Luster breaks - how damaging to a coin's grade?

dan1ecu

Greetings, All -

I've seen lots of 65's with luster breaks in fields and on devices. Apparently they don't exclude a coin from the gem category. Do any of you know if there are rules of thumb that the grading services follow when it comes to downgrading a coin because of luster breaks? To what extent should they appear on a 66? How about a 67 or 68?

Dan

darktone

Dan, their is no set rule on luster breaks- you must use the whole coin to determine the grade and not just on attribute. mike

291fifth

Luster breaks on 65's and up are going to put the coin's grade into question when it comes time to sell. In a market as apparently now exists (softening, though the hype says otherwise) coins with luster breaks are going to be hard sells.

roadrunner

Luster breaks ARE the coins grade or at least the #1 factor imo for a MS coin.

Defining the severity of breaks from "grazes" to "full open areas devoid of luster" is a tough issue for many. If you see full wide breaks in the fields of 64 and up coins (andhese abound in slabbed bust & seated coins), avoid them. But even superb MS67 coins will have a touch of graze on the highest points of the coin from coin-to-coin contact at the mint and banks. I have seen very few MS67 and 68 coins with no signs of high point grazes. And usually, a lack of high point grazes coincides with a lack of contact marks. This is a general statement but often true. By the time a coin starts to show actual rub on the hight points the fields are usually heavily grazed
(chattered) or devoid of large areas of luster (10-80% missing).
I still reel when I see NGC MS 65 seated half dimes and dimes with 20-40% obv field luster. No doubt, such coins circulated in their past.
But today some are slabbed as gem mint state. In this strange case, a lack of luster didn't hurt the grade one bit....go figure!

roadrunner

roadrunner

Luster breaks ARE the coins grade or at least the #1 factor imo for a MS coin.

Defining the severity of breaks from "grazes" to "full open areas devoid of luster" is a tough issue for many. If you see full wide breaks in the fields of 64 and up coins (andhese abound in slabbed bust & seated coins), avoid them. But even superb MS67 coins will have a touch of graze on the highest points of the coin from coin-to-coin contact at the mint and banks. I have seen very few MS67 and 68 coins with no signs of high point grazes. And usually, a lack of high point grazes coincides with a lack of contact marks. This is a general statement but often true. By the time a coin starts to show actual rub on the hight points the fields are usually heavily grazed
(chattered) or devoid of large areas of luster (10-80% missing).
I still reel when I see NGC MS 65 seated half dimes and dimes with 20-40% obv field luster. No doubt, such coins circulated in their past.
But today some are slabbed as gem mint state. In this strange case, a lack of luster didn't hurt the grade one bit....go figure!

roadrunner