Grade This 1912-S Liberty Nickel

Looks to be F12 on the reverse for sure, but the obverse is at best a VG-8. Unfortunately I think you'd struggle to get an overall Fine grade out of this coin due to the obverse in my opinion.

Of course, I'm still weak on grading myself, so maybe someone will disagree and tell me I'm off my rocker.....

Lots of writing, but VG-8 is my guess.

This is one of a few coins that I bought many years ago (about 1980) just before I put my coin collecting on a long hiatus. At the time I knew nothing about the series (typical story)and took the dealer's word on it that it graded Fine. If I recall correctly, I paid $35 or $36 for it. Later, when I had a chance to study the series and read the definition of the various grades, I was pretty certain that it was a VG coin. The passage of 27 years has, of course, moved the value far past the purchase price. I guess in the Coin World, if you live long enough, even your mistakes can look like good buys.