Why is the 1963-D penny so difficult in high grade?
Dennis88
Posts: 5,797 ✭✭✭
Went through 300 coins from unopened rolls from a bank in San Francisco this weekend. Most were spotted. Those which were not often had numerous small scratches in the fields are a terribly strike. Found one which might be a 65 on a lucky day...although at first glance they didn't look that bad.
Why is this particular issue so tough?
Dennis
Why is this particular issue so tough?
Dennis
0
Comments
I made a small "hoard" of MS66RD coins from a single roll nearly a decade ago but the well has run dry since then. Tough coin in nice quality 66RD and nearly impossible in solid MS67RD grade!
Wondercoin
I once read that the quality of the strips from which planchets were punched, as well as the manner of their storage, can affect a coin's propensity to spot or discolor, but I don't know if that's true. As for scratches and other marks, I don't know what else the answer could be except that in later years, the machinery used to process a coin from strike to shipment was abusive, especially at the Philly mint. I'd love to hear an authoritative answer to the OP's question.
Whit
I wasn't trying to waste my time in either case.
BTW, I sent 100 of these bulk rejects to NGC and they slabbed 58 coins in MS66RD.
I haven't "made" this coin in MS66RD in the past five years. Without a doubt, the 63-D is by far the toughest Lincoln Memorial Cent in MS66RD and better.
Jaime Hernandez even comments on this issue on Coin Facts. He went through three bags w/o finding a single gem. He, too, made several 66Rd's from a single roll.
(Though nowhere as rare, another Linc Memorial cent I like in MS66 and better is the 1974-S.)
Dennis
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Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
Common in all grades, although coins with good eye appeal are in the minority. Sharpness of strike
varies: perhaps most of the inferior strikes came from poorly prepared planchets (per David W. Lange).
It is to be remembered that the obverse hub dies, slowly but surely over the decades, lost detail,
with the result that a cent of 1963, or any other year of this era, will not hold a candle in detail to a
cent of 1916 (when details were sharpened). A "good" strike in the modern era is one that, the hub
considered, is good within the context of the era.
(excerpted with permission)
<< <i>Do you have to call QDB and get permission or can you just give it to yourself, being the publisher? >>
I can grant it at my own discretion as Whitman's publisher.