Kennedy guys help me out here............paging russ
jbsteven
Posts: 6,178 ✭
I am looking through the 2002 Kennedys I got today and have never had to grade a Kennedy before so, I need to know what ms63,64,65,66,67,68 coins have or don't have mark wise to be considered for each grade. These are circulation grade coins and seem to have some hairlines and of course some have some bag marks.
Please let me know how many hairlines are considered ok for each grade.
Please let me know how many hairlines are considered ok for each grade.
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Comments
With Kennedy's even the slightest marks are going to count. As you look at the coins you have try to look for surfaces that look almost prooflike with no bagmarks at all - you should be able to find some of these gems. These will be the MS67/68's. You will find that a lot of them have minute hits on the surfaces when looking under 10X magnification - the more of these that you have, the lower the grade. Anything that impairs the surface seems to count on Kennedy's. One or more major hits on the face of Kennedy or on the shield in the reverse will put you in MS64/65 land. I'd scan some pictures, but really, you have to look at a lot of these and look at them really really close. The way I've been doing it is to give one pass at all the coins, pick out the ones that I think are knock outs, give it about an hour's rest, and then look over the knockouts and pick out the best. Doing it this way I've been able to catch a good number of 66's and a few 67's - I haven't run into any 68's other than already slabbed.
Frank
PS - before anyone has a stroke - I'm talking about CuproNickel Business Strikes here - Silvers I think are a different animal all together.
But, I can tell you how I approach grading proofs if that will help.
When I first pull out the coin, I give it a few seconds on each side under a 100 watt desk lamp. If the coin doesn't scream at me with it's strike, brilliance and surfaces, slap me across the face and yell "I'M PERFECT", it automatically gets stuffed in a tube without further review. Very, very few make it past stage one.
As an aside, I'd note that when I first started, I found it VERY hard to do the above. I wanted to study every coin to death because I was sure I would screw up and not send in a great coin. But, after a while I realized that - at least with moderns - that first impression pretty much makes or breaks the coin.
If it does give me that kind of first impression in stage one, I rotate it under the light on both sides looking for hairlines. If I find any hairlines, in to the roll it goes. If I find no hairlines, then and only then do I pull out the loop for a closeup.
After all is said and done, about 1 in 50 brilliants gets submitted, and even then those schmucks at PCGS don't know a 69 coin even when it bites them on the butt.
With Accented Hairs and cameos, though, the criteria is not nearly as strict. In other words, most of my submissions are cameos and AH's and very few garden variety proofs.
Here is the obverse of an MS65 business strike that I submitted when I first started.
The reverse on that particular coin was pristine, the best I've seen on a 1964. It ended up in a 65 holder because of the hits to his upper cheek, the base of the portrait and the lettering in the motto. You can use that as a center point for grading them.
Russ, NCNE