1955 Franklin half dollar pf68
Matthew21
Posts: 136 ✭✭✭
Wanted to see what y’all thought about this they are asking $149, it has a w on the label wondering what that means. Thanks 
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Comments
W means white as in untoned.
Nice Coin! Great, wise and wonderful men were born that year, take me for example............
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if it is true, thanks. first time in 10++ years i've seen/read that!
You might find another of comparable quality at a comparable price that does not have that white smear from D to W in "GOD WE". Serious surface burn whose impact is vitiated by the greater contrasts created by the obv's one-sided frosty CAM+ devices.
That's a technician's view. As an esthete, If you like the contrast, which appears stronger than some NGC PF68CAMs recently sold, it might be a winner on overall eye-appeal (bang-for-the-buck).
Pass.
MarkInDavis is correct. I don’t know how long that “W” designation was used but it couldn’t have been too long. And I would have agreed with him, regardless of his first name.😄
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
I think it was pretty short lived. Don’t quote me, but I can’t recall seeing it on any other NGC label varieties than this one (or perhaps minor variants of this general style with the thin font).
Important note: cameo frost can be unintentionally (or intentionally) made to look much stronger in a photo than in hand due to lighting. The coin may be as frosty as it looks here, or it may have very little frost. This is an area where you really need to know your seller to trust the images or written description.
It’s accurate. There was also a corresponding “T” for toned pieces. The designations were very short lived.
I have a Daniel Boone commemorative in a holder with the designation "Blast White." Remember when that was all the rage? I bought it 30? years ago and it was white. Now it is a beautiful golden/russet toner. The coin AND the holder are both keepers.
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you know it was a good idea. for those coins that had a W, it would be a stellar!!! way to identify coins that may have been "assisted" in toning down the road and/or what a coin may do in a certain style/gen of slab, for better or worse. (think pci green?, small anacs/ana)
pcgs doing trueview on a good portion of coins now is also a great way to identify/thwart these efforts among other things.
Ironically, a lot of PCI Silver Eagles were graded with a "white" designation, and a lot of them have since been toned by the holder. Oops.
I don't believe the coin is a CAM so don't hope for that.
Regarding the W on the cert, it does indeed stand for "White". NGC used W for untoned and T for toned coins in the 1999-2000 time range for less than a year overall. Some coins they denoted as T look white as snow while others that freshly came back with a W were lightly toned already. They quietly got rid of the designations within about 10-months of starting them.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
Agreed. The reverse could be technical "70" and it would still register as "non-CAM"
If it is a one sided CAM, it would get a star designation.
Just shoot me
Jeremy's on target. The image cannot be trusted. Hard pass
Not necessarily. Usually the star (for an untoned coin) comes with something really spectacular. Decent cam might not get anything. Really strong frost, especially into dcam territory, and you’re looking at a star. Same with an 81-S Morgan. One-sided PLs don’t get a star. One-sided DMPLs do.
JMO... Not a CAM... But as Jeremy said... in hand, could go either way, but likely not. Cheers, RickO
Obverse only CAM was cited by NGC as an example on its website explaining when a star designation is indicated. That said, it is very inconsistent with the star designation. There are some pretty marginal coins with the designation.
https://www.ngccoin.com/news/article/806/
Interesting--I hadn't seen that before. My comments were largely from personal experience, and at least from what I've seen, I think what I said is still valid, even if not the official line. That said, I do agree with you about marginal coins getting the designation (though I have more experience with toned star coins), so just as I've seen coins that probably should have the star based on what you linked, others I've seen with the star shouldn't based on the same words.