VKurtB

Really nice ‘07. 

NGC is not the place to “try” (in the court case sense of the word) an unlisted anything. They’re not in that game. They respond to varieties that are in published reference works only.

In a word, don’t. It is extremely odd that any state quarter would be worth having graded. MS67 would be pretty much a breakeven coin. You’d need an MS68 to make it worth doing.

Think of it this way. As a coin wears, that "moved metal" can only go two places. 1) It can be scraped off the high points and become 'crud' in the low points, or 2) It can be removed from the coin entirely. Look closely at the INSIDE of the pants pockets of your oldest pair of trousers. I bet there is evidence of copper and nickel rubbings. Yes, I'm an old guy and it takes a long time, and I have some VERY old pants. 

The TOP POP game can get particularly amusing / fun to laugh at in some cases where a somewhat unethical dealer will ask for moon money because they lucked into a "single finest top-pop" note or coin when they know full well that you can get uncirc examples by the bunch or by the roll for a couple of dollars per note / coin and there's probably a TON out there that could match or beat that example.
I had a journal recently where I bought a coin for about $20 that was TOP POP by grace of the fact that it's literally the only one anyone ever sent to NGC for grading.

For world coins I would agree that the number of raw coins far outweighs the number of slabbed, thus the opportunity for significant pop increases is a risk if playing the top pop game.   For US coinage, and especially the key dates, the number of graded examples (especially high grade coins) is higher than the raw coins.  However because of the constant crackout game the pop reports are totally useless for a great many US coins.

When you get to the early 30's and to the 1920's in dimes, mintmarked coins are worth more in any condition, with some exceptions.

Lighting IS everything, is it not?

I'm with Sargeant Schultz on this one - I see nuthink!

Any advice? Sure. Look up Carl Waltz in Millersville, Pennsylvania. He wrote, and self-published, THE key work on Matte Proof Lincoln’s. If Carl doesn’t know it, it isn’t known. He repeatedly wins top awards for his original research at ANA conventions. He’s an odd personality, but hey, in this hobby, who isn’t?
 
Also, work with the best specialist dealers out there, like Angel Dee’s.

Keep in mind, grading is as much art as science, and worse yet, all of it is an opinion.

NGC has noticed the problem of newbies finding "valuable rarities which are not". The linked news release should be required reading for all.
https://www.ngccoin.com/news/article/8181/
 

Keep in mind, grading is as much art as science, and worse yet, all of it is an opinion.

Good to see you back. I’m glad you had some nice things to say about us (I think) on Facebook. (Sometimes a spoon gets forked, right?) I’ll never see anything on Facebook because I refuse to play by Zuck’s rules. I really hate that guy. He’s evil on steroids.

You can tell by the cacti that it's southwest. 

Haven't you heard, Mark? This newer generation of collectors doesn't do "research" any more; they ask questions on forums. "That's what we're here for", right? /sarcasm alert

Not satin. Stop it! Long ago now you've stopped "asking" and are now "selling" the idea that it's satin. That's not how this works.

Sure beats my current 1918-D album coin, which is a barely G example. As for its base grade, I think VG is a little harsh. I think I'm seeing at least F, maybe a bit more.

My dad would have asked how you can tell the gender of the person who ran the striking press.

Not at all! The ANA and ANACS haven't had anything to do with each other for several decades. The LAST time they had ANYTHING to do with each other is now 30 years in the past.

I've started using the blue nitrile gloves, when gloves are called for, which isn't often.
 
What JKK said upthread cannot possibly be emphasized too much. There is a VAAAAASST territory between "meh, junk" and worthy of being graded. Did I mention it's vast? It's probably bigger than either extreme is. And once you become okay with that fact (and please do), there are even finer classifications, such as "cardboard 2x2 worthy", "Saflip worthy", "Capital Plastics holder worthy", "2x2 slide page worthy", "hard plastic holder worthy", 2x2x9 stock box worthy", "tube filler", "jar filler", and several others. And they ALL are neither junk nor worthy of being third party graded.

There is an area between "worth mostly metal value" and "worth having graded"--let's call it "worth protecting with at least a flip"--and it is quite possible that most of your best examples will fall into this category. You might want to handle these with clean cloth gloves (some dealers use throwaway linen gloves) or little rubber fingertips that I call leprechaun condoms. They sell by the bag. If you did happen to have a really nice high uncirculated coin, and you thumbed it while arranging it for photography, it might lose a couple of grade notches. With most coins, the higher the grade, the disproportionately more the value jumps. So if it's worth $10 at 63, $20 at 64, $40 at 65, and $145 at 66, and it was a 66 before it got an indelible thumbprint in handling, now it might be a 63 and careless handling made $135 evaporate.
No one can fully tell whether any of those Mercs have full split bands; too many crammed into one pic and too small. Plus they're not oriented correctly, which some people won't even bother looking at.

I think you can FORGET that concept. Only the top  2, IF both of them; no ICG, no ANACS, no anybody else. The ANA has exactly ONE official grading firm, and it's NGC.

Not at all! The ANA and ANACS haven't had anything to do with each other for several decades. The LAST time they had ANYTHING to do with each other is now 30 years in the past.

https://www.numismaticnews.net/article/50000-for-a-1959-d-lincoln-cent-mule
I hope you understand that all three major TPGs refused to authenticate the one single example known. There's not a chance that they would authenticate this one. We're all just trying to help here.