What Do You Think About These Two Graded Lincoln Cents?

Given the chatter in the right obverse fields, the bump to the steps, bag marks on the rim, split plating above United, I will guess MS64.

The top coin, maybe MS66.

Brandmeister - I sincerely appreciate your observations. I'll let you know shortly what mine graded.

First, looks like a very nice cent but when "playing" the grading game the only winner is the grader (PCGS). Have you been submitting thousands of coins to them? Do you own a big big dollar collection? You know what I'm saying.

Myself I'd say they gave it a 67RD or maybe even 66. Reverse split plating hurts the eye appeal (-1 pt.) then I don't know what happening in the center of the steps/stairs and might have something going on with "ONE CENT" and rim around that area ... little ticks (-1 pt.) Now the obverse looks wonderful but the fields might show signs of slide marks while in blank or planchet form. (-1 pt.)
Without coin in hand, that's all I got......

i'll just add that once you get to MS67 the coins are more scrutinized for every little flaw. the photos you posted are TV (truview). they are glamour shots to enhance the look of the coin and downplay any flaws. grading by photo is difficult enough then add TV photos to the mix and its a toss-up as to grade.

no one mentioned the light vertical hairline north of the date in the field. also the obv strike is stronger than yours especially the detail in the hair and most certainly the beard add this to the others comments and I'm at MS66 an outside shot at 67

I would say they gave you an MS67.

We'll probably never know, seems to be a vent.

These moderns are impossible with PCGS, they downgrade EVERY coin to protect the top pops. You cannot win! I saw it first hand over and over and over.

I worked with a forum buddy here for over 2 years making modern Lincoln submissions - I saw and selected most of the coins myself. Every single time, except many a couple out of a couple hundred submissions, downgraded by 1 point and occasionally TWO points off 68.

A lot of those subs were also multiples of the same year/mint, we were generally going for MS-68/69. We'd submit 6 coins and all would come back 66-67 - even when one or two were obviously way nicer than the previous slabbed 68's. Out of hundreds, we only got one top pop and it was RB. It was a stunning ring toner that looked 1000x better than the old top pop. They could NOT deny that coin.

Do NOT play the game with PCGS, they always win regardless of the quality of your submission. To get those top pops, you gotta be an insider and know somebody.

Couldn't you just have the coin submitted by one of their big coin shop customers?