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Strike quality across a series?
Mikey
Posts: 477
Which coin has the greatest variation in strike quality? I'm not talking about variations, like Morgans, but the strength or weakness of a given series. Walking Liberty halves seem to be one series that has a lot of variety in the strike quality. I see a lot of MS66 halves in graded MS66.
When I was a child, I caught a fleeting glimpse
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We'll use our hands and hearts and if we must we'll use our heads.
C.
If you want to talk years it's hard to beat the fifties for strike weakness.
Glen
Ken
The Ludlow Brilliant Collection (1938-64)
1920s. Don't know anything about moderns (for me, moderns are anything after the Walker).
Re 19th Century coinage in copper and silver, any series of pre-steam press coins. There are a few fully struck Draped Bust Half Cents & you can find a fully struck Capped Bust Half, but you have to do quite a bit of looking.
Ditto re late date (1850s) Braided Hair Large & Half Cents (the denticles, rims and star radials on these coins are usually pretty poor in all grades of business strikes).
Due to the metal content & resulting difficulties re striking the Flyers, you can add that one to the list as well.
"Seu cabra da peste,
"Sou Mangueira......."
The buffalo nickel because of the hardness of the metal. Jeffersons have some problems but not as much as the buffalos. Some buffalos had EF details right off the press when compared to others.
Standing liberty quarters are all over the place as far as strike. Grading allowances must be made for many because some are so weakly struck. Most of the 20's from San Francisco are terribly struck. The 27-S is one that was terribly struck. I am familiar with this series and I have learned that if you have the two buttons on the leg with the line between them, you have a very good strike. (illistrated) Even though not a full head the strike has to be good to get this particular detail.
Each series of the 20th century have some weak strikes and I guess that most collectors of a specific series are familiar with the series they collect.
I would think the reasons are many for weak strikes. Metal, die preperation, quanity struck from worn out dies, and striking pressure. I'm sure there are other reasons also.
Most if not all the currently produced coins have been re-engraved to sharpen the images and produce better looking coins. My opinion, some for the better and some for the worse.
Enjoy the hunt..