Grading Lincoln Cents

Now I'm not 100% sure, but I think I recall reading that the majority of all four 1909 cents were struck pretty well. By the mid-teens, weak strikes became a problem.



If I were you, and you were looking for a nice example of a 1909S Lincoln Cent, i'd pass on the coin in question even without seeing a picture myself. Don't settle for a weak strike if you can get a strong strike for the same price. As you know, "buy the coin AND the slab" :)

The 1909's are all well struck and the dies were fresh. I don't ever recall seeing a poorly struck example. One thing you have to realize with wheats, a lot of the grading on circ coins is done using the reverse and judging the wear on the wheat heads and stalks.


I posted some examples of how PCGS grades VG-EF wheats.

https://goccf.com/t/27817

I normally don't even have to see the obverse to tell you how PCGS graded the coin! That's how much weighting they use IMO. Of course, there are exceptions, but I've looked at a TON of pics on Heritage of PCGS graded Lincolns and it's pretty amazing....the wheat head wear is important.

EDIT - I should also add that PCGS doesn't seem to add consideration for strike quality. I've seen poorly struck examples with high grades just due to the lack of hits. Perhaps they will consider it at MS67 and up, but I've never seen strike quality affect grade personally. Maybe I should send in this coin as a test:



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Yes it is! LOL It's worst case of die wear I've ever seen on a coin and I was lucky enough to find it in AU condition.....yes, that's a solid AU55-58 coin believe it or not. I've often toyed with the idea of sending it to PCGS just to throw them a loop. I'm 99% sure it would come back as AU though....they don't seem to care about anything but wear and hits.

extra fine by me

BadThad you mentioned wood graining...what is that? I do notice some of my pennies have like a grainy long texture..is that what your referring to.. and is that a bad thing? Would you put a grainy one in vs a cleany shiny version?

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BadThad you mentioned wood graining...what is that? I do notice some of my pennies have like a grainy long texture..is that what your referring to.. and is that a bad thing? Would you put a grainy one in vs a cleany shiny version?

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Just what you see on the obverse of the coin posted. No, it's not a bad thing, it's due to uneven alloy mix in the planchet. Some collectors even seek these out. Personally, I don't care for them and I prefer a nice, even color (be it "clean shiny" BU or brown). It's all a matter of preference.

Very informative Badthad! Glad I've been following this post

Thad you may want to give the tin a little bit of thought in your hardness thoughts.

and also ,individual mints for strike weakness in a series ,as well as die state of the coin in question .

The coin pictured does not appear to me to be from strike weakness, but rather die state and wear .

keep in mind that detail is lost to die state and then more to wear , beginning from an early die state ,wear will have somewhat less of an affect on the grade of a coin to a certian point ,but once the coin has lost enough detail either from die wear and circulation then it will grade accordingly .

only on BU examples above MS-65 does strike quality become a factor ,so on a circulated coin the TPG's do not render a grade based on die state or strike quality ,they mimick each other to closely for consideration .

what has affected the grade on this coin is the collector value ,nothing more nothing less .the TPG bumped it and in MHO 2 grades to achieve the EF grade on this coin ,,it is a true example of market grading .