Should this steel cent have been awarded an MS68 by PCGS?

dan1ecu

MS68 Steel Cent

It's got a hit on the face...

Dan

LincolnCentMan

Nope, that one should not be in a 68 holder. The graders must have missed the hit.

David

Coppernicus

Dan - Are you referring to the hit in his beard? If so, my guess is that it is almost invisible without magnification and the angle of the light in the photo may have accentuated it. My 67 has no hits like this one, but I can't tell the difference between your average 67 and average 68...

Mike

SkidMark

I wonder if you where to brake it out of the plastic if the scratches would go away? Just a thought.

dorkkarl

it seems like a typical heritage digi-pic of absurdly poor quality, making it absolutely impossible to assess the grade. i'd PASS on this lot regardless.

K S

Steve27

That pcgs slab has so many scatches on it, I don't think you can see what is actually on the coin. However, I'm more concerned about the black dot on the reverse.

Dog97

I see it. It's not in the beard or on the slab. It's right behind Abe's nose. Agreed, the picture does not grade 68 even if the strike & luster is killer. It's most likely that in hand it's actually a tiny shallow tick and the lighting flashing it & creating a shadow which makes it look like a HUGE gouge. The crappy scuffy rev is what yucks me out.

ziggy29

I can't tell for sure what's on the holder and what's on the coin. Having said that, I think there's enough on the coin that 68 is a bit of a stretch. Keeping in mind that I can't tell with all these scratches (and the notoriousness of Heritage pictures), if it were raw and has the marks I *think* it has, it would be a very solid 66 with a shot at 67.

robertpr

While the picture isn't that great, I can't see how this coin would be any better than a 65, on a good day.

shylock

Dan - It looks like a hit on the face but it doesn't show up on a previous sale of the same coin. Given the grade I'd guess the plastic picked up a scratch and the lighting is now reflecting it off the coin. It's hard to believe PCGS would grade it 68 with a hit like that. Another example of the perils of judging a coin from an image.

ziggy29

<< <i>While the picture isn't that great, I can't see how this coin would be any better than a 65, on a good day. >>

Figuring that a fair number of the marks are on the holder, and knowing that this is a Heritage picture, I suspect the coin is better than that. But it doesn't look 68.

Shamika

I think that is a scratch on the slab.