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Once removed from their orginal sets how can anyone tell
AUandAG
Posts: 24,923 ✭✭✭✭✭
the difference between a 1965,6,7 special mint set half, from a regular UNC roll half?
Not my series and I'm pulling my hair trying to figure out the difference. Is there any?
bob
Not my series and I'm pulling my hair trying to figure out the difference. Is there any?
bob
Registry: CC lowballs (boblindstrom), bobinvegas1989@yahoo.com
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sending in because I think its Full Step.............PROBLEM though.....the whole roll is somewhat
prooflike............I'm not gonna waste any money
Steve
The only thing that "all" SMS have in common that "no" circulation strikes have is that they were struck under higher pressure. Additionally all SMS were struck with new dies while fewer than 5% of circulation issues were struck with new dies. After this itr gets exceedingly complicated. Some SMS dies were basined and very few others were. Most SMS dies were polished and other dies were not. All SMS dies were well made and many others were not. Some SMS planchets were polished and very few others were. Most SMS coins were washed and dried while others weren't. A very few SMS coins were struck twice and probably no others. Many SMS dies were frosted and no others.
Now add in the fact that the SMS's were struck in San Francisco and the retired SMS dies were used to strike coins there with no mint mark and you can see just how complex this is. Coins that come out of SMS's can be highly PL or even proofs while coins made for circulation can also be PL. It can be extremely difficult to positively identify a coin as SMS. With experience you can separate 1000 SMS from 1000 regular business strikes with better than 99.5% accuracy but you can't prove you're correct unless you set it up in advance. The services simply err on the side of caution and call most very high grade examples SMS. As a rule this should work well since almost allhigh grade examples are SMS.
Of course it's a shame when you find a Gem in a roll or bag but what can be done? A lot of people can tell so the coin just might get a premium anyway.
I have seen more Kennedy Halves that are SMS but are graded as business strikes than all of the other denominations combined.
Quite a few dimes too.It's frustrating when you find a killer 65,66,67 business strike coin and you KNOW it's not SMS but you're reluctant to send it in.
I don't want to sound like I'm tooting my own tooter but I've examined literally thousands upon thousands of these SMS sets, and I think I can tell the difference better than the guys who are getting paid for it.
But that's just my opinion and ain't worth a damn.
CladKing is correct though; with a lot of patience it is possible to sell a mislabeled business strike at a premium if you find the buyer who knows his stuff.
saved the halves and spent the rest. Nothing else worth keeping. Now a dozen or more years
since I broke up the sets I see that I have an additional 200 UNC halves from those years. Of course
I somehow mixed them all up or at least it seems so now. I cannot tell diddly or one from another.
My UNC regulars look the same to me...Maybe a few have bag marks and on the SMS you would
not expect this so I can rule those out....Now just have 200 to sort.
Oh well, thanks for the help....just what I expected. Like driving through the drive through, 'eh?
bob
The answer given by NGC employee Dena was:
"I consulted with David Lange, NGC Research Director on this one. He tells me the 1965 SMS coins ranged from semi PL to fully PL and can be a little deceptive, especially when toned. The safest distinction point is the smoothness of the fields from deliberate polishing of the dies. MS dies that were polished in the conventional manner just to remove flaws and signs of erosion typically will show irregular polishing lines not seen on SMS coins."
bob