Eisenhower Gift Grade ?!?

19Lyds

Would one of the IKE Experts please explain how this coin could have gotten an MS66 Grade?

Heritage Link



It may have great luster but that scrape in front of IKEs eye is pretty serious not to mention that huge gouge below the bust to the right of the MM!

cupronik

That coin was apparently graded over four years ago.

These days I routinely receive Ikes better than this 78-D in MS-64 holders from PCGS.

cladking

That big "gouge" under the "L" is actually a very shallow scrape. The one by the "8" appears to be in the plastic.

I suspect that the coin is a knockout in hand and has a slightly PL reverse. It's surprising they gave it the bump since this date isn't that tough in gem. Looks like a low end 65 with a bump to me.

It's almost certainly a mint set coin.

cladking

In quarters it is much easier to differentiate between mint set coins and those made for circulation because there were so very few saved that any coin well struck by new dies has an extremely high probability of coming from a mint set. With Ikes it's more problematical because they were more actively collected and saved. Collectors are more likely to seek and retain nice specimens than poor from any source. There were also a much higher number of gems (proportionately) made for general circulation in the Ikes. Obviously all gem Ikes are quite scarce. Still the newness of the die that struck this specimen stands out. The rich, dense, creamy luster is extremely typical of the mint set coins for this date. And even that die looks familiar. The coins made for circulation in '78 had a sort of "lighter" look to them. They are bright and very white without the "closely packed" look of the mint set coins.

Steve27

"The one by the "8" appears to be in the plastic."

That looks like a reed mark on the coin to me.

IMO it's no better than a 64.

19Lyds

Well, I've looked at the Heritage image over and over again and I just do not think that the gouge above the "8" is in the plastic. There appears to be nothing else that would indicate a mishandled slab.

It will be interesting to see where the hammer falls on this piece!

GoldenEyeNumismatics

maybe it was 5 pm on a friday when this coin was graded

Rampage

Wow. That looks like an MS64 to me, too.