What Grade?

[murphy]

What would you grade this cent? I marked the most obvious flaws that I could find...(thank you)

[variatease]

Hi, Murphy. That's a nice one, I would submit it to see if it gets a 67 or higher. I try to buy PCGS67's of newer Lincoln's to use to evaluate my nice ones before I submit if the price is not too high. Then again, if the price is not very high...You never know when you might get a 68.

Bill

[coppercoins]

It's MS66RD with a shot at MS67RD. No way it's a 68.

[murphy]

Hi Bill, thanks for your reply. I wasn't interested in submitting this particular coin for grading. I was only interested in finding out if rim dings count off as much as dings on the obverse and reverse. I have a few coins that may grade 68 or 69 and got them all out of mint sets. The best ones I get from looking through new bank wrapped rolls look like this one. I'm thinking that maybe I should stop looking so much for quality coins and look for the Varieties/Errors when searching new BWR's. I need to generate some cash to build up my collection. I'm no dealer, I'm just a small-time collector who has found some Wide AM's in circulated rolls from the bank and was thrilled about that! Sold them on EBay for $5 each, lol. I've bought a few books(Coppercoin's book is the greatest!) and learned that there's more out there besides the Wide AM's. But they're so hard to find in bank coins. Quality coins are so far and few between! I'm finding out that there's a better way in looking through mint sets and I'm also learning some of the dealer's tricks of the trade and thinking "why can't I do that?". I don't see enough high grade cents to know what one looks like, so I just ask here. I'm your typical noobie who dreams of making daily killings as a dealer. I just need to learn some more things while on my way to knowing what the heck I'm doing. One thing being, how to grade a nice coin.
Bill, your suggestion is a good one and I will try to pay attention to all the ms-67's or better that I see at coin shops/shows so I'll know a really good one when I see one. I once owned a 1995-DDO#1 in ms-68 NGC that had the ugliest bunch of bag marks over the Liberty, but also had the pertiest reverse I ever saw. It sparkled like a diamond, a flawless one. The cartwheels looked like they would jump out and grab me. I loved the reverse on that coin, but hated those unsightly bag marks on the obverse. I got rid of it for just a little more than I paid for it after two years. But that lesson taught me to consider both sides of the coin, not just one. And now I'm ready to learn another lesson about grading - rims, how much do they count?

[coppercoins]

One hint...on a modern Lincoln (memorial) if you can see ANY tics or bag marks anywhere on the coin it's not a 68. Wheats are graded with a slightly different scale - if they have blazing hot luster and have a tic or two you still have a chance at 68.

[variatease]

I was not saying it was a 68, I never offer grade opinions, except on my stuff when trying to figure out what to submit. My point was that by having a PCGS67 in hand, it will asist you in deciding which of yours are worth submitting, and you never know when you will get a 68, which is where you need to get for recent business strikes for them to be worth more than the grading fee. A coin from dealer stock is just one person's opinion with a seller's agenda, while PCGS has a team look at each coin without financial motive. On the variaties, try to get uncirc rolls of wheats, still lots of double dies and rpm's/omm's out there, believe it or not. The early sixties are good also, hard to find a 1960d or 1961d 1c roll without an rpm, and they are cheap. Word of warning, rolls on ebay, while plentiful, are most likely searched. If you find a seller who sells rolls that have some variaties, stick with them. Have fun, Murphy.

Bill

[murphy]

Thank you all for the input. It won't go to waste.