples of these things to see what I am saying you can check this link - <a href="http://coins.ha.com/common/search_results.php?Ntk=SI_Titles-Desc&amp;Ntt=1818%20MS&amp;Nty=1&amp;N=51+790+231+307&amp;chkNotSold=0&amp;Ns=" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://coins.ha.com/common/search_results.php?Ntk=SI_Titles-Desc&amp;Ntt=1818%20MS&amp;Nty=1&amp;N=51+790+231+307&amp;chkNotSold=0&amp;Ns=" rel="nofollow">http://coins.ha.com/common/search_results.php?Ntk=SI_Titles-Desc&amp;Ntt=1818 MS&amp;Nty=1&amp;N=51+790+231+307&amp;chkNotSold=0&amp;Ns=</a> </p><p><br /></p><p>Now, all of that said - I think Mike has a great coin here ! It has a great strike, it&#039;s well centered, on a good planchet, it does not have the common die cracks and heavy flow lines that I always find detracting, it has some remaining luster. It has all of these things going for it, but yet it has some good honest wear that should keep it from getting a higher grade.</p><p><br /></p><p>Even so, I expect PCGS will assign this coin an AU grade, in spite of and yet at the same time because of all of the reasons I have listed. But that won&#039;t change the fact that the coin really is an XF coin.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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