1953-S Franklin.

[SkyMan]

Here's a 1953-S Franklin graded MS66* by NGC. On the whole I agree with the grade. The images were done by Bob Campbell and I think he did an excellent job on a tricky subject. Bob sent me 10ish images of the obverse and reverse (each) to pick from and it was very difficult to pick one for the obverse. The images tended to either get the luster and the "whiteness" of the coin while not optimally bringing out the colors, or they got the colors pretty well while putting other parts of the coin in shadow. In this obverse image I've picked one that emphasized more of the color, but a fair amount of the coin shows as darker than it is in actuality, most noticeably the area from ~1 o'clock to ~3 o'clock is actually predominantly white. Also the "yarmulka" on the back of Ben's head is predominantly the colors you see on the rim from 9 to 10 o'clock. The reverse is much whiter and more lustrous than the image makes it appear.

 

 

 

[rrantique]

Fun coin Sy. Interesting reverse eagle, worn die? (thumbs u

[bsshog40]

Nice Frankie there Sy. Is that a clashmark/strike-through under the left side of the bell?

[SkyMan]

Nice Frankie there Sy. Is that a clashmark/strike-through under the left side of the bell?

 

Thanks Irvin and Bobby. The answer to both your questions is that the 1953-S Franklin is notorious for bad strikes... hence the insane money that '53-S's with FBL pull in. What you are seeing is the result of a poor strike, and actually, for a '53-S, the strike isn't too bad, particularly on the obverse.

[physics-fan3.14]

Nice coin. Yeah, your strike is better than mine, I've got one in 65. It's pretty weak. All of the S mints are hard to find well struck, but the 53S is by far the worst.