Venting... "FSB" Mercuries On Ebay

I moved your post to the appropriate section for the proper attention.

To be a Fully Split Bands, they need to be distinctly separated, and the tops of the bands need to be like the tops of loaves of bread.
That only happens with MS+ coins.
That is why "FSB" grades are only listed above MS60 in the catalogs.

I'm sure it's a mix of un-educated sellers listing as such not knowing any better and educated sellers knowing better but looking to prey on trusting buyers. But yeah, it's wide spread along with harshly cleaned examples. Sometimes it gets tiring sifting through all the crap auctions to find the few goods ones. And I even have a list of excluded sellers from my generic saved search...

I'm with just carl, I have look at some local dealers and the bands just don't agree with me. ebay is full of it!

Buy the coin, not the description, eh?

The problem really is not that they are or aren't fully split but which bands are the right ones. And that is the problem. So many don't know what is the bands being referred to.

4-5 years ago I probably bought 50% of my coins from ebay.

Today I spend 200-300% of what I did 5 years ago, but I can go many months without buying a coin on ebay. Even though I'm using all 100 search emails on ebay.

It's interesting to see how often I lose a bid on Heritage, Great Collections, or Stacks to see the exact same coin listed on ebay shortly after at outrageous prices.

It is now confirmed:

The world is full of people who are lacking in mental faculties and what we call "common sense".

Personally, I don't give much credence to superlatives such as FSB, FBL and FS. I have a lot of FS nickels and most of them are proofs.

Speaking of nickels, the steps are not the only full/partial design elements to find depending on strike strength. Maybe we could add Full Columns, as well, or Full Door. I get that these designations indicate strike quality, but they are all in areas that are significantly susceptible to a weak strike because of the designs and coin thickness.

By the way, the weakness often seen on LMCs in STATES OF and EPU on the reverse is due to a weak strike caused by the shoulder area of the Lincoln bust opposite those devices. I see it often described as Struck Through Grease, but I've seen way too many that are nearly exact matches for it to be grease.