1865 3-Cent Nickel, you grade it???

kryptonitecomics

I just found this auction on Ebay and unless I am sadly mistakin', this coin doesn't grade anywhere near a BU. I can't even see the words on the obverse, and yet the seller states, "It is extremely well struck and shows every detail clearly"???????

Here's the link tell me what you think

Ebay

Mark

That coin looks about as uncirculated as I do...and, while I am younger than that 3-cent piece, nonetheless I am heavily circulated. Note that there appear to be die clashes on the coin: On the obverse, under the left side of the neck appears to be a straight line, down to the "1" in the date, which likely is the clashed outline of one of the III's on the reverse. And on the left side of the reverse, it sure looks like the outline of liberty's nose, lips, and chin from the obverse have been embedded into the reverse die.

Mark

airplanenut

With such a bad picture- VF-EF, tops

09sVDB

The coin appears to be harshly cleaned on the obverse and "very" well polished on the reverse. Hard to
tell exactly from the scan though.

BigD5

I can't tell too much from the scan, although it does look to be cleaned/polished. These coins are fairly easy to pick off, undergraded. If you go by strike alone, a lot of pieces look auish in detail, when in reality they are low grade unc. pieces with horrendous strikes. I can't tell you how many of these coins I have purchased raw as au's, that come back from the services as ms/61 and 62's. The luster is the key. If it's unbroken, even if it's dull, it's most likely an unc. coin. Now, I'm not saying the services are getting these right either, just some results I've had

kryptonitecomics

I would have to agree with you completely on the strikes bigD5. I have been looking at coin after coin and some of these things look EF with wear the strikes are so bad. This one in particular looks less than UNC or AU to me do to all of the lettering on the obverse being almost non existent. On most of the coins I have been seeing there are clearly weak spots on the coin, but not usually the entire Obverse or entire Reverse, just parts of the devices. I'm not saying it's impossible and the scan leaves a lot to be desired, but the reverse looks highly polished to me as well. Being that it is the most common date I think I would need a heck of a lot better scan than that before shelling out my money.