1996 P Lincoln Cent For Grading

MS-65 seems about right

Beautiful example, I'm in the 66 group.

Thanks for the input, folks!

Black and white water spots, believe to be from post minting rinses, are the bain of modern Lincolns! They are extremely common and unavoidable with certain issues. The problem seemed to be gradually exacerbated starting with the 2009 series.

From my professional acquittances, I heard the mint knew of the problem but it was a trade off for greatly improved chemical corrosion resistance. A better attribute than a few spots for circulating coinage.

I digress - yes, the spots can affect the grading. In fact, some of the modern cents even seem to be solely graded by the lack of black spots in my experience. I have modern slabbed Lincolns where the lack of spots elevated the grade (67) --- even though it was a more beat-up example than an identical lower grade coin (1 pt) with some spots but no hits. CRAZY to me! The hits and fields are more important than light, harmless spotting, as long as the eye appeal isn't ruined - at least in my world.

All that said, it also depends on how distracting the spotting is. Good photography like this tends to bring out those spots to a much greater degree than they show in hand. For this coin, they aren't very distracting and the lack of hits/damage and nice looking fields shoots up the grade. The memorial building is fantastic on this coin! Hardly a column or other hit - very clean and eye appealing.

Thanks @Bad for the detailed explanation about the grade impact of those spots. Well described and I understand it better now.

Mid MS. A good looking cent.

Me too, makecents. I've found grading coins to be challenging at times.