Well, since the answer won't be revealed until tomorrow, maybe a few more members can participate.
For those unfamiliar with the series, the highest points of the design (and the first to show wear) include the cheek and shoulder of Miss Liberty, the hair over Liberty's temple, the top edge of the eagle's left wing (viewer's right) where it crosses over the ribbon, and the lower part of the eagle's breast where it meets the shield.
The difficulty in grading this series is that the TYPICAL striking pressure was insufficient to bring up all of these high points fully. Even fully uncirculated specimens may show weakness and loss of detail in these areas. Such strike weakness can be distinguished from wear by carefully examining the coin's luster. If the luster flows smoothly across the weak area, then that area is weak from strike, not wear.
Here are a couple of PCGS-graded mint state dollars displaying these typical areas of weakness, even though they are deemed uncirculated:
Regarding the weakness at the "E PLU" of E PLURIBUS UNUM on the ribbon, every example I have seen of the 1802 narrow date dollar (including this one) has exhibited a die crack from the rim to the eagle's wing tip and then crossing the ribbon through the "P" in PLURIBUS. The die crack invariably creates an area of strike weakness. Here's a close-up of the area from a different 1802 dollar:
Mark, THANKS for posting just an interesting coin for discussion!
It has full luster, a nice strike, pretty color and, less "rub" or "cabinet friction" than most Bust Dollars, including many that are graded higher.
I had said that "I hope that there is no more than an 8 point range between the high and low guess". As, even from images which are difficult to judge by, I didn't think that anyone should grade it higher than 66 (since neither PCGS nor NGC have graded any MS67's) and, I didn't think a guess below AU58 was realistic / fair.
Unofficially, here are the guess grades from those who participated in this thread AND (more or less) gave just one grade:
Comments
And I will do so.......
Monday.
Special to thanks to Cardinal for his always-informative and interesting posts.
Monday
Getting old must be hell - gotta go back to the office and look it up, eh?
For those unfamiliar with the series, the highest points of the design (and the first to show wear) include the cheek and shoulder of Miss Liberty, the hair over Liberty's temple, the top edge of the eagle's left wing (viewer's right) where it crosses over the ribbon, and the lower part of the eagle's breast where it meets the shield.
The difficulty in grading this series is that the TYPICAL striking pressure was insufficient to bring up all of these high points fully. Even fully uncirculated specimens may show weakness and loss of detail in these areas. Such strike weakness can be distinguished from wear by carefully examining the coin's luster. If the luster flows smoothly across the weak area, then that area is weak from strike, not wear.
Here are a couple of PCGS-graded mint state dollars displaying these typical areas of weakness, even though they are deemed uncirculated:
Regarding the weakness at the "E PLU" of E PLURIBUS UNUM on the ribbon, every example I have seen of the 1802 narrow date dollar (including this one) has exhibited a die crack from the rim to the eagle's wing tip and then crossing the ribbon through the "P" in PLURIBUS. The die crack invariably creates an area of strike weakness. Here's a close-up of the area from a different 1802 dollar:
Mark, THANKS for posting just an interesting coin for discussion!
There is no way to determine the grade without knowing the......price.
2nd guess 58
3rd guess 63
4th guess 65
It has full luster, a nice strike, pretty color and, less "rub" or "cabinet friction" than most Bust Dollars, including many that are graded higher.
I had said that "I hope that there is no more than an 8 point range between the high and low guess". As, even from images which are difficult to judge by, I didn't think that anyone should grade it higher than 66 (since neither PCGS nor NGC have graded any MS67's
Unofficially, here are the guess grades from those who participated in this thread AND (more or less) gave just one grade:
AU55: 1
AU58 : 6
MS63 : 12
MS64: 6
MS65 : 5
MS66 : 1
Good job - I hope everyone enjoyed this and I thank you for your participation.
I saw that coin listed on Pinnacle's site last week. What a fine example of an early dollar. Unfortunatelly I wasn't the collector you sent it too.
great thread, thanks Mark.
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
<< <i>don't you just love a normal, bell curve distribution, centered around the PCGS grade? >>
Heck the left side of the bell curve didn't ring a bell for me?
...........................12
.......6
1
.............0. 0. 0
55/58/60/61/62/63