Henri Charriere

Relying heavily on my negative-three Intelligence Quotient, which has been documented frequently and reliably by numerous accredited authorities, I feel confident in making the following outrageous assertion universally ridiculed by the experts: the reign of the Classic copper cent lasted only a half-century when a pair of wheat ears was substituted for a pile of stone. Any penny minted before the advent of the Lincoln cent is exempt from this condemnation for obvious reasons: with few exceptions they were made using real copper which produced an unmistakable authentic ring when dropped or spun on a smooth surface unlike the copper-colored mascara applied to the pseudo pennies of the past sixty years.

And what about old dinosaurs like me who sit on a bed, raise both legs simultaneously, whilst pulling both through a pair of trousers? [Nothing personal, zadok. It's just that all the other participants on this thread conspired (publicly, of course) to block me in one well-coordinated attack.]

Well, let's see... those who are not of the Caucasian persuasion will take offense at the mere suggestion of blacking out a background some have described as the "rambling nonsense" I have produced on occasion and, without knowing which thirty-seven have adopted the religious doctrine, "Thou shalt ignore those who have incited you to mutter incoherently under your breath," it will be impossible to determine with a degree of scientific certainty who among those with an aggregate 150-plus years of professional numismatic experience you may have inexplicably gotten to agree with you. Anybody in the market for gaudy psychedelic slabs?

As the owner of the No.: 1 Registry Set of the above-titled matter [Rooster Roster] my question to collectors is why is it both TPG have produced the following glaringly disparate grading populations results for the following years, as follows: 1899-1906, Mint State-67 = Zero or None (unavailable at any price despite mintages well into the millions. By contrast, 1907-1914, Mint State-67 = 40 (pejoratively dismissed as re-strikes) My question posed to fellow rooster collectors who have been stymied in completing their quality compilations is why do you suppose that is?

Would anyone care to venture a guess as to why of the 117 million minted not a single rooster has been graded MS-67, or higher by any TPG service?