Freshly minted coins.

may

If you were to grab a penny as soon as it comes off the press, and put it into a flip, would it be MS-70 material? (asking for a friend)

steve_richardson

Not necessarily. If it was a weak strike, it would not be 70. The ANA has a really nice webinar series that describes the grading of MS coins.
https://www.money.org/coin-grading-resources-ana/

braddick

@steve_richardson said:
Not necessarily. If it was a weak strike, it would not be 70. The ANA has a really nice webinar series that describes the grading of MS coins.
https://www.money.org/coin-grading-resources-ana/

Not just 'not necessarily'. Never.
Well, maybe not 'never' but hardly ever.
If so we would see an explosion in the pop reports for MS70 modern Lincoln cents and that simply is not the case.

Clackamas1

@Ownerofawheatiehorde said:
If you were to grab a penny as soon as it comes off the press, and put it into a flip, would it be MS-70 material? (asking for a friend)

No, but it could be very nice. The US coin and die sets are the first coins from that die and although you can make some great grades, MS68's, yes, never an MS70. Most of my 2006 mint set #1 circ strike set quarters are from US mint coin and die sets.

MarkKelley

Probably not. The planchet, dies and strike would all have to be essentially perfect for the grade of 70.

coinbuf

If both dies were new and this was one of the first few strikes, and the planchet was perfect, and if the dies were properly aligned and the striking pressure were correct, and you could grab it before it came into contact with any chutes or machine parts then yes in theory it could grade MS70. But that is a lot of ands.

may

@coinbuf said:
If both dies were new and this was one of the first few strikes, and the planchet was perfect, and if the dies were properly aligned and the striking pressure were correct, and you could grab it before it came into contact with any chutes or machine parts then yes in theory it could grade MS70. But that is a lot of ands.

I
I
V

Sapyx

A circulation coin press doesn't have many gaps in it where sticky fingers can just reach in and grab a coin like that. It's all sealed up, largely as an occupational health and safety thing - you don't want people's fingers getting in the way of high speed machinery. By the time a coin arrives in the inspection trap (where it's actually somebody's job to reach in, grab newly minted coins at random, and inspect them for flaws), it's already been bouncing around inside the mechanism for a while and jostling against other freshly minted coins. Not enough to make the coin ugly, but enough to pick up small "bag marks" that would disqualify it from attaining MS70.

And yes, you can be sure there are security cameras all over that inspector guy, to make sure he doesn't try to squirrel away any nice coins or unusual errors for himself.

may

@Sapyx said:
A circulation coin press doesn't have many gaps in it where sticky fingers can just reach in and grab a coin like that. It's all sealed up, largely as an occupational health and safety thing - you don't want people's fingers getting in the way of high speed machinery. By the time a coin arrives in the inspection trap (where it's actually somebody's job to reach in, grab newly minted coins at random, and inspect them for flaws), it's already been bouncing around inside the mechanism for a while and jostling against other freshly minted coins. Not enough to make the coin ugly, but enough to pick up small "bag marks" that would disqualify it from attaining MS70.

And yes, you can be sure there are security cameras all over that inspector guy, to make sure he doesn't try to squirrel away any nice coins or unusual errors for himself.

Shucks, better go change my signature.

Glen2022

Allow the mint to sell errors? Eliminate the National debt!

may

@Glen2022 said:
Allow the mint to sell errors? Eliminate the National debt!

That might be smart, sometimes I've thought what if the mint sells coins with progressive die states (starting out DMPL then going to total die shatter) letting the presses, just run. Maybe it’s just my weird coin fantasies.

ricko

Highly unlikely it would grade MS70... Perhaps if the dies were brand new, and indeed the machine could be stopped after one strike, maybe... Cheers, RickO