FBL, FS, FSB

coindaughter

PCGS's offer to note full torch got me thinking: when did they start notating full bell lines, full steps, etc?

jom

I'm pretty certain FB and FH were designated since the beginning in 1986

FBL was, what, 1997 or so? FS was a little bit after that....something like that...

jom

sinin1

that would be a good question for bossman - homerunhall - on Tuesday night in the Q & A forum.

And why did they start with Jeffersons, Mercurys, Standing Liberties, and Franklins and not any others.

Baley

it's probably driven by the market, by specialists who use the strike marker as a screen to help find full strikes: not always perfect but generally reliable.

I would like to see a service not just say if a coin is FBL or not or FS or not, but rather render an opinion as to what % the strike is full, from 0 to 100%. Of course this would be a higher (read: more expensive) submission, but lots of people would pay more for a more accurate opinion.

Then maybe they could render opinions on a 0-100% scale as to how "original" the surfaces appear.

Then they could add a class of service that evaluates luster for AU and MS coins on a 50-70 scale.

and then they could separate out wear, marks, etc, and grade those separately, too, if the coin was expensive enough to warrant the additional documentation by a team of expert.

I know I would feel a lot more comfortable buying expensive coins if a slab co. did all this.

jom

<< <i>And why did they start with Jeffersons, Mercurys, Standing Liberties, and Franklins and not any others. >>



Like I said, they only started with Merc and Standers with PCGS. The Jeffs and Franklin's came much later. As to "any others", I don't think there are many. The "full torch" thing somewhat surprised me. As opposed to the some other designations, this FT things is something I've never heard of. It seems to be more of a latter day "on-line" creation whereas the others have been around among collectors for years. I may be wrong about the FBL however....as I don't remember much talk about them before PCGS started the designation. But the FB, FH and Full Steps have been talked and written about in articles for at least 25 years.

jom

Gilbert

According to the first edition of Tomaska's Franklin Half Dollars, which was published in 1997, "A few months before this book was going to print, PCGS, NGC, ANACS and PCI all announced they would begin grading mint state Franklin halves for Full Bell Lines."

I can't tell you about the other designations.