Lem E

5 years of this mess to wade through. Thanks for nothing US Mint.

That 06 is beat to hell. Scratches and marks all over the obverse and it simply looks like a regular strike finish. Below is the coin that got me looking into this particular subject. Graded as a MS-68 6FS coin. Pop of 2/0. When I got it in hand I was pretty certain it wasn’t a regular finish coin but I wanted to see other examples. After getting my SMS sets I was convinced it was not a regular strike. It’s just too clean.

I apologize for straying off topic from the original heading of this post but in the grand scheme of things it is relevant. Here is another shot of that same Kennedy half from above pulled out of the packaging and I set it next to a 1995 example that was given to me as change from a gas station. I know there were no SMS coins in 95. If there is some type of “special finish” that was used in 1995 I am unaware of it. The 06 is just a complete turd. The reverse isn’t nearly as bad.

I think these coins are going to be a slippery slope. I think it is going to be hard to tell the difference between a nice MS coin and a bad SMS coin. I have a little experimental project going on with these. I don’t have a lot of experience with the SMS coins or really any of the coins from this date span. I bought 4 2006 uncirculated sets and 4 rolls of mint wrapped nickels also dated 2006. I’m not even sure what will be in the rolls. I’m hoping they are just regular coins. A nice SMS coin is pretty obvious but, in just the two uncirculated sets that I have looked at, I have noticed a difference in the quality. The Kennedy half in one of the sets doesn’t even resemble the Kennedy half in the other set. I figured I would try to collect up some examples of both types of coins and do some comparisons. I would like to see if I can find any type of marker or design element that would help differentiate between the two other than just the finish. The rolls are supposed to be here today but I am at work. From the info I have gathered, all of the uncirculated sets from the mint from 2005-2010 are considered the SMS/satin finish coins. There were no regular coins in these sets. Here are the two Kennedy halves. Both from sealed SMS sets and the difference in the finishes is quite a gap.

Nice color on that one robec. Thanks for posting it.

Thanks Neo. I still have a long way to go. Usually when I get into something I hit it pretty hard. I was borderline obsessed with it for quite a while. I’ve definitely had my lumps and bumps along the way.

I’m starting to run into a similar attribution problem as I start to get into the SMS/satin finish coins from 2005-2010. I picked up a 2006 coin that was supposed to be a high grade MS coin and ended up being a SMS coin. It’s all a learning experience.

Nice clean piece.

I will be sending this coin back. Sending it off to be corrected would get me nowhere. The seller pics were just slab shots so the step detail was hard to see. I took a shot and I always presumed from the start there is a 50/50 shot of it being wrong. The hunt continues. Thanks for everyones help.

Thanks guys. I agree. I haven’t had very good luck filling this slot. The first coin I purchased turned out to be a fairly costly mistake. It was one of 2 graded at MS-67 5FS with one finer. I had to battle a few bidders for it. I never really questioned the label at first. Just thought I had found a nice scarce piece. Turns out the steps were rev of 40. I had to pull it to keep the integrity of the set. Certainly made me learn the difference though.

That is the way I saw it too. Usually the top line on the rev of 38 ramps up toward the 1st pillar. I started to question myself after looking at it too much. I’m curious to know how much time is actually spent on the steps in the grading room. Thanks for looking. I appreciate it.

Not trying to be that way. I actually think my 66 is a nicer coin than this 67.

I posted this on my 5 cent thread but I thought maybe I would get some more looks if I posted it as a stand alone question. I received this coin yesterday and upon inspection I believe the step attribution is incorrect. Let me say this right from the start. I am in no way trying to bag on the TPGs. It just happens to be the 2nd time I have ran into this problem. This is the 3rd 39 rev of 38 coin I have purchased. The first coin was clearly a rev of 40 and mislabeled. The second coin had the correct steps but was only graded as a 66. This 3rd example looks to be a very messy set of 40 steps. My concern is not with the FS attribution as this is clearly not a full step coin. These Philly examples are much harder to find with the 38 steps as opposed to the 40 step coins. To me these steps look like the reverse of 40 design. Like I said, they are a little messy but looking at the top step being thicker and the straightness of the top line and the more pronounced side lines makes me think 40. I would like to see what the rest of the community thinks. Hopefully these pics will be sufficient for examination. Thanks. Lem

I received this 39P REV of 38 yesterday. These coins are not the easiest to find and it makes it even tougher when they are misattributed. This is my 3rd attempt at this coin. The first one I bought was a reverse of 40. The second one was correct as a REV of 38 but only graded as a 66. The 3rd coin turns out to be what I am pretty certain is a bad set of 40 steps. Finding the right coin is starting to become a headache. Doesn’t look like 38 steps to me but I could be wrong. What do you think? **EDIT** I went ahead and posted this in the newbie forum as well. Not sure how much traffic I would get buried here at the end of this thread.

1. Texas 2. Columbian 3. Illinois (1918)

I really don’t have the typical story of childhood coin collecting or anything like that. The closest to that is my grandmother bought me and my two siblings the statehood quarter Harris folders for Christmas in 1998. I was 23 at the time. She was in the know way before me. I believe I was the only one who made the attempt to fill it. I wouldn’t have considered myself a coin collector back then but, I did start to fill the album with pocket change and kept at it over the years. I finally finished that album in 2021 finding the last one, a 2004 Iowa P, in my change. I never bought one coin in that set and when it was finished, I converted the set to a nice Dansco album. Over the years I had amassed a large amount of change due to the fact I was lazy and never took it to the bank. In early 2020 I decided to buy a few more of the Harris folders for the other denominations and went through all of that change and filled what I could. Something must have clicked and my collecting journey really began. I started looking at things on the US Mint website and ordered a few things. Little did I know, not more than a week before was when the price increase had taken place. I had no idea. Bad timing I suppose. I then saw one of the TV coin shows selling the 2019 reverse proof ASE. I really liked that coin and started looking at slabbed coins on ebay. Particularly the ASEs. I bought my first one and it was pretty much on from there. After a while of collecting ASEs, I became rather tired of collecting the same coins over and over. I realized that after a while I was chasing paper and not coins. I was looking for something else. I started to buy a few other types of coins not really knowing what direction to go. Then I happened to stumble across a particular registry set of toned Jefferson nickels. I found this set very interesting and began my own set. This eventually became my series of choice. Since then I have dabbled in other denominations and started a type set and a few other sets in addition to my nickel sets. I haven't been collecting for very long and still consider myself a newbie. I do feel like I have come a long way since the beginning thanks in part to this forum and the experienced collectors here. This is starting to get pretty long so I will end it here. I apologize for the length of this post.

Best I can do.

I was a little surprised in seeing the shield and V nickel being a different diameter myself. I just figured they would be the same. I’ll have to put them side by side and see when I get home.

Without having my books to properly dive into this, it looks like this could be the N-14 variety from the placement of the date. Weather or not it is a counterfeit, I am not sure. I don’t see anything that screams out at me but, I am not fully familiar with the fine details of these coins.

I don’t know if by width you mean diameter but here are the specs. Shield - 20.5 mm half dime - 15.9 mm V nickel - 21.2 mm

Here are a few old raw pieces I have lying around in flips.

Now that’s my kinda coin. You have this in hand yet? I’ll bet it has a nice twirl to it. Congrats my brother.

Very nice looking group of coins. I might have to try and hit that show one of these days. I’m about 2 hrs away from St. Charles myself. Glad the tire situation wasn’t too bad for you.

To me it does look like a hazy proof coin. I say that because of the smoothness of the fields, the lack of bag marks and hits and the overall clean strike. It also looks to have a hint of prooflike mirror down around UNITED STATES on the reverse. I’m not trying to argue where you got it from or anything like that. These pictures are all I have to go by. It just simply has the look of a proof. If it is a MS coin, it is one of the cleanest examples I have ever seen. I’m not sure how much care was taken with the mint set coins back then. Just comparing your coin to MS and proof examples from other truviews, I would put this with the proofs.