Why is attractive, AU, classic head gold so difficult?

Higashiyama

AU classic head gold seems uniformly less attractive than bust coinage or the coronet type. Even coins graded AU58 seem quite scuffed up -- the attached seems typical. (David Lawrence views this as quite attractive for the grade)



Classic Head 2 1/2 gold


Is it just me, or is the classic head design a difficult type coin? Why?

dorkkarl

uh, david lawrence slabs half-a-dozen stars on all their coins.

regarding the classic-heads, poor strikes are the culprit. that & feeble attempts at preservation

K S

Higashiyama

dk -- yes, DL gives 95 % of their coins either 4 or 5 stars, but I think it accurate to say that a 3-star coin is subpar, a 4-star coin is mid-range, and a 5-star coin is in the top third or so for the grade (which is of course different from saying the coin is truly PQ). But, most DL 5-star coins are attractive for the grade.

The coin posted seems unattractive, but seems typical for the series.

dorkkarl

in my opinion, the worst job done by pcgs is on colonials (& btw, i note that ngc is blithely following in their footsteps). the 2d worst job they do is on classic-head gold. at csns, 1 of the high-end dudes had a pcgs ms-63 $5 ... w/ an awful staple scratch right down liberty's face. NOT a strike-thru, a staple -scratch. even w/out the scratch, the coin was ms-61 at best. it ranks up there w/ ms f-12 no-horn 1926-s buffalo that they graded vf-35

your best defense is to find a coin dealer who knows what the he11 he's talking about when it comes to c-h gold. you might pm billjones

K S