Saturday morning Grade the Mercs. Six different coins so beware.

Fairlaneman

Just for fun and all are graded differently by PCGS except for two that have the same grade. See how close you can come to the given PCGS opinions. By the way I believe all are correctly graded except one. See if you can pick the one coin out of the bunch.













Ken

JrGMan2004

MS64FB
MS66
MS65FB
MS65FB
MS64FB
MS67

Best I can do with pictures... and I also got the sun shining on my screen...

Fairlaneman

George that is close but just a tad off. Not bad at all for trying this with pictures... A little hint on one coin, Eye Appeal comes into play with the grade IMO.

Ken

darktone

#1-MS65FB

#2-MS66

#3-MS64FB

#4-MS63FB

#5-MS54FB

#6-MS66

JrGMan2004

The only change then that I could think to make to my guess, would be on #2, as a 67... #6 I think would have great eye appeal in hand, and looks nice, which is why I gave it a 7... for me, the toning on the others looks to splotchy to give it great eye appeal compared to #2 and #6...*shrug* Just my opinion

Fairlaneman

Holy Smoke....MS54 ! Is that coin that bad ?

So far one coin is being missed badly on the PCGS opinion that was given.

Ken

JrGMan2004

I've seen a couple instances where PCGS has undergraded coins with color b/c it might hide hits... like the coin in my sig line, it's in a 5 holder, but would easilly be a 6 without the color...

Fairlaneman

Market acceptable on the color and I believe on a smaller coin this comes into play just a little more than it would on a large coin like a Morgan Dollar. Just like the amount of hits and the size of them versus a large coin.

Ken

fcloud

65fb
66
65fb
64fb
65fb
67

Fairlaneman

Hmmm....I'm thinking I better take two coins to the ANA Show in Portland for opinions instead of only one.

Ken

marcmoish

17D 63FB
19-S 65
20 65FB
24D 64FB
28S 65FB
45 66



JMHO, and off the scans




Marc

Merc

17D 64FB
19-S 66 almost FB
20 65FB
24D 64FB
28S 65FB
45 67

Fairlaneman

Here are the grades for the Mercs.

I believe only Marc got the 17D correct at the 63FB that it is graded. This is the coin that IMO was cut back a point for some darker tone that is just not real attractive on the obverse. If this coin was conserved it would go 64 I think. The coin that is under graded, again IMO, is the 28S that is a 65FB coin right now. This coin will be taken to the Portland ANA Show to get a couple of opinions from dealers on whether I should spend the money for a upgrade try. This coin is actually the only coin I have ever had that I believe deserves a shot at upgrade.

17D....63FB. Discussed above.
19S....66.... You do not get them much better than this for the date.
20P....65FB. Nice coin but a couple of ticks away from a higher grade. Struck up like crazy.
24D....64FB. Held back because of the grainy appearance that many 24's show.
28S....65FB. A darn nice coin.
45S....67....and it deserves the grade.

Ken

Coppernicus

I cannot grade these, but the 1919-S is my favorite. I tried to start a registry set of these a while back but lost interest. I sold all but one of them. I kept it as a "type" coin. I love the look of the Mercs but for some resaon, they didn't light my collecting fire.

Also, I had a few MS66 FB that had no eye appeal. The one I kept is a 65, no FB but it GLOWS!!

Very nice coins, Fairlaneman!!!

Mike

JrGMan2004

Darn, only 3 points off... I've developed a fairly decent instinct for what a MS Merc grades... at least from pictures... I think I can guess correctly to at least 1 point... and of course, since it's an opinion... you know...

marcmoish

Ken,

The 45 I kept it to a 66 solely based on the scan as I love it and first shot is a slam dunk 67 - gorgous eye appeal too - but I saw an X adove W's initials (likely a toning phenomenom) and a nick below the E motto on reverse. Are there any such markings?

Or am I just too freakin fussy



Marc

Dimetime

64FB
65
64FB
65FB
66FB
67

Fairlaneman

Marc the obverse is mark free but what you saw on the reverse is on the coin. I think that only one 67 that I have ever purchased has had a mark free reverse. Almost always though the obverse is pristine. This goes for both PCGS and NGC. Myself I like both sides clean but it looks like the grading services are content with a clean obverse.

George like I said before,not bad at all on your grading from pictures.

Ken

berylcoin

My grades before reading the results were:

64
65
66fb
64fb
65fb
67

I thought luster would carry the day on the 19-S and 20. Is the 19-S that subdued in person? On the 17-D my first thought was "looks like a 63" but I couldn't really find anything that would hold it at that level so I gave it a 64. Fun test.

BC