1909 VDB Lincoln Cent

I never get tired of looking at these! That is one NICE example with superior eye appeal. That coin is easily MS65RB.

I think it is AU 59.999 RB star

Wow, I certainly didn't expect opinions saying MS65. I don't even specialize in Lincolns so I suppose I happened onto something nice by dumb luck! Thanks all.

About the wear on the wheat, in my inexpert opinion I don't see any wear on the left but I could see how someone could say the tip of the right is missing the wheat lines. That's probably the fault of my image editing software though, some details were lost when I shrunk the image to fit the screen. Here's an uncompressed image of the reverse:



Well, it looks like Photobucket resized without my permission, must have been over some size limit. Guess we'll have to settle for not-as-compressed rather than uncompressed. Hopefully this picture is a little better.

What you are seeing on the right wheat lines is not wear from circulation. That is most likely due to a weak strike or maybe die wear. Whatever the cause, it came from the Mint that way.

That is one fantastic looking specimen. You should be proud of it!

great coin

I agree with CWB although I suspect it's an artifact of the photography. I've seen it many times where the camera shows poor definition on the wheat lines...it happens. This is no doubt an MS coin.

The reverse is a concern. If it is an artifact of the photo, I think the coin could grade MS-64 RB. If not, it might come back AU-58. There are alot of gorgeous AU-58 wheats on auction sites with pristine obverse but trace wear on the reverse.

EDIT: I'll say MS-64 RB I suspect TPG's would give this one benefit of the doubt due to the spectacular obverse and ding it just a hair under 65 for a weaker strike on the reverse