Surface grading
RYK
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In a previous thread, BillJones brought up the topic of "surface grading, " which I understand very little about. Can anyone (including Bill) explain what is involved, illustrate examples, etc.?
Robert
Robert
0
Comments
For beginners if the main devices of the coin are weak and appear to be only in VF or even Fine, yet there is luster in protected areas, like the lettering, one might make the case that such a coin is really in EF condition. Usually an EF-45 will have some luster left inside the letters, but the fields are often dulled. Overall the coin will be close to Mint State sharpness, yet obviously circulated to the experienced observer.
I don't have very many pieces that illustrate this, but here is an example. Both of these Civil War tokens are variety 36/340a, which a very popular anti-slavery piece that was issued in fairly large quantiies. The relief on the head of Ms. Liberty on this piece was engraved in high relief, which almost always causes the reverse to be weak in the center and often leaves some detail missing in Ms. Liberty's hat.
Both tokens show about the same amount of detail, but if you look at the surfaces you will see a great deal of mint luster coming from the token on the left and none from the piece on the right. As for grades, the token on the left is an MS-63, brown when the token in the right is an EF-40 or so. To be conservative I've labeled it VF-30 for resale.
I hope this gets the discussion started.
it seems what you're talking about is understanding the subtleties of strike which are peculiar to certain issues, and learning to seperate that from a standardized appearance. a good example might be Buffalo Nickels. i've never heard it called by any special name and assume it's just a personal one used by Bill. you probably already practice a method similar to what's been described.
al h.
What it amounts to is
You can't grade a coin's wear based on detail that was never there. For example, check out the wing on the following two bust halves both of which I call EF.
<< <i>Exactly...
What it amounts to is
You can't grade a coin's wear based on detail that was never there. For example, check out the wing on the following two bust halves both of which I call EF.
Yep the top coin looks like an AU although the sharpness in the area of the eagle's head and wing looks like an AG.
How bout this? Struck with a cocked die, that caused uneven rims and uneven wear on the obv and also has a die bulge in the upper shield typical of the marriage, that also caused weakness in the middle of the bust... what do you grade it?
42/92