When Did Full Steps & Full Torch etc become a thing?

john_nyc1

Collected in the late 70's / early 80's have zero recollection of these designations! Is it my memory etc or did these designations inc FBL become important some time since then? tx

JeffersonFrog

For Full Steps, from an old Board thread:

PAK was formed on April 1, 1977 by Philip Petrillo, Adolf Weiss, and Karl Nenninger. It was the first club devoted to the collection of full step nickels. The club had about 100 members within the first two years of existence.
...
PAK published its Full Step Grading Guide in 1979 which defined the grading of full steps in the market place. Current grading standards have drifted and are now somewhat different.

Clackamas1

Full steps were a thing in the 80's for sure. I remember as a kid seriously collecting them and looking for Full steps. FB? I don't know since I did not seriously collect them at the time.

CCDollar

You could get a good answer to this a while back but all the people who could explain it have been banned...LOL...take care...
CC

cladking

I was collecting what I called 21 step nickels back in the mid-'70's. These are coins with all seven lines sharp and the sets of stairs on either side sharp as well. There aren't many dates that come this way but the most common two are the '41 and '71-D. In those days you could even find a few in circulation almost all the way to high end XF.

messydesk

A Red Book collector would be able to tell when the terminology was first used there. The 1962 edition is silent on those, but it does say that full-head SLQs are worth a premium. Full bell lines on a Franklin half are probably more recent (80s?). Full-torch Roosevelt dimes are very recent in comparison. Still no official "full thumb" designation for Walkers, though.

Maywood

I believe PCGS issued the Full Steps designation at their inception but the Full Torch designation didn't come along until around 2003.

ProofCollection

Full Torch is an NGC thing. PCGS uses Full Bands.