New Three Cent Silver. Guess the grade.

[RGT]

I just got this new trime today and it's even nicer than I was expecting. The pictures almost perfectly match the coin in hand. The luster is excellent and not muted by the tone. As far as I can tell the coin has original surfaces. The 1861 is probably the most well struck date in the entire series and this one is no exception. The reverse die has been polished so that some detail is lost. The back arrow flecthing is just an outline.

 

What grade would you give this one?

[jgrinz]

My grade is a "F" for fabulous

 

[Raybo55]

Perfect?

 

Ray

[zrlevin]

[chinook]

I like that one VERY much!!!

[toyonakataro]

Wow, nice looking coin

I'm not good at grading, but from the image alone, it looks MS66 or better.

 

[physics-fan3.14]

I would grade that MS-Nice*. Trying to judge a toned coin of that beauty online with images is very difficult (although I probably would start my guessing at 65 and work up from there.)

[Oldtrader3]

Beatiful TIII, Trime with good surfaces and no die clash marks. Even the star at 7:00 is struck almost fully. With the nice toning and full strike, I would say at least MS65 for this coin.

[TomB]

Fantastic image and the coin looks absolutely wonderful!

[MikeInFL]

RGT, It wouldn't surprise me if it were graded a 66 or higher if the luster is all there....Mike

[1946hamm-migration]

Nice coin. I would say 66*

[RGT]

Thanks for all of the comments and I don't blame most of you for not picking a number to assign to this one. This is the kind of coin where the grade really doesn't matter. I bought the coin from these dark scans. The seller didn't even mention the color, only that it had heavy toning.

 

 

I knew the grade before I really got a good look at the coin and you saw the coin before you knew the grade assigned. I think you will be as surprised as I was.

 

I have examined the coin closely and the obverse looks perfect except for a tiny rim tick you can see around 4:00-5:00. The reverse has a tiny mark that you can see between the second and third "I" in "III". There is also a very light hairline that you can make out running diagonally across the bottom of the first "I" that extends up into the field. Two or three more lighter hairlines can be found if you rotate the coin in good light under a loupe. These aren't paralell and are incidental handling marks. Those are the only things that I can find to bring the grade down. I have several MS64 trimes and this one looks better than any of them, significantly better than some of them.

 

Here is the coin in the slab.

 

[harvey8542]

BEAUTIFULL

[James_OldeTowne]

That is a SPECTACULAR coin.

[texasrichard]

Wow.... I just saw this and that is a beautiful coin !!!

 

I would have NEVER guessed it at what it's slabbed.....

[Conder101]

Odd, what's with the rough surfaces? The fields are apparently OK but the devices are unusually rough. The devices are not fully struck and the roughness seems to be at its worst in the weakest areas so I would suspect that the surface roughness was part of the original planchet.

[BillJones]

I agree. This looks to be a beautiful Silver Three Cent piece from the photo. My only reservation is there might be some rub on the devices on the reverse. That may have led to ANACS grader to call it an MS-62.

 

Still I have an MS-65 graded coin in my collection, and I think I might prefer this one to mine if I saw the coin "in the silver" and not in a photo.

[RGT]

Odd, what's with the rough surfaces? The fields are apparently OK but the devices are unusually rough. The devices are not fully struck and the roughness seems to be at its worst in the weakest areas so I would suspect that the surface roughness was part of the original planchet.

 

I noticed the textured devises myself and wondered if anyone would mention it. I don't think that I have noticed it before on other coins but didn't have time to investigate it. This appears to be one of the most well struck trimes that I recall ever seeing so I'm not sure what you mean by the devices not being fully struck. The reverse die was heavily polished so some of the detail is missing and the relief is lower than usual. I think the texture was on the die.

 

I did a quick search of other 1861s in the Heritage archives and found a couple of similar examples though neither of these are fully struck and the texture isn't as strong. The ball area of the "C" is often weak and any texture on the die would be missing or partially missing. You can see texture in the other parts of the "C" though. The "III" seems to show some texture on the second example but not as pronounced as on mine.

 

Example 1

 

Example 2

 

None of the others I looked at showed this texture and some of them were very well struck. It makes me wonder if the die was treated in some way or if the design was modified at some time during the year. Perhaps it is die wear that was polished off of the fields?

[toyonakataro]

Nice pick up(as usual) RGT (thumbs u

Do you have any plan cracking it out and submitting to NGC/PCGS?

If so,　I would like to hear the result after you get the grade.

 

Yesterday, I just happend to find that one of my half dime in NGC66 was originally graded MS61 by old ANACS(ANA)

(Of course, I bought if after it got upgraded )

 

I hope yours will also get 5 points upgrade

[Mozin]

Gorgeous toning. I also would be most interested in seeing what PCGS or NGC says about this trime.

[rrantique]

I see a nice upgrade candidate Randy. (thumbs u

[SkyMan]

That's a lovely trime. It sure looks to me like it should easily upgrade.

[Oldtrader3]

The aforementioned Heritage Auction Trimes have some texture in the upper lobe of the "C". I looked at my 1863 Trime and it is smooth but all 1863 Trimes were struck with proof dies and maybe some proof planchets.

[Observer44]

I had to change keyboards because I Drooled to much and shorted it out. Super coin and I am Jealous!!!

[Conder101]

It almost looks like the die rusted and they did an aggressive polishing job on it which smoothed the fields and removed low relief details such as the arrow fletchings and reduced the relief of the "domes" in the design of the C, but which did not get down into the design leaving the rough surfaces to show on the designs of the struck coins.

[Bruceswar]

Very very nice! Congrats!

[RGT]

Conder, that is an interesting theory. But it seems to me that it would have had to have had some pretty serious rust to cover all of the lower areas of the "C" and the "III" on the die that much. And I don't see that texture on other areas such as the arrow heads or the leaves. This is a series that hasn't had much reasearch done and I don't see enough interest in the series to expect much to be done.

 

As for having it graded again, I hadn't really planned on it since it won't be on the market any time soon. I may take it by the B&M shop next week and see what the dealer thinks about it. I would probably submit through him anyway if I did. He quit using PCGS several years ago but I think he has started sending them some things lately again. Which would be better, PCGS or a possible NGC star? It's not like anyone needs to see a star on the slab to know that it's an attractive coin.